We never, ever would have thought to go to Prague until my travel agent mentioned it. Since then, we have been determined to get there, and it was well worth it! I went to exchange our money and used £300. I got back 4,800 in czech crowns! The bills were 500, 200, and 100. Lower than that, they use coins. I thought the money looked like play money (but I have to admit that I still think that about British notes) :)
You never know what kind of weather you are going to get in the spring, but we could not have ordered up ourselves any more perfect weather! It was in the upper 60's-low 70's. We didn't even need to wear jackets during the day. When we got there on Friday, we had a few hours, so I just went out walking. Mark kept wanting to stop and look at the map, but for some reason, I didn't feel the need and just wanted to walk. Of all places....in one that's not an English speaking country and had road signs that look like this!
We went on a beer walk Friday night since the Czechs are known for their beer. We had a group of 14 and they are normally like 6 people. There was a group there from Sweden and a couple from Kentucky. The lady lived in Lexington and she and Mark talked about the city and what's the same and what has changed. They were so nice and it was neat to meet them. We went to 3 different pubs and tried a different beer at each one. At the 3rd pub, we had a meal. I had a beef fillet that had a cranberry sauce on top so it was kind of sweet and Mark had the goulash! They were both amazing! I didn't know if the food would be good but I was not disappointed at all! We walked back with Edie and Phil and as we crossed Charles Bridge, there was a guy playing the violin. Edie said she would take our picture dancing. It is one of my favorite ones from the trip! 
On Saturday, we did a grand city tour that took us around the city, then into Prague Castle for 90 minutes, then a cruise down the Vltana River and finished with a walk into Olde Town Square. Our guide did the tour in English and French. Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world, so 90 minutes was nowhere near enough time. St Vitus's Cathedral was amazing! I would love to go back and take a full tour which takes you to the burial vault of St Wenceslas. The stained glass windows were beautiful, but the church was so crowded, shoulder to shoulder, that it was hard to get good pictures that do it justice. The river cruise was nice and relaxing. We walked into Olde Town Square and the Easter Market was set up. We looked around there for a while. I knew I was going to get some hand-painted Easter eggs and Mark fell in love with the paintings of the city. So we looked for those (along with our usual shot glass) until time to go see the Astronomical Clock. This is a must see in Prague! Each hour puppets perform and trumpeteers play. It's cute :) Charles Bridge is the most iconic sight of the city. There are statues along both sides all the way down the bridge. It is just spectacular and when you think about how long they've been there, it's mind boggling. Of course it is always filled to the brim with people and it's kind of hard to walk through. There are street perfomers, artists (with their pictures for sell and some caricature artists drawing people there on the bridge), and beggars the whole length of the bridge. My favorite was the marionette playing the guitar. (The video is on my facebook page). Marionettes are big in Prague and they have all sorts in the sourvenir shops. There are marionette shows, but we didn't have time to take in one of those :) 
It was daylight savings time while we were there and we sprung forward on Saturday night. Mark decided he was going to set his phone up an hour manually because he was afraid it wouldn't do it automatically and we had tour the next morning. Well, it did pick it up so WE sprung forward 2 hours!! It turned out to be a good thing though because since we had some extra time, we walked to the bridge and there was almost no one there.  |
| My favorite statue on Charles Bridge |
Wenceslas Square has shopping and eating (and had some of the Easter market set up). There was a KFC there :) We get a kick out of seeing all the American fast food places everywhere. St Wenceslas is the same man that the Christmas Carol, Good King Wenceslas. is about. He was killed by his brother over political reasons and that brought him sainthood in Bohemia. There is a large statue of him in the square in front of the National Museum. There were some demonstrators there, but their signs were in Czech. There was also a parade of demonstrators on Saturday walking through the Square. There were priests in it and all the people were carrying crosses.
On Sunday we went to Karlstejn Castle. It was about an hour outside the city. It was nice to see some of the country side. This guide did the tour in English, Russian, and German! The bus pulled up beside an out of the way restaurant and we had to hike the rest of the way. We didn't know that!! :) It wasn't far and not too bad uphill. It was neat to see the castle peek through the trees as we approached. King Charles IV lived here. You could tell that it is still a very protected castle. We weren't allowed to take pictures 
inside the castle (boo) and the guide unlocked each door as we went in and locked it behind her. I did mange to get a rogue picture in the first room until Mark asked if we were allowed to take pictures and she said no. I told Mark he shouldn't have asked, but he felt like we wouldn't fare well in a Czech jail lol. The Czech crown jewels are not on display to the public, but the replicas are in this castle. So now we have seen the English, Scottish, and Czech crown jewels. Hopefully we will get to see more while we are here. We got this post card to show the castle (it's too big and on too steep of a hill to get a full picture). The wooden room in the bottom left corner is in the throne room and part of the wood dates back to the 14th century. You can tell what part is original because it's a lighter color wood. The 2nd one has a picture of the Czech crown in the crown jewel room. Our guide only took us to the castle then put us in tour groups that had leaders speaking our language. We were supposed to meet him back at the restaurant when we finished. Mark and I got back while he was eating and we sat and talked to him for a little while. He is very athletic and talked about hiking, running, and skiing. He had a friend that went to Canada and America to hike mountains. There was an avalanche and he died. How sad! He said that a lot of Germans come to ski on the Chech mountains and there are casualties sometimes because the weather can change so quickly and you lose sight of your path. That's what happened to his friend. Then we discussed the difference in North American and European ice hockey. He was a very interesting guy. It was neat to just sit and talk to a local and hear how he lives his life. We told him that most Americans don't know a 2nd language and he speaks four! He made a good point though. Americans don't need another language because we all speak English and most other countries have a lot of English speakers. In Europe, international travel is so easy and close that it's more necessary to speak more than one language.
At the Easter Market, we shopped like crazy and we ate well. We had their version of a "cinnamon roll" both days. It's just dough wrapped around a tube, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and cooked over a flame. They were delicious! We had a lot of fun looking at each of the stalls, most of which had Easter eggs. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide which ones I wanted because there were so many to choose from! Here is a typical stall of eggs and there were dozens of them. I got some from this lady and some from the little old lady that personalized some. There were some red Prague ones that I saw the day before and couldn't find again. We also spent an equal amount of time going to the different stalls looking at all the different paintings for Mark. We have never really looked at those before in other places we have visited, but he really liked these from Prague and we got several. The original plan was to have them framed when we got home, but now he wants to wait and see what he can find in Italy first lol. I was pleased with the ones he chose though. They are a great representation of the city and what we loved about it. 
Mark and I both absolutely fell in love with a city that we never even planned on seeing when we first moved here. I would love the chance to go back and see it again. As with anywhere, there are things we just didn't have time to get to which leaves the door open for a return visit.
So, until next time....na zdravin (to your health...basically "cheers" in Czech) and Cheers Y'all!
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