Last month Tom and I spent a long weekend travelling to celebrate our wedding anniversary! We flew in and out of Prague. We have both visited the city separately when we studied abroad 11 years ago, but had never experienced it together. We had so much fun despite the snowy winter weather and got to see so much more than we had remembered seeing last trip.
We arrived in the evening and spent our first night having a traditional Czech dinner of goulash and beer. Czech beer is some of the most famous in the world as it is unpasteurized, giving it a very short shelf life and an incredibly fresh taste. I am not even a big beer drinker but definitely appreciate the taste of Czech beer. We loved getting to see the city lit up so beautifully at night.
The next morning we were off on a walking tour of the city. We had fun seeing the sites and comparing stories about what we each had remembered doing during our previous trips to Prague. The walking tour finished up around mid-day so we grabbed some street food...always a favorite. We enjoyed our tour so much that we decided to join the company's afternoon tour of the Royal Castle and the other side of the Charles River. It too was great and very interesting. Tom and I enjoyed hearing about the many cultural similarities between Poland and the Czech Republic. But, there are also some pretty big differences. The largest difference is that the Czech's did not put up a resistance to the Germans and Russians during WWII. Therefore, although Czech was invaded it was not destroyed. All of the original buildings, bridges and charm from hundreds of years ago still remains. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the buildings of Warsaw. After a long day of walking in the cold we were exhausted and spent most of the evening taking advantage of the free wine in the executive lounge at our hotel! : )
Our final day in Prague was spent on a food tour. The tour had received fantastic reviews and not only let us sample a lot of the favorites of the locals but also provided some great insight into the modern day culture of the Czech people. Our first stop on the food tour was at a meat place where we sampled a number of items that were braised and stewed for hours. The Czechs never wanted to waste a single part of the cow, hence the need to slow cook some of the tougher pieces. Surprisingly, they were absolutely delicious! Our next stop on the food tour was at a sort of fast food type place...not fast food in the American, fried sense...but literally a place where Czech's will commonly grab a quick bite. They serve an item that is sort of like an open faced sandwich. It consists of a fresh piece of bread with a cream cheese type spread layered with ham, cheese and pickles. Since cream cheese and pickles aren't my thing I passed, but Tom was more than happy to eat mine! Our third stop was at a traditional Czech bakery where we sampled a famous herbal digestive liquor and a traditional Czech desert of a cinnamon wafer roll filled with fresh whipped cream. Yummy! And, our final stop that afternoon was at a wine bar where we sampled Czech produced wines. They weren't bad, but I think the Czech's should leave it to Italy, France and Spain when it comes to wine production. It was a super fun and unique tour and we are really glad we took it.
With super full bellies we spent the evening driving a couple of hours to southeast Germany for the rest of our trip!
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| We've arrived! Enjoying the Prague views at night. |
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| The famous St. Charles Bridge |
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| The Royal Castle in the distance |
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| The famous towers on either end of the bridge |
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| Our first day! In the main Old Town square |
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| So pretty! |
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| The famous Astronomical Clock - there are a lot of famous sites in Prague! |
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| Exploring the Jewish Quarter - the oldest synogauge |
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| A statue honoring Franz Kafka, who was born and lived in Prague |
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| All that walking made us hungry....time for lunch! |
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| Famous Prague Ham...Tom was in heaven! |
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| A monastery that brews beer...pretty cool monks |
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| Views of Prague from the other side of the River |
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| The church within the Royal Castle |
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| The Royal Castle |
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| Getting a bit cold at this point after being outside most of the day |
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| The Royal Castle where the current President lives |
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| Guarding the castle |
