#2983 pdin 2 - vacation memories day 12 - Prague (16 Sept)

at St. Vitus Cathedral // ussie by Lizzie

It's our last day in Prague and we need to see lots of stuff! The plan was to explore the west side of the Vltava River, including Prague Castle and parts of the Mala Strana (Lesser Town). We got an early start because the hotel would not have water from 7:30 am to around 7:00 pm, so we wanted to get out and about before the water was shut off.

Why was the water being shut off, you may be asking? The City of Prague was doing some work on the waterlines in the area. The hotel assured us they would provide bottled water for drinking as well as buckets of water for flushing and washing. Oy. We just decided to spend most of the day out and about.

I wanted to have a traditional Czech breakfast of a kolach and coffee, and luckily there was a kolacherie not far from the hotel. A kolach can be sweet or savory. Lizzie and I each had a sweet and a savory. Here's a pic of mine:

kolaches

The kolcach on the left is nutella with lemon curd, and on the right is ham and cheese. The bread is slightly sweet and chewy. I thought they were both delicious. After breakfast, we walked back through the square and stopped in a cool academic bookstore where I bought a blank notebook, which I call my TBW books (to be written), and postcards. We passed by this magnificent and ginormous statue in Old Town Square:

Jan Hus Monument in Old Town Square

The walk to the castle didn't take long, probably about 20 minutes, at least to get to the steps going up to the castle.. The steps were long and pretty steep; it was about three quarters of a mile uphill. We had to stop a few times along the way, and we were not the only ones stopping to catch our breath. Here's a pic of the stairs from the top:

the stairs to Prague Castle

It is free to enter the castle grounds, but there is a fee if you want to walk on the Golden Mile (the medieval shopping street), the Old Royal Palace, and the cathedral. We chose not to pay and just wander at our leisure. You can also schedule tours, which we had for Monday, but the tour was cancelled as I explained in a previous post. There was still something going on at the castle because the police were checking underneath vehicles, and there was quite a few police and military personnel on site. 

The castle is a grouping of individual palaces where the noblemen lived, the main palace, and the cathedral. Prague Castle is enormous. Most of the individual palaces are now museums, but there is still official business done at the Old Royal Palace. In the middle of it all is St. Vitus Cathedral which is incredible. We stared at it for a long time.

the back of St. Vitus Cathedral

the side of St. Vitus Cathedral

front of St. Vitus Cathedral

If/when I get back to Prague, I'm going in there!

Here is a pano of the Old Royal Palace. There appears to be some squinching of Lizzie's hair on the right.

Old Royal Palace

We wandered around the grounds looking for the gardens. We found sort of a canyon with paths, but we couldn't quite figure out how to get down there, then we decided maybe we didn't want to have to work our way back up, and there were other things we wanted to see, so we kept moving. 

We stopped to have a beverage at Cafe Sternberk in Sternberg Palace - no, I didn't spell those incorrectly, they are different - then we went into a small sculpture garden where we felt we had to pose like a couple of the statues:

There were also cardboard cutouts of knights in a gift shop, and we had to put our faces in those:

the knight was tall, and I am short

Lizzie's hair wouldn't fit in the helmet

We left the castle and wandered around looking at whatever we could see. There weren't as many tourists outside of the castle, and the old streets were quiet. The farther we got from the castle, the emptier the streets were.

the Archbishop's residence with St. Vitus in the background

a quiet street in the castle district

We made our way over to Strahov Monastery. We considered going into the library there, but decided to go to the pirovar (brewery) instead for a bite to eat and a beer, of course. The beer was excellent.

cheers!

After this snack, Lizzie and I decided to make our way down the hill to see a few more things that were on our list for the day. What I can tell you is that no matter how you choose to get up to Prague Castle, it is uphill. I think I'm glad we got all our climbing over with in the straight shot up the stairs. Coming down through the charming streets was a delight. 

Prague!

so pretty!

I'm a sucker for a flower shop

There were a couple of gardens Lizzie had researched that we wanted to see. One of them was hosting a private event, so we couldn't go in there. Guess we'll save that for next time. The Vrtba Garden was open and we paid a small fee to enter. It was small, and so beautifully designed and maintained.

From Vrtba Garden, it wasn't far to the Lennon Wall, so we figured we'd better see it. It wasn't pleasing to me at all. I'm sure at one point, it was cool, but now it's just a mess.

Lennon Wall

 

However, just down the street, you can see this:

the water goblin Kabourek watches over Devil's Stream

A fun fact I learned walking around the Mala Strana is that the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda took his last name from a Czech poet, Jan Neruda. We passed by the Hotel Neruda and I wondered if Pablo Neruda had spent time in Prague. He did visit the city, but didn't stay long, I don't think. Cool name, though. I think I might like to stay in this hotel. I really liked this side of the city.

We went back across the Charles Bridge, admiring both sides of the river and the beautiful bridge itself.

on the Charles Bridge looking at the west side of Prague

another pic of Prague from the Charles Bridge

By the time we made it back to the hotel, I had logged over 19,000 steps, just over eight miles. I was beat! It was good that we tired ourselves out, though, because we decided to get to bed around 8pm in order to be able to meet our driver at 3 am for our ride to the airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam at 6 am. We had a quick dinner at the restaurant near the hotel, watched the crowds gather for the Astronomical Clock "show" then went upstairs to bed.

pooped out in Prague

The next vacation memories post will be about Amsterdam! I plan to write about it on Wednesday.

See you tomorrow!

PS pdin stands for Posting Daily in November :D

 

#2981 vacation memories: day 11 - Prague (Monday 15 Sept)

ussie with Prague Castle in the background on the left

The original plan for the day was to take a tour of Prague Castle with a guide, but since the castle was closed this day for some diplomatic thing, the tour was canceled. I think a high-ranking Taiwanese official was in town to meet with the leader of the Czech Republic or something, and there was also something about the crown jewels; whatever it was, we couldn't go to the castle, so we decided to do a self-guided exploration of the east side of the Vltava River. We wanted to go to a particular bookstore, see the Jewish Quarter, and soak in the vibes. Lizzie built a map and off we went.

SPOILER: there are a lot of pics in this post!

After breakfast at the hotel in the Cafe Mozart (cool!), we set out to see the town. It was cloudy and cool, perfect weather for walking around. Prague is really beautiful.

the buildings are all different

I mentioned in my previous post that one of the things that makes Prague so charming and unpredictable is that none of the buildings are the same. There are different colors, different rooftops, and different window treatments. In contrast, the buildings in Paris are very beautiful, but all similar because they were designed by one person, Haussman, and it was done with purpose, and it is gorgeous and very identifiable and charming in its way.  Prague is quirky, charming, and well, bohemian.

Prague Castle

This is my first view of Prague Castle. We found a palace with a green space that we could enter free, and gazed across the river to the castle. It's big, and I was enchanted.

Old Town Square

Old Town Square was our home base. If you look over to the right, you'll see an archway with a point; it's the tallest building you can see on the right. That was our hotel. On the left, you see Old Town Hall where the Astronomical Clock is (you can't see the clock from this angle), and of course, Our Lady Before Tyn (pronounced "teen") in the background. This photo was taken later in the day after the sky cleared up. I'm not going in order of how we walked around.

A place that Lizzie and I wanted to go was The Globe Bookstore. I wish I'd taken photos inside the bookshop. It is cozy and full of books, of course, and it's just really, really inviting. In the back of the shop, there is a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. We sat outside and had a coffee and enjoyed a moment of peace away from the tourist throngs. The Globe is in a neighborhood, not a touristic area. I liked it a lot. I didn't buy any books, but I did buy a lot of postcards and a tote bag. Here's a pic of Lizzie outside the shop:

We loved The Globe Bookstore & Cafe!

We walked around for a few hours, passing by huge, beautiful buildings. We walked by the Jewish Cemetery and the Spanish Synagogue, and a statue of Franz Kafka - not the giant head, but the headless one.  I am not posting my photo of it because I took two pics and both of them are missing the top of the top hat. Honestly, I knew I was seeing something well known, but I didn't know exactly what it was. LOL (That's why you take guided tours!)

We were getting hungry, so Lizzie suggested finding a restaurant she's come across in her research, Cafe Imperial. I was down for it, so we following the blue dot (that's the guide on the Google map program) to the cafe. We were fortunate that we did not need to have a reservation for lunch, and we were seated right away. This cafe is bonkers beautiful. It is over-the-top Art Deco, and I felt super-fancy having lunch there.

 

Cafe Imperial

Even my lunch was super-fancy, but pretty simple. They had a salad on the lunch special menu of arugula with goat cheese, walnuts and pears dressed with a light vinaigrette. Along with a glass of sauvignon blanc and some bread and butter, we felt like fine ladies.

lunch at Cafe Imperial

The main reason we had a light lunch is because we really wanted dessert. There was a display case as you walk in, filled with samples of the cakes that were available that day. Here's an example but there must have been a dozen or so options.

dessert options

I couldn't tell you what Lizzie had, but I had the Imperial - it's the one on the right. It's their specialty, so I thought I'd give it a go.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

This is the part where I tell you that this is the best dessert I have ever had. Ever. Full stop. The top layer was chocolate caramel with a fudge-like texture and consistency. The cake inside was a tender, mild gingerbread cake. The bottom half of the cake was covered in dark chocolate. I don't know if I'll ever get over it. I almost got another piece of it to go. If I am ever fortunate enough to find myself in Prague again, I will make every effort to get back to Cafe Imperial just for this dessert. It was truly incredible.

At some point during our wandering, I got a message from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, that they would be on strike on the 17th and that our flight to Amsterdam was cancelled. As you might imagine, this was upsetting. We went back to the hotel and started messaging The Amazing Candice. This situation right here is why you need a travel advisor on your travel team. She immediately started working on a solution. KLM had rebooked us on a much later flight, but we had tours booked in Amsterdam based on our original flight that we would miss with the later flight. Candice was able to get us on a very (very) early flight out of Prague on the 17th so we wouldn't miss anything in Amsterdam. We would miss something in Prague, but more on that in the next post.

Although it was a little stressful, it was good to have a bit of rest after lunch. We'd walked five miles in the first part of the day, and we wanted to get back out in the evening, so the break was good. I recommend taking a break at your hotel or wherever you are staying in the afternoon. Being out all day, seeing new things, being surrounded by people everywhere you turn, and walking so much can be tiring. It's tempting to say, "But (your city here) is out there waiting for me!" but you'll get more out of your time in the city if you have a break. I don't think this is an age thing (I mean, I am older, but I don't think my age has anything to do with enjoying the break.) After hours out in the city, everything I'd seen was starting to run together and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. To rest and regroup and form a plan for the evening was really good for both of us.

Now it is getting to be evening and I really wanted to see the Charles Bridge, which was quite close to our hotel, so that's where we went.

east entrance to the Charles Bridge

Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge

view of the east gate and beyond from the bridge

one of the beautiful statues on the Charles Bridge

another view of Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge

Yes, I have a crush on Prague. Look at it! It's gorgeous.

The small salad and exquisite dessert were long gone, so we went to a pizza place with outdoor seating in the shadow of Our Lady Before Tyn. We'd passed the place several times, and it was always busy, so we had pizza in Prague. It was really good, too! After dinner, we weren't quite ready to go back to the hotel, so Lizzie suggested going to a bar she'd read about, and I was down for that. It was less than a ten minute walk from the pizza place. It was early, maybe 9:00 or 10:00, and there wasn't anyone else in the place, so we were on our own to enjoy a fine Czech pilsner and some popcorn at this really cool bar called Tynska Bar and Books.

Tynska Bar and Books

umm...

so cool!

I'm not really sure what Lizzie was doing in that middle photo. She said she'd seen someone doing this pose somewhere and so she wanted to do it. We often crack up about people posing in weird ways in front of landmarks, like they are having a photo shoot. It happens A LOT. Anyway, since it was just the two of us, it was pretty funny and pretty fun, too.

ussie by Lizzie

I could have stayed in this bar and had more drinks, but it had been a long day and we had to get up early the next day because our hotel would not have water beginning at 7:30, so we wanted to be sure to be ready to go before the water was unavailable.

Since our hotel was right in front of the Astronomical Clock and there wasn't much of a crowd, we were able to take photos.

me!

Lizzie!

Fun fact...we stood right there in front of the clock and called Mom so she could see us on the Cameras Around the World website. She did see us! (We also did this in front of the Pantheon in Rome too, and it was really fun!) 

In case you're wondering, I walked 18,176 steps that day, just over seven and a half miles!

Up next, we explore the city on the west side of the Vltava River including Prague Castle.

#2980 vacation memories - day 10 Cesky Krumlov and Prague (Sunday 14 Sept 2025)

 

Prague!

Our time aboard the Viking Aegir was over. The river cruise was fantastic and I had such a great time on the ship. We met nice people, saw a lot of cool places, ate some seriously delicious food, and crushed a little (or a lot) on the handsome captain of the ship. It was time to move on to phase two of our vacation adventure and head east to the Czech Republic.

The Amazing Candice, our travel advisor, arranged for a private transfer to pick us up from the ship and drive us to Prague. It's about a five hour drive from Passau, Germany to Prague, and we were excited to have a stop a couple of hours into the drive at the town of Cesky Krumlov (pronounced chesskey crumblauv.) It was very rainy in Passau and for about an hour of the drive. The countryside was green and gorgeous with lots of hills and trees. It's Hansel and Gretel vibes. It's Snow White's woods. It's where Aurora meets Prince Phillip. The countryside is a fairy tale come to life, and Cesky Krumlov is part of that fairy tale. 

When we got to the car park, our driver advised us to climb the stairs to get up to the castle, walk around up there, then make our way down to the town. He said he would meet us back at the car in a couple of hours, and then we went our separate ways. I was fine with that, and so was Lizzie. We'd had a week of people talking at us and we were ready to roam on our own, even though we didn't really know what we were looking at.

As with most castles, this one is one a hill above the town and it is an assortment of grand buildings. First we went to the top of the hill to the gardens, and you know what? I liked them quite a lot. 

castle garden in Cesky Krumlov

This photo does not do the place justice. The grounds are so big that there was no way I could really capture it all. This is just the lower part of the gardens - there was lots more that we didn't even see. The sky was cloudy and gray, but it wasn't raining, and the temperature was nice.

in the castle

We wandered down the hill through the castle. An interesting note is that all of these buildings you see are stone or concrete or something, and all the decorations and even the stones are actually painted. It really just added to the overall Disney-esque vibe I felt about the place. The buildings are pretty and colorful and a façade

double click to get a bigger view of the buildings and notice all the detail is painted

We found a tiny doorway from which people were pouring out of and there was a bit of a crowd waiting to get in, so we had to check it out. WOW. The view of the town was...well...look:

Cesky Krumlov

am I looking at a fairy tale town?

Another interesting thing about the castle is that the moat has bears in it. Big brown bears. The moats of the castles of Bohemia were patrolled by bears. I saw two bears, and they seemed to be okay. They don't have much patrolling to do anymore. 

Lizzie and I walked down into the town and looked at a couple of shops. We saw a restaurant patio down by the river and we wanted to have a bite to eat before we got back on the road. It was a little chilly down there, but we enjoyed a beer and a plate of cold cuts, cheese, and bread. It was just what we wanted.

at the restaurant by the river

Soon enough it was time to meet our driver, but first we stopped in a cute little bookshop where I bought some stickers and oh yeah, I think a postcard, too! It began to rain, but we had our umbrellas, so no big deal. I enjoyed the time in Cesky, although I did come away with a blister on the pinky toe of my left foot. My shoes were comfortable, but it was a little wet and my foot slipped around a on the cobblestones. No big problem, though.

Reunited with our driver, we continued on to Prague. From Passau to Cesky, we'd been on the back roads, but from Cesky to Prague, we were on the freeway. The car was a smooth-driving BMW and our driver was very good. When he pointed out Prague ahead and to our right, I was delighted to see a dim rainbow over the city as if it was greeting us. I was immediately enchanted. 

We drove over a bridge past the Dancing House (google it!), then along the Vltava River to the old town. I remember looking out the car window trying to soak everything in and wondering if I would be walking around those same streets in the next few days. (Yes, I would!) We had to park across the square from our hotel since the area around the hotel is pedestrian only, which is cool.

The Hotel Grand Praha is right on Old Town Square directly across from the Astronomical Clock. The location is wonderful, but from the moment we walked into the hotel, the possibility of our stay in Prague being not-so-good was strong. The first thing was that we were "greeted" by a somewhat surly young man. He wasn't very nice, but the woman who actually was working the front desk was nice. The second thing was that we had received notification that the tour we'd booked for the next day to the castle had been cancelled because there was some event involving crown jewels or something going on and the castle was going to be closed on Monday. The third thing was that there was a prominent sign on the registration desk informing us that there would not be water in the hotel on Tuesday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm (oy!) The fourth thing was the room they put us in. It was on the top floor, then we had to take a steep and tiny staircase to the attic. It was a big room, but it gave serious Cinderella-in-the-attic vibes.

the attic room

The only furniture was the bed and that table with two rickety-ass chairs you see on the left. I was worried that I would sit up in the morning and bash my head on the slanted ceiling. We sat on the rickety chairs, barely moving a muscle, and Lizzie, bless her heart, decided to find out if there was a room with two separate beds available. I'm so glad she asked because there was  such a room and we were able to go to it right away. The surly fellow came up and took our (heavy!) bags down the tiny stairs and down a floor or two to our new room. The new room was sort of monastic, but better than the attic.

the nun's quarters

The bed was kind of weird. The pillows were odd. It wasn't what I was expecting, I guess, but the bathroom was nice enough and we didn't really spend a lot of time in the room anyway, so it was fine. The location kind of made up for the spartan sleeping quarters because when we walked out the door of the hotel lobby, we saw this directly in front of us:

the Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall

Then I turned to the right and I saw this:

Old Town Square

And when I took a couple of steps forward and looked up, I saw this:

Church of Our Lady before Tyn

It was the golden hour and Prague was showing off. My goodness. I couldn't stop looking at this church. Those spires! The way the sun made the building glow! Dreamy!

Lizzie and I walked around to get a feel for the city. Yes, there were gobs of people everywhere. You couldn't shake a stick without hitting a trdelnik shop - it's the Czech version of the Hungarian chimney cake. There was also wonderful architecture everywhere you looked. It seemed that no two buildings were the same. I was in awe. Here are a couple of pics:

Powder Gate Tower

Wenceslas Square and the National Museum in the background

I was deeply enamored with the city already. It was stunning. We stopped at a restaurant close to Wenceslas Square and had tasty schnitzel, potatoes and beer, of course. (Czech beer is very good.)  After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and arrived at the square in time to see the Astronomical Clock do it's thing - it's kinda like the Glockenspiel in Munich in that there are moving parts and sounds every hour on the hour. It draws a crowd, and it's pretty cool. I took this pano of the square. People were moving, so they look splinched:

pano of Old Town Square

So, yeah, I felt lucky and happy to be in Prague. I decided to shake off the kind of ominous start to my stay with the sort of weird vibes I got from the staff and I was looking forward to having two more days to spend in the city. 

Next up, our first full day in Prague!