Prague: Old Town

Jeff and I woke up early and packed our things for Prague. We were able to take advantage of our free breakfast were I had my bologna. By the way, I am not talking about Oscar Mayer bologna here, I'm talking about freshly cut pieces of goodness. Well, we scrambled to do the last of what we needed to do in the zimmer and headed out the door at around 8:25am to catch our 8:41am bus. We rushed a little to find where it left from, but we made it with about 10-minutes to spare. At 8:41am on the dot the bus left. Jeff and I looked at each other like, "they don't mess around". The bus ride was nice. I slept and then as we got closer I had a coffee to wake me up. Oh, they had snack and drink service on the bus. Very cool!

Jeff and I had a couple of chores to do when we arrived at the station. We had to find an ATM, the tourist office, the bus ticket office (so Jeff could buy a return ticket to Nurnberg), and figure the best way to get across town to our hotel. It took a while to figure out the language, but we got it. We were able to take the underground to a station that was about 5-6 blocks from the hotel. We arrived at Hotel Julian and it was a little more upscale than I thought. Dollars go further here. The place was nice and the hotel clerk was beyond fantastic! We set our stuff down in our room and then headed to explore the town. We just started walking and then decided that we needed some lunch. We found a nice little place with was totally tucked away from the tourist areas. It was just a block down from the US embassy where teams of police were very present. Once in the small beer hall we sat and drank beer with our goulash. Some pretty awesome goulash! I even had a cup of the garlic soup and Jeff had a beer & cheese platter thingy. Very good!

Hotel Den

After, we wondered the streets of Prague and made our way across the Charles Bridge which is a big attraction. We found the statue of St. John which you are supposed to touch with your left hand for good luck. It's fun to watch people touch it with their right hand and then under my breath say as each person goes up, "Bad luck, oh bad luck, oh you'll have good luck, bad luck for you, no chance on good luck, yes you'll have some good luck" etc. It's silly. The Charles Bridge is comparable to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco where you have people out trying to make money by playing music, painting, selling crafts, and the like. Many people on the bridge too!

Jeff and I headed to the Old Town area where you find the Old Town Square. The big attraction seemed to be this Astronomical Clock which didn't do a whole lot when people gathered around it each hour. Basically some doors would open up and you could see these dolls dance and then a trumpet player at the top of the tower above would play a short tune. Jeff and I had gone up to the tower right when the trumpet player was playing his song. It was nice. The tower offered some amazing views of Prague so Jeff and I took our time to walk around it. We met this girl from Brazil who was terrified of heights, but you could tell that she wanted some good photos. She was a bit odd, but it was funny to watch her. Jeff and I made our way down and walked around the Old Town some more. There are a ton of streets to walk down and plenty of things to see. After a ton of walking we made our way back to the Old Town Square and stopped at a little outdoor cafe for some Hot Wine, another Prague specialty.

Astronomical Clock

Tourists

Another Tourist

The View

Jeff

Jeff and I

Jeff and I came to the same conclusion about Prague. It was a lot more touristy than we both expected. We think this was partly due to the season. Jeff had found out that the Prague Castle (another draw) opened in January for the "tourist season" so we think we were there during the busy season. Prague is great, but when you are in a place with a lot of people the crowds can be annoying and the peddlers are even worse. We had people jumping in front of us telling us that we needed to go to this casino, strip club, restaurant, or whatever. Most would try to hand you flyers. It takes away from the experience I think.

We made our way back to the hotel as it started to get a little dark. The view from the trail along the the river was amazing!

Jeff

Me

Prague Castle - Charles Bridge on Right

Back at the hotel we rested for a bit and then made our way to dinner. Our friend Tom Moberly recommended this place called, "Casanova"....it was Italian, but the food was good. Tom probably liked it because they have pasta on the menu. Jeff ordered bruschetta and shared it with me. I said, "Jeff, here were are in Prague eating tomatoes. You know, 10-years ago I never thought I'd be here." When we were done with dinner Jeff calls out to the waiter, "Can I get the check please?" he then stops and says to me, "Maybe I should start saying "bill" instead". I laughed! After dinner Jeff and I called Tom on the phone to gloat about us being in Prague at his favorite restaurant. We couldn't talk long because Jeff's minutes were about to expire.

We headed back to the hotel and decided to have a beer in the hotel bar before going to bed. It was a nice day with plenty of walking!