Ireland/Czech - Day 5

Our hotel in Prague had a weird system for breakfast. There was a Continental breakfast available each morning, but it was not free – you had to have a “Breakfast Voucher” to get in. When we checked in, we only got 2 Breakfast Vouchers. Later, I was able to obtain an apparently unlimited amount simply by asking for them. I never exactly figured out the purpose of the system.

Home of the Breakfast Voucher

In any event, we made it down to breakfast by around 9:30a. They had a nice spread of some traditional Czech food as well as generic breakfast foods. I had some croissants with fabulous blueberry jam. I also liked the kiwi - it was labeled as pineapple, but you can't fool me. Lindsay had a boiled egg and some massive fruit – grapes in Czech are huge. We called the cappuccino “gas station style” (ie comes from that little machine), but it was actually pretty tasty. I generally had one every morning.

Giant Grape

After eating, we took the metro down to Old Town and met up with our tour guide, Ross, at the Astronomical Clock. With the car service from the airport, we had received a free tour of Prague – this ended up being a great deal. The tour commenced after the Astronomical Clock did its song and dance for 11 AM. The clock itself is very interesting and complex – it’s the oldest astronomical clock still working, with a ton of historical and cultural significance. (There’s an excellent Wikipedia page on the ‘Prague Orloj’ with more information.) Our tour guide dazzled us all by being able to tell the time, date, position of the sun, and phase of the moon from the clock – it’s not trivial.

The Astronomical Clock draws quite a crowd on the hour.

The tour itself was billed as a 4 hour tour divided into two halves. In the first half of the tour, we went around Old Town Square, New Town, and the Jewish Ghetto. In the second half of the tour, we went through the Klementinum (more on this later), over Charles Bridge, into Lesser Town, and up to Castle Prague. We ended up taking about 5 hours for the whole tour, including about 20 minutes break for lunch (we quickly ate at Paneria on Kaprova – a bit of a ‘local chain’). By the end of the tour, we felt that we had experienced a lot of Prague and had a good idea about where things were located. Also, it gave us plenty of ideas about things to do next.

Right on Old Town Square is a relatively recent statue of Jan Hus, a Czech Reformer. The first of two St. Nicholas churches is in the background (with the spires).

The building on the right (Stone Bell House) is the oldest on Old Town Square, built in the 1200s. The beautiful building on the left was dismissively mentioned by our tour guide as being basically new (1700s).

Ross was full of great information, not just about the architecture in Prague (words like Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Gothic were all flying over my head.) but also about the Prague people in general. I liked his stories about English words with Czech etymology (pistol and robot, in particular). I also thought the story regarding the giant Stalin statue that was blown up and later replaced with a metronome was entertaining, insightful, and a bit sad (see here for more information). He told us that Czech people really enjoying hunting mushrooms (like St. Louisans!), and I finally made the connection regarding the preferred beer of Baltimore (National Bohemia aka Natty Boh).

Here's Ross on the approach to Charles Bridge

That way to the Jewish Ghetto, a now-ritzy area we could have explored more.

Charles IV, namesake of a lot of things in Prague, including Charles Bridge and Charles University.

Tower at Charles Bridge.

One of two St. Nicholas Cathedrals. This is the one in Lesser Town. We peeked inside during one of the services -- it's exactly as Ross described it: "OTT: Over the Top."

Interior of St. Vitus Cathedral.

Side entrance of St. Vitus. The oldest part is to the far right in the picture.

Rear of St. Vitus. It's really very impressive. By the way, this is the Cathedral on the hill that everyone thinks is "Prague Castle".

I think we tipped him a fair amount for a great tour, but others appeared to tip him much better - he commented that it must be a record for him. Most of the paid tours cost about $25-$40 per person, so even a generous tip was a great deal. (Also, because I can’t help myself, I estimated he makes about $350 USD per tour – roughly $70/hr!) 

The tour ended here - the Music Pavilion at Prague Castle. We had someone take our picture!

After the tour, we wanted to explore a bit more of the Castle and grounds. Fortuitously, we happened to be around for the changing of the guard at the entrance. A bit of a "mini-Buckingham Palace" routine.

New guards are coming in!

Loreta Praha. I'm still not exactly sure of the significance, but Ross said it was a pilgrimage destination for Catholics, so I figured we should probably take a picture of us in the near vicinity.

We eventually up in Strahov monastery area when it started raining. On our tour, Ross had told us that the monks still brew the beer at this monastery, so we went into one of the four restaurants on the hill to get a pint of St. Norbert Amber - it was very tasty. Lindsay had a glass of Czech wine, and we sat outside under an umbrella, a nice respite from the rain. Our total was 109 CZK ($5.50), but I thought the server said 190 CZK ($9.50), so I gave him a 200 CZK bill and told him to keep it. He was very confused and kinda flabbergasted. At last, he said “No, it’s only 109. This is too much.” We eventually settled at 150. In general, the Czech people were very kind to us.

St. Norbert Amber! Doesn't Lindsay look pretty in this one?

For dinner, we planned to hit a local favorite called "Lokal", but when we arrived they were full. They said it may be as long as 45 minutes, so we decided to go to a restaurant nearby in Lesser Town that had been recommended to us: Cukrkavalimonada. After we got directions (just a 2 minute walk), we discovered that we were too late – they had closed for the night. Fortunately, the servers gave us another recommendation: Cafe Louvre (pronounced “LOO-ver” by our Czech friend, but I think this was a misunderstanding). To get to the café, we had to cross the river (again) and walk to the next bridge (in the rain). Despite our hunger, the lateness of the hour, and feeling lost, we persevered. It ended up being worth it.

Historical photo of Cafe Louvre. It's on the second story.

In their own words, “You have just entered the foyer of Café Louvre. This Café, bearing the name of the world’s famous gallery, has been standing here for over a century, since 1902. Among its guests were Karel Capek, Franz Kafka as well as Albert Einstein during his professorship in Prague. The Café’s life was interrupted by force in 1948 by the communist coup when all café fixtures were thrown out of the windows into Narodni Avenue. The cultural melting pot was revived in the place after 1992 when the devastated premises underwent a complete reconstruction.” (More on their history here.)

Cafe Louvre, more recently.

The place got excellent reviews, and once we figured out that the “restaurant” and the “café” have the same menu (they just describe the different rooms within the place), we sat down in the still-crowded café. I had noticed that their hot chocolate had gotten rave reviews online, and I was cold (and grumpy, let’s be honest), so I ordered one. Lindsay did the same. We were super glad we did. This was by far the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had – it was like they melted a chocolate bar into a cup. I had the pork sirloin and Lindsay had soup. The total, including a tip and cover for bread, was 400 CZK ($20 US). Would definitely recommend! Our metro ride home introduced us to the final untraveled Metro line (and our longest ride yet - only 4 stops).

Yum! Check out the hot chocolate in the bottom left.

Lindsay liked her hot chocolate too!