We travelled using the metro or walking - everything is within walking distance we established pretty quickly. However, metro tickets are sooooooo cheap that it was silly not to at the end of the day when your arms are laden with bags of gingerbread and pottery just to save the walk!
We started our trip with a visit to Wenceslas Square which hosts a good array of shops and eateries and can be noted by the large statue of King Wenceslas on his horse in the middle of the square, and the beautiful National Museum which holds pride of place at the top of the Square. Wenceslas Square was a good place to shop and has to be passed through but my favourite place was the Old Town Square. Here was where we spent the majority of our time. The Old Town Square houses the famous Astronomical Clock, which is supposedly the oldest astronomical clock in the world. Each hour, on the hour as the chimes strike, the clock performs this movement where doors open to allow the audience to view statues of the apostles appearing in the doorways as the skeleton of death chimes the bells before upturning his hour glass and the hour starts counting down all over again. A huge audience gathers for this but its not as incredible as the crowd suggests. Don't get me wrong, we stayed to watch it about four times!!
Here, in the Old Town Square we went up the clock tower to be welcomed by the most incredible view of Prague and some pretty phenomenal history about World War I. We also ate in a lot of places here, I especially enjoyed having a cocktail at the U Prince Terrace Sky Restaurant which sits on top of the U Prince Hotel and boasts an equally fantastic view of Prague with patio heaters and blankets!!
The street food in the Old Town Square was something that I was very much drawn to however, don't be fooled as the prices seem cheap but they do not make it very clear that this is based on weight when it comes to the 'Prague ham' and a cabbage, potato and bacon dish and you have no control over the portion you get. Chimney cakes on the other hand are a completely different story - these cone shaped doughnuts? are cooked on rotating poles over coals and coated in cinnamon and sugar. We had one everyday of our trip ensuring we tried all varieties, nutella filled, plain, filled with strawberries and cream. They are an absolute must!
Charles Bridge is another Prague sight to see and we travelled over it in both directions, Emma loves art and on the other side of the bridge there are a lot of galleries and on the bridge itself a lot of people try to sell art (this is all mass produced we think, so if you like it, just try to snoop out the lowest price!)
The most educational thing that we did during our visit was to see the Jewish Quarters and the synagogue. Here, inside the synagogue written on the walls are the names of all of the people who lost their lives during the holocaust. It is such a powerful thing to have seen and Emma and I were very moved by the beautiful building and the Jewish Cemetery which shows the level of overcrowding these people had to endure during these times.
We saw the Prague Castle which has a reasonable walk up to but well worth it for the stark contrast of building styles, parts of the castle are extremely gothic with other, newer parts much more in keeping to the remainder of Prague buildings. We popped briefly to the John Lennon wall which we had read sooooo much about but it wasn't quite as impressive as we had imagined. Since the times of it being covered with incredible Lennon homages and Beatle/Peace references a lot of people have been to visit and I can only guess have just covered up all of its previous beauty with just plain ol' graffiti which was a bit of a let down.
We ate and drank in a lot of places, Prague boasts a fantastic array of eateries and we enjoyed all that it had to offer including traditional schnitzel and goulash, beer and chimney cakes as well as a fantastic Italian meal we had one evening!
We had the greatest time, full of jumpers, food, wine and honey! Prague is a beautiful city with lovely people, cute shops and intense history - I can't wait to plan our next adventure!
Lil x
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