Prague,
Czech Republic
January 2012
"Prague Revisited"
(What is this, like 5 times?)
We go where there are empty seats...more now that we are retired and our stand-by priority has dropped to just above cargo (or maybe below cargo)...
So for the Martin Luther King holiday in January, Prague was looking good. The drawback was that to get there, we had to go through New York. After BJ's
last experience, we weren't too sure we wanted to do this, but since no other destinations looked do-able, we decided to try it.
We had no problem getting seats to New York, but we had a long layover which, of course, we spent enjoying the hospitality of the Sky Club. The Prague flight also had plenty of seats and we were happy to get two of them in business class! We read our previous write-ups on Prague to remind ourselves what we had learned on previous trips.
We bought a ticket and caught bus 119 to the metro, as before. This time we would be staying in Old Town so we didn't think we'd need a multi-day metro pass. We really liked the location of the Hilton Old Town. In fact, we never got on the metro again until we were ready to head back to the airport.
When we got to the hotel, they were still serving breakfast in the Executive Lounge, so we had a little snack before heading out to explore the town.
It was a cold, grey day, so we spent much of the time taking advantage of the warmth of the shops. It started to drizzle a little so we ducked into the Old Fine Cafe Bar Lamberly. Over a couple of local brews, we watched out the window as the rain turned to sleet and snow. We settled in with a deck of cards and waited for it to stop.
We decided to have dinner at a place we had poked our noses into on a previous trip, but had not eaten there. NOVOMESTSKÝ PIVOVAR We had forgotten how big and hearty the meals are and wished we had split something.
After dinner, we took a self-guided tour of the brewery. There were some pretty neat frescoes on the walls.
We made it an early night and headed in for a night cap in the Executive Lounge.
The next morning after breakfast in the lounge, we stopped into the grocery store across the street so Tony could get his obligatory morning Diet Coke. There was an interesting array of meats at the store.
It was a gorgeous day, so we went to St. Charles Bridge to get a picture.
We strolled around remembering why we love this city. We never get tired of seeing the beautiful old buildings!
Tony wanted to get a soccer jersey from the local soccer team AC Sparta, even though the manager of the Hilton lounge didn't understand WHY he would want one. According to him, "Czech football is unwatchable. All they do is fall down and cry." But he told us that we could get one at the Sports Store at the lower end of Wenceslas Square.
Wenceslas Square was not in our GPS, so we selected the Novatel Wenceslas Square. When we got there, we were surprised to find that the hotel was not on the square at all. We ducked in and asked for directions to the square. We stopped into every sports store and finally found the jersey at the Nike store.
The president Vaclav Havel
had recently died so lots of flowers and candles had been placed on the statue in Wenceslas Square.
Wenceslas Square is a shopping Mecca. You can find anything there and even get a pedicure performed by fish!
Learning from the previous day's hearty meal, we decided to split a meal at U Sudu Brewery.
We stopped to watch some ice skaters along the way.
The following day was again, beautiful weather! We wanted a picture from the bridge with one of the prettiest vistas we've ever seen so we trekked over to the most Leglí.
The Prague Castle in the in the distance is very impressive.
After a few pictures, we hiked up the hill to the replica of the Eiffel Tower.
The view from above the city is breathtaking!
We followed the path around to the Strahov Monastery.
At the monastery, we found a little pivovar called Klasterni. We enjoyed a beer and conversations with a couple of local fellows who were very interested in learning about the United States.
Dinner was at the U Schnellu followed by one last look around the city.
We made it back to the Karluv Most in time for the beautiful sunset!
The next morning, too soon, it was time to head home. It was a short trip, but as it turns out, we left just in time. The bus drove through snow on the way back to the airport, and the following week, Prague had the coldest weather in 40 years!
BJ and Tony
bjandtony@bjandtony.com