Prague? WOW!

Saturday, 2 March, 2013

Hello!  (And please don’t expect that in Czech, as I have no idea how to make all those accent marks work…)

Saturday evening finds us installed in our fabulous apartment just off the Old World Square in Prague.  But to start at the beginning…

Back to – yes, I’m afraid so! – Transit for dinner last night, as we were hungry and didn’t want to wait for another restaurant to open.  We do promise, though, that for the rest of the trip, we will do no more than one repeat per place!  Back to the hotel about 7-ish, and then the grand repacking getting ready for our move this morning.  Fortunately, things were much less crowded thanks to Robert’s shipping fetish; much lighter, too!  To bed around 9, to get up at 6 this morning.

Our Prague apartment

Margaret & Pasquale

Our apartment

Our apartment

Bedroom

Guess!

View from the entry

Got up before the alarm (naturally) and we were all showered, dressed and ready to go before 7 a.m.  So, checked out of the hotel and walked across the street, and voila! – a #142 bus just heading our way!  Had the bus to ourselves all the way to the train station – the good thing about traveling on a Saturday.  However, as our train wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:36 a.m. we still had quite a bit of time to kill.  And train stations, unlike airports, are not built for the long layover!  We were able to find a small food court that was open – and warm, and picked up some breakfast – ham sandwich on baguette for me, coffee & croissant for R, and then it was time to get on the train…well…we almost always go 2^nd class on trains, as usually, a seat is a seat is a seat … that is, unless you happen to be going from Berlin to Dresden on the day of a big soccer match, Berlin vs. Dresden.  We were fortunate to have seat reservations, but most of the soccer hooligans did not – I’ve never seen so many open beer bottles in my life (especially at that time of the morning), and every once in a while someone would break out into loud song or chants…hmmm… We had these charming folks for about 2 hours, and they literally burst out of the train car – chanting.  (And they were having such a fun time smoking in the no-smoking restrooms…)  Have to say that at least the police were prepared – riot police everywhere – but when they started (the fans, not the police) setting off fireworks – well, that was about all I wanted to listen to, that’s for sure!  Felt lucky to have finally left that mad house behind us when we pulled out of the station.  As Robert pointed out, the ambiance is so much different than for a Spanish soccer match, where you’ve got women and children; entire families going to enjoy the game together. 

Zebra Restaurant

Chicken & Noodles

Beef & Udon Noodles

It took about five hours to make the trip from Berlin to Prague, and we arrived about 1:30 p.m.  Pasquale, our landlord, had arranged a pick-up for us, and we met Alex right on schedule, at the front of the Burger King.  (So far we have seen Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, KFC and Robert even tells me he saw a “Hooters” but I’m not sure I believe that…)  Alex dropped us off at our apartment, where we met Pasquale, who is wonderful!  He is a transplanted Italian who runs the #1 place to stay in Prague, as per Tripadvisor.com.  First of all, Pasquale gave us a brief orientation/walking tour of the area.  It’s absolutely perfect – out one corridor and we’re in the Old Town Square, out the other and we’re heading to the Charles Bridge!  Fabulous!  Then he showed us to our apartment -- #33.  

Well…to be honest, I think this place is probably larger than the little house we lived in in Altadena for 22 years!  Really lovely place!  High ceilings, wood floors, spotlessly clean and incredibly well equipped.  There is storage galore; have told Robert that we might need to really start shopping, just to use up some of the space!

Tower with the Astronomical Clock

Old Town Square & Tyn Church

Old Town Square

Dropped the luggage and then headed out to find food.  We had thought about getting sandwiches on the train, but “something” happened to the food car (I predict it was awash in soccer fans) and it was closed from Dresden to Prague.  Found the Zebra Bar, which is very similar to the noodle place where we ate in Oxford.  Fresh food, prepared in front of you, no MSG or additives – all great by us!  We split appetizers – yummy spring rolls and satay to start; then Robert had udon noodles with beef and broccoli, and I had chicken with noodles, onions and eggplant.  Robert won that round!  Washed everything down with a few glasses of wine.  I am very impressed by the dry white Czech wine that I had; it was great!

Entry to Albert Supermarket

By the time we were finished, it was almost 4 p.m., so we decided to go to the local grocery store and stay in tonight.  Found the store – Albert’s – and I’m hoping that the photo that Robert took of the entrance turns out well – have NEVER seen a store entrance to match it!  Bought water, fruit and a bit of cheese, and took everything back to the flat.  Then out for some serious looking around!

Have to admit, that we weren’t sure how we would react to Prague.  So many people have told us how beautiful it was – but we tend to like to make our own judgments, and baroque has never really been our style.  But truthfully?  Prague is absolutely stunning.  The buildings are amazing – each time you turn, there is another interesting building beautifully painted and ornamented, and, it’s amazing how nice things are when no war is fought over your territory!  We walked around Old Town Square, and went in to one of the spectacular churches – only one word:  WOW!  

Prague manhole cover

Astronomical Clock

Old Town Square

Building facade

Our Lady before Tyn Church

Back to the flat about 5-ish, and in for the night.  Everything unpacked and we’re ready to go in the morning!  Our plan, as far as we have one, is to see some of the main sights tomorrow.  Then on Monday, we want to take the bus out of town a couple of hours to Karlovy Vary (if anyone has seen the movie Last Holiday that’s where it was filmed!) and back.  Then, finish sights on Tuesday!

So!  Here we are; our first night in Prague!

Much love,

m

xxx