Since my baby left me for Christmas, it was not her choice but just the way the chips fell this year. Instead of sitting alone for Christmas I thought it would be a good chance to go see my good friends that live across the pond in France. But instead of meeting them in France we thought we'd visit a new place, a historic place, a place called Prague.
I left Houston on the 22nd and after a few hours in the Frankfurt airport sleeping (and of course a few hours on two planes) I finally made my way to Prague on Wednesday evening.
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| View from breakfast |
My good friend Corey (and his wife Donna) did a lot of the pre-planning of picking an awesome place for us to stay and working with the hotel to book a few dinners during the busy holiday season. The place we stayed was very interesting, it is called Questenberk Hotel. The hotel I believe used to be apart of the monastery that is directly behind the Hotel. The hotel is very small, very quaint and the staff at the hotel was truly amazing. Food was wonderful and the breakfast was amazing every morning and was complimented by a view that overlooked the old town section of Prague.
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| Questenberk Hotel |
Upon my arrival my met up with Corey and Donna and of course we headed over to the Strahov Monastery because well... there's a brewery of course.
After a few beers in the courtyard of the monastery it had started to get dark (as it does in Europe in the winter) and we headed into town to take in some of the history and of course to take in more Czech beer. We found a decent bar right across from the
Prague Astronomical Clock, I would try and describe this thing but it's really a marvel of engineering and artistry, the history around it is also a bit disturbing.
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| Prague Astronomical Clock |
After enjoying the show that the clock puts on every hour, we begin our search for food. When in Prague, why not have pizza? And you know, it was amazing as was most of the food I had over this short stay in Prague. Of course I had the camera and caught this amazing photo of Donna and Corey as we exited the restaurant.
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| A Bite of Pizza |
By the time we exited the pizzeria I was dead, I had been awake for basically 30+ hours if you don't count my nap in the Frankfurt airport on an airport bench. Of course going to bed too early on the first night always bites me when I travel to Europe, so I made a pact with myself. If I woke up at ass-thirty (also known as the hours between 2-5am) I would head into the uncrowded streets of Prague and take some rare photos of the wonderful Charles Bridge actually empty, during the day this bridge ferries tens of thousands of people everyday. I'd compare it to the mall at Christmas, or the packed hallway of an overcrowded high school.
Here's a pic of the bridge during the day.
And here's what I found at 3am, and probably about 35F (1C).
It was really a magical to be basically alone on this bridge, just me, my camera and the stillness of the night. When I left the hotel and made my way down the hill towards the bridge it was cold and clear, but by the time I reached the bridge the fog had started to roll in and really set the stage for some photographic magic.
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| Just Under the Bridge |
I stayed out for 2 hours that morning and then when back to the hotel and crashed for another 4-5 hours of much needed sleep. After catching up on my beauty rest, I met Corey and Donna for the breakfast buffet at the hotel. In addition to the buffet they allow you to order off the menu and I must say the Eggs Benedict at the hotel was simply amazing and I think I ordered it everyday but the last but only because I felt bad not trying the other great stuff on the menu.
It was now Christmas Eve and the Christmas Markets in the town square of Prague were in full swing. A lot european cities do something like this, basically it's like a farmer's market but held during Christmas time. You know the stalls, the trinkets, and oh the food. While we didn't eat this day, a few days later we had a potato pancake which was potato and sauerkraut all mixed together. You know I love some taters. The funniest part was that Corey bought three pancakes when one would have been enough for the three of us...
After visiting the market we tooled around town for a while and stopped and had a hot cider (with rum) in a tea room to discuss our plans for the night. Our dinner plans were already set with a dinner at the hotel but until then we needed something to do. We jokingly passed around the idea of a Segway tour, funny right? If it wasn't Christmas time we probably would have done a tour in the old town square but it was much much more crowded than the picture above shows. To get away from the crowd we crossed the Charles Bridge once again, and went in search of a vendor to take us on a tour. There were a few options for tours and we opted for the east side tour (I can't remember the actual name) where we visited the Lennon Wall, the Hunger Wall, the Petrin Tower, Prague Castle and the monastery that our hotel was near.
Riding the Segways (they were actually Nine-bots) was an interesting experience and having to learn on a cobblestone rode is a bit tricky, but once you get the gist of it it can very fun and confidence grows very fast. Of course speeding is not advised because of you're obviously not as good as you think you are, and going downhill fast (as Donna found out) can be a bit sketchy.
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| Us dorks on the Segways |
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| Another shot from the Segway Tour, overlooking the old town |
Before our dinner at the hotel we had tickets to a Christmas musical in a small intimate theater which means we had to go BACK across the Charles bridge (#3 for the day). After the show we crossed the bridge for the fourth time to head back up the hill for dinner at the hotel.
Dinner was five courses and simply amazing, the staff was short and service suffered because of it but the two gentlemen servicing the restaurant did better than could be expected and again it was Christmas Eve that they were spending working rather than being at home with family so we were very thankful and understanding.
Christmas Day in Prague is a very different experience that what usually goes on in the U.S. everything in the States is closed, even Wal-Mart is closed but not in Prague. It seemed that everything was OPEN, and we were a bit confused as we thought we would be trapped at the hotel staring at each other. Since everything was open, we decided to head over to tour the
Prague Castle complex. Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world, and is also the largest presidential residence in the world. The castle surrounds four cathedrals with the largest being St. Vitus Cathedral, which was built in the common style of the large catholic cathedrals in Europe. If you've been in Notre Dame or the Cologne Cathedral you've seen something similar. It is an interesting complex, almost like a city within a city.
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| Inside St. Vitus Cathedral |
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| Inside the Prague Castle grounds |
After touring the castle, we headed back into old town and had lunch a local cafe and chilled for a moment. Toured a bit more of the old town included an evening stroll through the Jewish section of Prague, everything was closed by the time we made it to this section of town but there were a few synagogues that looked very interesting but we (mainly I because Corey and Donna got to visit on Sunday since everything was also closed on Saturday) were unable to visit at the time. So on we tread through the streets, viewing the beautiful sites of the city. In the city square, just behind the stands of the market was a beautiful Christmas tree.
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| Christmas Tree in Prague |
This night we ate at Restaurace Mlýnec, a couple of courses and a couple of wines and of course it was another wonderful meal in Prague. By the end of the meal, it was late and of course it was time to head to bed.
Since I wasn't completely stoked with the first pictures that I took the first night, and this would be my last full night in Prague I thought I would get up early again and visit the Charles Bridge to see if I could capture a few more wonderful moments. And of course, the bridge and the morning delivered. I wasn't the first person out like the last time, but there were few enough people out such that I could capture some good moments.
After my morning walk, I headed back to the hotel to catch Corey and Donna for breakfast which I can't comment on enough as it was just spectacular.
Continuing on with our trend, we headed back in to the city to visit the Jewish area again, even though we new everything was closed we wanted to explore it a bit more in the daylight. We also finally got to visit this brewpub we had been trying to get to for the last 3 days, the pub was actually putting on a beer seminar or class/presentation of some sort. We didn't join it, we were too busy enjoying the beer.
Another night, another great meal.
Prague is a magical city, very interesting, very historic and nice patrons too. Next time I would like to see some of the non-historic parts of the city to see if it is just as enjoyable in the other areas. All in all, definitely worth a visit.
Christmas Day in Prague is a very different experience that what usually goes on in the U.S. everything in the States is closed, even Wal-Mart is closed but not in Prague. It seemed that everything was OPEN, and we were a bit confused as we thought we would be trapped at the hotel staring at each other. Since everything was open, we decided to head over to tour the Prague Castle complex. Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world, and is also the largest presidential residence in the world. The castle surrounds four cathedrals with the largest being St. Vitus Cathedral, which was built in the common style of the large catholic cathedrals in Europe. If you've been in Notre Dame or the Cologne Cathedral you've seen something similar. It is an interesting complex, almost like a city within a city.
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