Prague & Budapest- Day 1-Prague-From Astronomical Clock to Aephids and Bridges to Beer

No travel issue to report and we made it to Prague!  Mitch met us at Brennan’s office where we left our cars and took a cab to Dulles. Got bumped to TSA pre-check so it was a great start to the trip!  It was a double-decker behemoth, but boarding was still pretty quick since they had two separate ramps. Flight didn’t feel any different for being on the upper level! Nothing too eventful on our flight; though it was hard to sleep since we flew out late afternoon and then landed at CDG at midnight our body time. We only had a quick layover in Paris so after working through the chaos of the security line, we took a quick jaunt through the long airport and arrived at our gate as our flight was boarding. Unfortunately we didn’t get a passport stamp in Prague since Paris was our first EU destination. Grabbed a cab and we were off to our first Hilton of the trip!

After checking in, a quick rest and breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way.  We first walked over to the Old Town district and saw the Municipal House and the Powder Gate, which is right next door. The Municipal House is actually more recent than most sites in Prague (finished in 1911), but is a cool Art Noveau building where not only does the Prague Symphony play, but the document granting Czech independence was signed in 1918.

 The Powder Gate is one of the original gates in the city’s walls. It has been around since 1475 and became a gunpowder storehouse after the New Town was incorporated into the City of Prague and there was no longer a need for walls.

Continuing through Old Town, we went down and timed our walk perfectly to see the Astronomical Clock strike the hour. With rotating automatons and carvings, it was pretty cool and a must-do in Prague.

Fighting through the crowds after the quick show, we went to a beautiful church on one end of the square called Tuynsky Chram.  It’s a bit funny how it’s positioned—it’s at the end of the square, but there are storefronts in front of it, so you can only see the upper half. It’s definitely one set of the spires you can see from around the city, but it’s a shame you don’t get more of a sense of it at once when you’re that close.

Dodging Segway tours and offers to join them, we made our way over to the Jewish Quarter and saw the Old-New synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. The Old-New synagogue’s really memorable name comes from the fact that it was originally the new synagogue to differentiate from an older one that no longer exists (built in 1270). Interestingly enough, it’s the oldest synagogue in Europe and it has been continuously used for more than 700 years (except for the Nazi Occupation from 1941-1945). The cemetery actually dates from 1439 and because this was the only place Jews were allowed to bury their dead, the graves are actually 12 deep in many places with each new tombstone placed in front of the last.

The walk overall was charming; the streets are cobble-stoned and fairly narrow outside of the main square and if you got off the beaten path a bit, it was really quiet and almost residential. It didn’t hurt that we had a gorgeous day either; mid to high 70s and sunny the whole day. We continued our walk down along the Vltava River on the Old Town side, down through the parks and checking out all the boats on the water until we reached the Charles Bridge. This is one of the best known sites in Prague and is a really old bridge with a gate that matches the Powder Gate (this one is called the Old Town Bridge Tower) and 30 sculptures along the bridge itself.

On one side of the tower you can see coats of arms, etc while the other is more damaged; apparently from a battle with Sweden in the 1600s. It is also now a place to sell art, jewelry, souvenirs etc, so between the picture taking and the shopping, it can get a bit crowded.  It has been around for 650 years and has actually been a pedestrian promenade for most of its history.

Since we were starting to break a sweat from the strong sun on the bridge, we  took stairs to the left as we were approaching the end of the bridge and walked through the quieter Kampa section on the opposite bank.  We found a quiet place along the river to stop and grab a beer and enjoy the scenery. Very relaxing minus the aephids who were very attracted to Mitch and Brennan!  With the long travel day and the calming beer, we started to fade fast, so we hiked back to the hotel and took a quick nap.

Dinner was really great and a true Czech welcome. Pivovarsky Klub was a few minute walk from our hotel so it was nice and easy as well as being authentic. It’s actually partially a beer boutique so the beer options were a bit overwhelming. We were trying to go with types we hadn’t had before and had heard about one called Kozel, but when I went to order it the waitress gave a bit of a look and suggested we try a different one—turns out is the easiest to find and most unexciting one! Thankfully she steered us in better directions and we tried an unfiltered and a saison, but the favorite was from Benedict and was an imperial (bievnosky).  The food was great too and we decided Czech food is really just regional comfort food so we were really on board after such a long day—we tried pivno syr (beer cheese with mustard and onions, beef with candlesauce, berries and bread dumplings, and schnitzel with mashed potatoes.  Full and tired, we went back to the hotel and Brennan watched the Champions League final. Definitely an awesome way to begin our adventure in Prague!