Prague, Czech Republic

I've heard lots of things about the Czech Republic.  Some of them were negative, to be vague, but a lot of things I've heard were positive, like Prague is a beautiful city to visit.  The only way I would know would be to find out for myself.  I wanted to travel of course for my birthday weekend.  With Prague being only a two and half hour drive from where I live, It was high on my list of places to visit. The decision to drive there was pretty easy.  The only thing that we needed was a vignette which you could buy at the border which cost 18 Euro for a ten day minimum pass.  The drive wasn't bad at all.  We made sure to get a hotel that had parking, because I had heard the parking situation was difficult.  I'm glad we did because although, driving in the city wasn't crazy, we did have to pay a fine for driving in a pedestrian zone and were also informed that we could not park anywhere behind a blue line as those were for the locals.  The police were very nice about it though.  And very nice when they told us we had to pay 1000 Koruna on the spot.

We stayed at the Praha Palace Hotel which was right near The State Opera House and Wenceslas Square.  It was a great location and parking was 25 Euro a night to park in their underground parking lot.  This was a very nice five star hotel and I found a great discount for 129 Euro on Priceline.  The hotel had a gourmet dining facility, bar, and bathrooms that played classical music.  The rooms were very nice also, as was the staff, who even helped us book some of our events.  I would definitely stay at this hotel again.  Here is the hotel link.

In Prague, they use the Koruna or Krone.  You can go to any ATM and pull out money from your debit card in Koruna.  Basically, 2000 Koruna is the equivalent of $100.  Exchanging my money back into Dollars or Euros was also easy as there was an exchange near our hotel, and contrary to people saying you get ripped off, they did not charge us a fee to exchange our money.  

The first thing my husband and I went to see was the Astronomical Clock.  The clock was installed in 1410 and is housed in a very beautiful building.  Once we saw that there were people at the top, we quickly bought tickets and ascended the tower.  

The view from the top was great.  You could see almost all of the city.  But Prague is big and there are so many areas that needed to be sought out on foot.  You need more than just a weekend to see all of the great things there.  In the following picture you can see the Prague Castle which is the largest Gothic church in Europe.  Unfortunately my camera died when we actually walked from the Clock to the Castle so this is as close a picture as it gets.  I will definitely have to try again next time we go to Prague and yes, there will be a next time.  The Castle/Church is known to hold the Bohemian Crown Jewels.  Whatever that means?  I was impressed with how beautiful the buildings were.

A view from above of the Easter Market.

The Tyn Church is directly across from the Astronomical Clock.  Another great example of Gothic architecture.  This church holds the tomb of famed Danish Astronomer, Tycho Brahe.  It also holds the worlds oldest pipe organ.  

We were fortunate enough to be in Prague during the Easter Market.  This was similar to some of the Christmas Markets but way more laid back.  I love this picture below because it just shows how some of the trees were decorated for Easter and some nice buildings in the background.  At the Easter Market, they sold a lot of handmade wooden items and knick knacks.  They also sold various food stuffs including some great local cheese, haluski, marzipan, and these pastries called Trdelniks (I remember the name by calling them turtlenecks).  These are rolled dough with cinnamon and sugar.  (I did NOT take the picture of the Trdelnicks).   Another thing to keep an eye out for in Prague is the crystal.  Prague is known for its Bohemian crystal and every souvenir shop had copious amounts of glasses, perfume bottles, and various other crystal wares to choose from.

Later that night I wanted to see an opera.  Luckily, our hotel was only a few blocks away from the the Prague State Opera.  Prague is known for having cheap tickets for operas, ballets, dramas, and circus'.  I wanted to take advantage of this and how many people can say they've been to a genuine opera?  We booked tickets about 5 hours before the show started and we were able to get tickets for Nabucco, which is an Italian opera by Verdi composed in 1841 about the story of the Jews.  There are romantic storylines as well.  For me, just hearing the opera and appreciating that type of vocal range was enough. I was very interested during the first two acts, but after intermission. the story started to die down and I could look to my left and see Brandon snoring in his seat.  

The opera had subtitles in Czech and English.  We had balcony seats which were no good because we were behind a row of people already taking up the front of the balcony.  Nevertheless, I still would like to see a ballet or drama next time.  Here are the two pictures I took from the balcony. The inside of the Theater in Baroque design with a grand chandelier.  The picture of the opera house is blurry but I wanted to show the inside and how nice it was.  If you are wanting to book an opera or the like, this is a very helpful blog: http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/prague-booking-a-really-cheap-seat-at-the-opera-or-ballet.html.

The next day we spent a small amount of time in the Jewish Quarter and I had the chance to go to a few antique shops that were very expensive. These are for rich collectors, not hobbyists like myself.  There were also some very high end stores like Chanel and Gucci in this area.  We decided to walk through The Old Town and past The Charles Bridge, which is an attraction itself, to get to the Prague Castle.  The Charles Bridge is very important as it connected The Old Town and The Prague Castle crossing the Vitava River.  Constructed in 1351, it was the only way to cross the river for centuries to come.  The bridge itself is very eerie and I could imagine especially at night because of the parallel row of gothic and religious statues that line the bridge.  There are even haunted night tours that will take you through the old town and across the bridge.  During the day, the bridge is filled with vendors and street performers.

View of the Castle and bridge parallel to The Charles Bridge.

                                                                    The Charles Bridge!

We will go to Prague again.  It's so close we can't help but make a few more trips.  I want to go to the Town of Kutna Hora which is only an hour from Prague and the place of the Sedlec Ossuary, or "the bone church."  (Look it up, you won't be disappointed!)  Also, I'd like to go to Karlovy Vary which is another beautiful town in Czech and known for its spas.

Favorite thing in Prague:  The Astronomical Clock.  Seeing the view from the top was worth it and we got to see the city from above.  Also, that general area was very nice, especially with the Easter Market going on.

I completely forgot to mention that we went to "The Sex Machines Museum."  This was a three floor museum with info, photos, and um apparatuses.  Why we thought this was a good idea, I don't know, but it wasn't.  It was kind of gross, especially the top floor... But we had some Koruna to blow through and Prague was particularly cold this weekend so we ducked into an alley and found this museum.  It was nevertheless interesting.

I also wanted to show a picture of some Koruna I had left over.  100 Koruna which equals about $5.

Also see: 10 Things to Do in Prague