Praha

We took a night train from Krakow to Prague, which was OK.  We were in a room on the train with four beds, sharing with an Australian couple.  It’s kinda crazy to say, but we think the Thai trains might be the best!   In the Thai trains, the beds were bigger, a man came and made your bunk for you, and you got your own little area rather than just sharing a room.  Nothing against the European trains, but when you look at the price difference, the Thai trains really do give you great value (but don’t get us started on Indian trains!)

We had three days in Prague and really enjoyed our time here.  We think it is likely the most beautiful city we have been to on our trip in Europe (except for Stapleford of course).  Neither of us expected anything from Prague (Praha in Czech, which we both thinks sounds better than Prague), and we were very happy and surprised with how wonderful this place was.  It is located on a river, with nice paths to walk along, and the buildings seem to have been built during different time periods, so you get to see lots of different styles that all meld well together.  There is a large castle on the hill overlooking the city that has beautiful views. It is the largest castle in all of Europe.  We filled our days wandering the city and trying not to get too lost as the old winding streets were confusing, as we tend to do, as well as partaking in a Prague walking tour. In most of the big cities there are companies that put on free walking tours. The catch is you are expected to tip them at the end as to what you thought the tour was worth.  We think this is a better system rather than being out $50 euros and not knowing if the tour will be any good.  Prague also had great tour ideas as one company has classic cars that would drive people around the city to complete the tour rather than walking. City tours really show you the details of a city, as well as teaching you interesting little facts you wouldn’t find in a guidebook.  One of the creepy things we learned on this tour was why all the Jewish sites are so well preserved in Prague, compared to other cities that had the synagogues and Jewish areas all bombed and destroyed during the war.  Well, Hitler, in his master plan, was preserving Prague, so that once the Jews were exterminated, “the master race” would visit Prague, essentially turning the city into a living museum, and we would learn about this race that no longer exists….CRAZY!!

The highlight of our time in Prague was indulging in the local culture.  Yes, we decided you can call beer a culture when the citizens drink more than a few liters of beer a day!  We lucked out and were in Prague for the Czech Beer Festival, which had more than 70 different types of beer on tap.  It was set on an exhibition grounds, with a few separate tents with entertainment, local food and beer.  We had a really great time here—it was packed full of tourists and locals alike, and you really got a feel for Czech bar culture.  We each tried a number of different beers, and although things were all written in Czech (so we couldn’t ask for the same beer again if we wanted to!!) and all the beers we tried were amazing.  This is skipping ahead a bit, but the reason we would prefer Czech beers to German is that the Czechs really do multiple types of beer well, while the only beer we really enjoyed drinking in Munich was the wheat beers.  If you ever get the opportunity to sample Czech beers, we would highly recommend it! 

Our second night out in Prague involved adding information to our beer indulgences—we went on a beer tour!  Our tour guide was Czech and had great insights into Czech beer making and beer culture (as well as great hockey knowledge of the Czech players). It was a fun night as the semi-finals of the World Hockey Championship that featured Czech Rep. vs Slovakia. A giant video screen was setup in the middle of the main square of the city for everyone to watch the game and wear their old Robert Reichel jerseys. The Czech’s did not win the game, but there was also no riot!  The other event on that night was the finals of the Champions League Football tournament (no idea what this is but people were very into watching it on TV!).  Lots of good sporting events and the rest of the people on the tour were German and very excited about the game as Europeans love their soccer.  One thing we learned—Budweiser is a region in Czech.  We all know of Anheiser-Busch and the Budweiser beer we drink at home, well there was another company, from the town Budweiser, which also made a beer.  There are tons of lawsuits about this, and apparently it was stated that Budweiser will be a protected title in Europe—like you can’t call sparkling wine “Champagne” unless it’s from the Champagne region, so they market it as “Bud” in Europe.  Neat, huh!!  Bet the real Budweiser tastes better than Bud, but that’s another story all together!  We went into some really neat local Czech pubs, they had bands playing traditional music with horns and accordions and people loved it.  Lots of great stereotypes experienced for us too.  One of these clubs was particularly interesting—it was called “Propaganda” and was full of Communist articles.  During communism, citizens were forced to have pictures of Stalin and Lenin in their homes.  Well after this fell, everyone wanted the pictures gone.  Some smart people picked it all up, and now one man has created a bar full of authentic communist articles.  A bit creepy, but neat to see.

One of the many picturesque squares in this town.  This particular tower is known as the "Powder tower" because when Praha was a walled city, this entrance contained all the gun powder.

Gardens of the Praha Senate.  We randomly wandered into this garden area and it was beautiful--lots of lush greenery complimented with ponds and fountains over a few kilometers.

This is a square within the walled area of the castle.  The castle was monstrous (see next pics) and was very beautiful within its walls.

View of Praha from up on the castle.  In this pic you can see a bridge crossing the river.  This is the Charles Bridge, famous for being the initial crossing point between Eastern and Western Europe.

Pic of us from up on the castle, overlooking the city.

Long pedestrian street leading to the local museum.  Lined with beautiful buildings--we told you this place was pretty!

Yet another square in Praha, bustling with tourists.  This one is particularly busy due to an ancient marvel of essentially a glorified coo-coo clock!  Just to the left of the picture you can make it out, but this clock also tells the date and season as well as the time.  Kinda underwhelming compared with the technology we have today, but a pretty big deal in the olden days!

View of the castle from done in the center of Praha.

Hockey lives here!

Bar maid line at the Czech beer fest.  All the servers wear a traditional Czech outfit that has a particular effect of emphasizing all the good parts of your figure!

Picture of one of the Czech beer halls.  Notice the server in her traditional outfit, but more importantly--she just delivered three liters of beer to the table!!  You will commonly see them walking with six or seven liter jugs around to different tables.  Also note the pics at the back of the hall--the Kingston Memorial Center has a pic of the Queen in this position, but in the Czech Republic, you are free to honour other beautiful things!

Ang enjoying a delicious Czech beer.  Looks like a manly stout, eh???  Well  its actually like the most wonderful strawberry juice you have ever had....now if only beer came in this many flavours in Canada!!

Picture of one of many squares in Praha, but this time during the Czech/Slovakia hockey game.  FULL of people, game on the big screen, and no cars were burned at the end of this evening!

Picture from Propaganda bar.  This is a map of all the big NATO spots, as well as all the nuclear weapons in the world.