Prague – Germany and Czech Republic, 2012

Prague – Day 1

Jul 082012

Berlin was so much more than I had expected, even though we only saw and touched a very small part of it. The people were incredibly kind and they made it very easy for us to visit. The city itself has an amazing history dating back hundreds of years, and it wears all of that history openly. I learned a lot while I was there, and I’m leaving yearning to learn more.

But today we head to Prague.

On the train to Prague.

The four hour trip from Berlin to Prague via train took us through Dresdin and then along the Elbe River through the small town of Pirna. This area is now on my list of places to visit in the future – the canyon that the Elbe has carved is stunning, and hosts loads of vacationers in kayaks and rafts, along with a parallel road that seemed to only host bicyclists.

Soon afterwards the train crossed into the Czech Republic and stopped briefly at the Decin train station. Neither Jason nor I speak German or Czech, but we felt we could fumble our way around the German language. The signage in Decin let us know that our experience in the Czech Republic was going to demand a lot more work from us.

We arrived in Prague, and after a rather nasty encounter with a local who tried to rip us off as soon as we exited the train, we found our way to the taxi stand and headed for our hotel. Our driver was great, and the hotel staff were excellent. Our immediate fears were assuaged and Prague became a friendly adventure.

We unpacked quickly and headed out in search of lunch. A small restaurant near our hotel offered up some authentic Czech food.

Goulash with Bohemian dumplings for Carl.

Meat and potatoes and something else for Jason. I win.

We walked over the Charles Bridge and circled through Old Town. Though it was packed with tourists, the city is stunning – it represents everything you think an old European city should look like. I’ve included a lot more pictures at the bottom of this post.

Entering the main Old Town square.

We had dinner at a Kampa, a restaurant on the river with a stunning view. The food was excellent – one of our top two meals so far. The view across the river during sunset was incredible. Prague has light like Venice – it seems warmer and softer than other cities and brings out amazing colors. The sunset we had was unique even for Prague: our waiter and the hostess both came over with their own cameras to capture it.

These giant clouds rolled in on the east horizon just to make the sunset that much more amazing.

Though their dessert menu looked great, we headed back over to Old Town for the best gelato in town at Zmrzlina Gelato, and then next door to Il trí ruzí (sorry, not spelled correctly, I don’t have two of the characters available) for some of their original beer and motorcycle racing on TV.

Another of their original brews.

Welcome to Prague!

More pictures:

: On the train to Prague.

: On the train to Prague.

: Staropramen Czech beer – delicious

: Goulash with Bohemian dumplings for Carl.

: Meat and potatoes and something else for Jason. I win.

: I couldn’t convince Jason that we should let small fish eat dead skin off our feet at a Thai massage place. Opportunity lost.

: Interesting art installation in a building courtyard.

: Entering the main Old Town square.

: Watching the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Tower on the hour.

: (Really, just a suggestion.)

: Carl on the Charles Bridge, striking the pose all the other tourists used at that spot.

: On the Charles Bridge.

: In Prague you can go up on a tethered balloon that holds two people. We didn’t.

: I brought a 50mm f1.8 lens for doing stuff like this.

: Incredible Prague light, and it’s still awhile before sunset.

: These giant clouds rolled in on the east horizon just to make the sunset that much more amazing.

: Pepper steak, onions, zuchini and potato at Kampa.

: Langostino and vegetables at Kampa.

: Dark beer made at the pub.

: Another of their original brews.

Prague – Day 2

July 09, Prague No Responses »

Jul 092012

Jason: “I love it when we don’t screw things up.”

This was our first full day in Prague, so we started it out with a walk though the city’s primary attraction: the Prague Castle. Jason’s quote happened right after we managed to take the tram from near our hotel to the top of the hill by the entrance to the castle. The castle was founded in the 9th century, and its most memorable part, St. Vitus Cathedral, began construction in 1344 and was finally consecrated in 1929. We have both now adopted St. Vitus as our patron Saint – according to my guide book, “Vitus is a patron of actors, entertainers and dancers, and is said to protect against lightning, dog bites and oversleeping.” Sounds like everything I need!

Exterior of St. Vitus Cathedral. BTW, he’s our new patron Saint.

While in the castle we also toured the Toy Museum. It has an interesting collection of old toys, and one of the world’s largest collections of Barbie dolls. Of course we weren’t interested in that part; we wanted to see Lego and Action Figures.

After touring the castle we walked down the hill back to the hotel. Along the way we sidetracked though Valdštejnská (aka Wallenstein) Gardens and came across an ad hoc choral concert being given in the Senate courtyard by a group of kids on tour. We sat and listened to a couple songs before they took off for the rest of their tour. They had beautiful voices, and we were lucky to have been able to hear them perform – that’s our second incredible free outdoor concert so far.

A random concert we caught in the courtyard of the Senate.

After lunch at the hotel we toured some more on foot, visiting the John Lennon Wall where graffiti artists liberally paint tributes to Lennon and others. In fact, we caught this tagger in the act:

Grafitti artist tagging the John Lennon wall.

Prior to this trip Jason’s friend (and evidently the most awesome real estate agent in Boulder) Daryl connected us with Tijana – a friend of his who has lived in Prague for the past 14 years. Tijana came by the hotel around 6pm and took us on a walking tour of the city. We had a great time – she told us about the architecture of the city, stories behind the buildings and people, and educated us about what it’s really like living in this city.

Part of my vacation algorithm is to go to the top of things, so when she took us up the funicular railway to the base of the observation tower I was thrilled. Not one for heights, Tijana wasn’t that interested in going up the tower and Jason was ambivalent – so I bought my ticket and went up without them. “The Top of Things” paid off once again with panoramic view of the city (the top picture of this post).

Petrin Observation Tower

She then took us to a wonderful small local restaurant that we never could have found ourselves, and we eventually ended up in a beer garden along the river drinking and chatting. Thanks Tijana!

Dinner stop.

Jason, our friend and host Tijana, and me.

More pictures:

: Interior of St. Vitus Cathedral

: Our favorite window in St. Vitus Cathedral. It glows even greater in real life.

: Exterior of St. Vitus Cathedral. BTW, he’s our new patron Saint.

: Walking down from the castle, we caught our reflection in someone’s office window. If I processed the picture differently you could see that he wasn’t very happy about this.

: A random concert we caught in the courtyard of the Senate.

: Goulash Menu: Goulash

: Love locks on a bridge.

: Grafitti artist tagging the John Lennon wall.

: Jason relates to graffiti. This is unusual.

: Me, and graffiti.

: The main pedestrian shopping area, as seen from Wenceslas Square.

: Petrin Observation Tower

: View of Prague Castle form Petrin Observation Tower.

: Charles Bridge with Old Town beyond it.

: The top of the funicular railway going up to Petrin Observation Tower. That’s right: “funicular.”

: Funicular train controls. He really only pushes the button that says the name of the other end of the line. It wouldn’t be that hard to drive this, yet we all wanted to do it.

: Dinner stop.

: Jason, our friend and host Tijana, and me.

: Panorama of Prague from the top of Petrin Observation Tower.

Prague – Day 3

July 10, Prague No Responses »

Jul 102012

The National Technical Museum

In a city that’s over 1,000 years old there are a lot of choices about how to explore its culture. Today we chose to focus on just the last 100 years or so and headed up to the National Technical Museum. The museum is primarily about transportation, with a few smaller rooms exploring other areas like photography. I wasn’t aware of the Czech’s long history building motorcycles and began to notice Czech-made Škoda cars in the streets of Prague afterwards.

Interior of the National Technical Museum.

Awesome

We walked back through Prague’s largest park: Letenské sady. The small plaza in the middle of the park used to have a statue of Stalin in it – it has now become a skate park with the requisite graffiti. I was able to create an homage to the “Awesome” picture of Jason we took last year in Paris with this “Grrr” shot.

GRR! Graffiti on our walk back from the museum.

On our way to dinner that evening we went over to see the “Dancing House”, a building designed by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić. I’m always entertained by Gehry’s architecture, and this was another win.

The building affectionately known as “Dancing House.”

Jason made me do this, but now I’m pretty happy about it:

I think I nailed it.

Budvar?!? Jason had been preaching to me about how good Budweiser beer is. He meant, of course, the original Czech version of it not the stuff we make back home. Either he was right, or the Dancing House had distorted my brain (refer back to picture above). Full bodied and flavorful – who knew you could do that to a Bud?

Budvar! Authentic Czech Budweiser beer. It’s really good and tastes nothing like Bud back home.

Our final stop for the day was “Alcron,” one of only two Michelin star rated eateries in the Czech Republic. Alcron holds a number of surprises: it’s in the lobby of a Radisson Hotel; it has only seven tables; there are only four people working there; it’s affordable. Not surprising is the food and service are excellent. The menu is organized as a tasting menu with cold and hot selections and deserts and cheeses. You are encouraged to choose just a few dishes at a time and order more as you go; the final price simply is calculated by the number of courses you order. We did four courses plus dessert along with some very nice wines.

Painted dessert at Alcron. The chef prepares this on your table.

Tomorrow we head to Munich. Thanks Prague!

More pictures from the day:

: The National Technical Museum

: Interior of the National Technical Museum.

: An old two rider bike. I’m tempted to build one of these – it looks fun.

: The Czechs used to build a lot of great motorcycles, but this one was a bit off the mark.

: Coal in a steam engine.

: Posing as per the instructions, bottom right.

: Posing as per the instructions, bottom right.

: The Jawa 700. It almost looks like a die cast toy car.

: GRR! Graffiti on our walk back from the museum.

: This is a power line over a popular skateboarding area in the park.

: A view of the river with three of the main bridges. And me.

: The building affectionately known as “Dancing House.”

: I think I nailed it.

: Budvar! Authentic Czech Budweiser beer. It’s really good and tastes nothing like Bud back home.

: Painted dessert at Alcron. The chef prepares this on your table.

Munich – Day 1

July 11, Munich, Prague No Responses »

Jul 112012

This seemed like a really short day. We spent a lot of it in transit, flying from Prague to Munich, getting settled into the hotel and taking a walk to get situated in a new city. Oh, and there was this beer garden…

Prague Airport

The flight from Prague to Munich is a little over an hour, but adding in transit time to and from the airport makes it take half a day.

While we were waiting at the gate in Prague the display over the gate changed to read “Go to Gate 12.” We were at Gate 12, so I was a bit confused. I asked the agent if we were in the right place and she said, “Ya. Go to here.” I felt much better.

After arriving in Munich we took a cab to the hotel and went for a walk to see some of the city before our rooms were ready. Our hotel is near the train station and Karlsplatz, which is the plaza at one end of a long shopping mall that ends at Marienplatz, the main city center. We elbowed our way through the throngs of tourists and, running out of energy, stopped for lunch at one of the outdoor cafes.

Marienplatz is one of the main market squares and packed with tourists.

We should know better than to eat in the middle of tourist madness like this.

Right now I’m thinking something like, “I’m pretty sure this was Jason’s idea.”

Jason hides in his beer.

After lunch we explored more of the city on foot and then convened back at the hotel to check in, unpack, and plan our next few days.

The first item of business was to visit an authentic biergarten, and the one with the highest recommendation from a friend was only a few blocks away. Augustiner-Keller Beirgarten lived up to our expectations. The outdoor tables can seat about 5,000 people, half in a full service area and half in self-service, all underneath a hundred chestnut trees.

Augustiner-Keller Biergarten seats 5,000, but was only about half full.

We opted for full service, ordered a mixed plate of wurst, a couple beers and a pretzel. Any one of those items was enough for a few people, but we carried on as if we knew what we were doing.