Our trip to Prague was over three nights, arriving later in the day the first day and leaving very early in the morning on our departure day, giving us essentially two full days in the city.
Prague is a gorgeous romantic city on the banks of the Vltava River in the heart of the Czech Republic. It was largely spared from the bombings of WWII (the why and how is a much larger discussion that I’m not qualified or prepared to discuss, but if you’re in the city do take a guided tour with a local to learn more). Because of this, its Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Art Nouveau architecture remains intact and well preserved.
We had three goals during our visit to Prague: learn about the history of the city, enjoy the architecture, and drink a lot of Czech beer. The Czech Republic is famous for its lager and pilsner, although I also enjoy their darker brews. Czech beer is served in a thick glass mug. According to our tour guide, this ensures it remains chilled.
The layout of our trip went like this:
Day 0: arrive, check in, Beer Museum
Day 1: Old Prague walking tour, Prague Castle walking tour, Opera
Day 2: Beer spa, shopping, walk around city, dinner
Day 3: early flight home
Day 0:
We arrived in Prague in the evening via Zurich and took a hired car into the city to our hotel. We stayed in the old city on the southern edge of the Staré Mesto neighbourhood. This is the heart of old Prague and in the middle of all the sights that most guidebooks and blogs recommend. We enjoy traveling around mostly by foot so for us this was ideal. After checking in and dropping our bags off at the hotel, we headed out to the Prague Beer Museum pub. The beer museum has up to 30 beers on tap, and they focus on fresh, local Czech beer. According to their website, they rotate beers out often. We each ordered a tasting flight of 10 beers and had goulash and sausage for dinner. The beer was fantastic and the food was good, particularly the goulash. This was my first time having Czech goulash and I fell in love with it. After dinner we wandered around along the river for a bit before turning in for the night.
Day 1:
This was one of the busiest days we have had on a vacation in a while. We only had two full days in the city so it made sense for our schedule to do two back-to-back walking tours in order to see all the sights. Then we had the second day to revisit any sites and relax a bit.
We started the day at the Powder Tower for a walking tour with the Free Walking Tour of Prague. This tour meets every day by the Powder Tower and is free; they do ask for donations for the guides at the end. This tour was fantastic. Our guide was a Prague local who was a wealth of information about the city and the country. If you are looking for a walking tour, I would highly recommend this one.
Our tour started at the Powder Tower, one of the original gates to the city. The old kings of Prague walked from the Powder Tower across the Charles Bridge on their coronation route on the way to St. Vitus Cathedral. It is also located next to the Municipal House and a lovely cafe with beautiful Art Nouveau decor.
We then headed to the House of the Black Madonna. The titular Black Madonna statue sits on the corner of the building. It is original to that corner and was placed on the building when it was built in 1912. The building itself, as well as the cafe on the first floor, is the real draw. It is cubist building designed by Josef Gocar. The building was originally a department store but now houses the Museum of Cubism and The Grand Cafe Orient. It is built using a reinforced concrete skeleton. The Grand Cafe Orient does not have any supporting pillars thanks to the building’s construction. According to my friend Wikipedia, it is the only surviving Cubist interior in the world. We were able to return the next day to visit the cafe, but unfortunately missed out on the museum. Something for the next trip, I suppose.
We continued on through the streets of Prague, walking by the Estates Theatre. This heater has been running continuously since 1783 and hosted the world premiere of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Unfortunately we were not able to attend a performance here. Again, something for the next trip.
Our next stop was Republic Square and the Astronomical Clock. The Astronomical clock appears to be similar to the one here in Bern, but older, having been built in the 1400s. It is the oldest working clock of its kind in the world.
Republic Square is, as our guide says, the heart of the city and where everything happens. This is where the Christmas markets are set up and when the national team (for football, of course) has a major game, this is where the match is broadcast. The Church of Our Lady before Tyn is also in this square. For any students of astronomy, this is where the astronomer Tycho Brahe is buried. The architecture in the square is lovely, so make sure to bring your camera for your visit.
We continued on to the Jewish quarter and learned about the Jewish inhabitants of the city and saw the cemetery. This was a very informative part of the tour, but also very somber.
After a quick snack stop, we continued on through the city, past many charming buildings and the Rudolfinum Concert hall, to the statue of Charles IV. Charles IV was the King of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Emperor. His reign was considered a golden age of Bohemia. The Charles Bridge is also named after him. This was the end of our first tour and the beginning of our second. Did we max perform this? Yes. Do I wish I had packed more snacks and water? Also yes.
Our second tour started just a few minutes after the first one ended, at the gate to the Charles Bridge. As we learned earlier, the old kings would walk on their coronation procession through the city across the bridge. At the entrance to the bridge there is a gate. If you look up right in the middle, there is a crown to commemorate the gate’s history.
The Charles Bridge is lined with statues of saints. One in particular is St John of Nepomuk, patron saint of Bohemia. He was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia, and refused to tell the king what the queen was confessing about. The king was very angry and had him thrown off of the bridge. His statue is fairly easy to find because of its two plaques at the base. They depict the martyrdom of the saint. The left is of him and the queen in the confessional, and the right is of him being thrown off the bridge. You are supposed to touch the right plaque for good luck and to ensure you will return to Prague (there are always people at the statue touching it, and the spot on the bronze is kept shiny because of this). The left plaque is my favourite however. The background shows the queen confessing, but the foreground depicts a knight (possibly an angel?) Petting a dog. My interpretation is that this alludes to St John’s fidelity and loyalty in his role as confessor (dogs are often symbols of loyalty, hence the popular name Fido). The dog on this plaque is also very shiny, indicating that people also pet him. It brings me so much joy to think that centuries of people have also pet this very good boy.
We crossed the bridge into the western side of the city and to a metro stop. We did not use it much, but the metro appears to be very reliable in Prague. If you are staying in a different neighbourhood or wish to explore further out, it is a good option for getting around. We took the metro up the hill to the castle complex.
The Prague Castle complex is massive. If you choose to do this part on your own, you really do need two to three hours to see everything. It includes the Cathedral of St Vitus and the Presidential residence. There is a security check since the president does reside here, and it can get busy. We came through an entrance on the western side, near the metro drop-off. This entrance was also slightly uphill from the rest of the complex, which we found incredibly helpful since it was our second tour of the day. I would highly recommend doing the castle visit in this order if you come alone, instead of entering at the eastern gates and then having to walk uphill.
The tour was very extensive and informative, and our guide was fantastic. For this tour, we booked a paid one that included transportation tickets and entrance into St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica, and the Golden Lane.
We started in the St Vitus Cathedral, a Gothic cathedral that began construction in the 1300s and was not completed until the 1800s.
As with all Gothic cathedrals, there are a ton of chapels and altars that line the cathedral. I would be lying if I told you I could remember any of them. One particular window in the north nave is very special however. This window was designed by the Czech artist Alfons Mucha. If you have ever admired any prints or paintings of women in the Art Nouveau style, they are probably Mucha’s work. His stained glass window is quite possibly one of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen. The window depicts a young St. Wenceslas (yes, that Wenceslas, also the patron saint of the Czech Republic) among his grandmother St Ludmila and other saints. Definitely don’t skip this window. The St Wenceslas chapel is also beautiful (you can only peek in, but not enter). Another point of note is the massive baroque silver tomb of St John of Nepomuk.
We then toured the old castle, which is the largest ancient castle in the world. It is also currently home to the Czech President. We also saw a replica of the Bohemian coronation jewels (the originals are kept in St Vitus Cathedral behind the chapel of St Wenceslas). The main hall, Vladislav Hall, has a lovely ceiling. The castle is also famous for the invention of the word “defenestration”, to throw someone out of a window (the word window is “fenster” in German, “finestra” in Italian and “fenestra” in Latin). Defenestration has happened multiple times throughout history, which is why our forefathers came up with the word I suppose. The act of defenestration seems to need a reason behind it; one cannot throw anyone out of a window and call it defenestration. There must be a reason! All of the defenestrations I have read about involve political arguments or some sort of political motivation. It’s kind of like assassination (which the Czech people also have a history of during WWII; it was their way of standing up to the Nazi regime). One can be murdered but unless it is a politically motivated murder, it is not assassination, no matter how important one is. The big one is the 1618 Defenestration of Prague. Again, according to our friend Wikipedia, this particular defenestration led to the Thirty Years’ War. Interestingly, the men who were thrown out of the window survived. They claimed it was through the divine intercession of the Virgin Mary. Our guide says there was a trash pile under the window. I’ll let you pick your own reason.
Next we made our way to the Basilica of St George. It is the oldest surviving church in the castle complex. St Ludmila is buried here.
Our final stop on the tour was the Golden Lane. It is a street lined by small brightly coloured buildings originally built to house the castle guards. There are several exhibits, including one on medieval torture devices, that are now housed here. A few of the buildings also contain adorable souvenir shops.
Once we parted ways with our tour group, we went to find something to eat because we were starving! (Again, bring snacks if you do back to back tours). We stopped at the Lobkowicz Palace Cafe and had a very late lunch/early dinner on the patio overlooking the city. This cafe has a gorgeous view. Of course we ordered goulash and beer (and coffee!). Once we were done, we wandered downhill, crossing the Manes Bridge into the eastern side of the city. After a pit stop at the hotel, we made our way to the state opera house.
The National Theatre is made up of several venues in Prague, to include the State Opera. We saw a performance of Verdi’s La Traviata. This was our first time attending the opera, and we absolutely loved it! The opera was performed in Italian, but there was a screen right above the state showing the translation, line by line, in Czech and English. There were also screens at each seat that had translations in additional languages, as well as more information about the performers and the opera itself. The performance included two intermissions. We were able to enjoy a glass of wine out on the balcony overlooking the city.
Once the opera was done, we made our way back to our hotel. This was the longest day of touring I think we have ever done. If we’d had one more day (or if our flight the previous night had arrived in the morning, like we had originally booked) we would have split the tours for separate days and visited some of the museums and other sights we missed. But again, we’ll save that all for the next trip. Day 2 is next!
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