On Friday I dropped the dogs off at a kennel, our friends met at our house, and we hit the road. The drive was supposed to take about 4 1/2 hours, but we stopped for lunch, gas, and we hit traffic when we got into Prague, so it ended up taking closer to 5 1/2 hours. Once we got to our hotel, we unpacked, got settled, and headed out to the beer festival.
We started off ordering their "sampler" that they called the Meter of Beer. As you can see from the picture above, it was a wooden tray a meter long with every type of beer they offered. It was definitely an eye opener for me...my experience with Czech beers have been limited to the handful they export, all of which have been Pilsner style beers. They had some really good ones in this sampler. And no, for those that are curious, I did NOT drink all of these myself, they were passed around. :) The fest was located in a tent right behind our hotel, so it was easy to get to, and back to our room after. They had good Czech food, live music, and we all had a good time.
The next morning we met in the lobby to wait for our tour guide. We had signed up for an all day tour that included walking around the city, lunch, & a boat tour on the river. The tour guide was great...she was born in Slovakia, but has been living in Prague for 3 years now. We started off in what's called the "lesser city". We walked all over Prague, seeing the castle, the "old town", the "new town", the Jewish Ghetto, and the St. Charles Bridge. The St. Charles Bridge, shown below, was built in 1357 after a flood damaged the previous bridge.
On the other side of the bridge we entered the Jewish Ghetto. It was a Saturday, and thus their Sabbath, so nothing was open, but we still got to see the sites. One place that stood out to me (due to it's age) was the oldest Synagogue still in use today. It's name translates to "The Old New Synagogue" and it was completed in 1270.
Some other notable things we saw was a bridge which had a bunch of locks attached to it. The story goes that it's good luck for a couple to attach a lock to the bridge, then toss the key into the stream underneath it. We saw a wall called "The Lennon Wall". After John Lennon was killed, people in Prague dedicated this wall to him, and would spray paint quotes from his songs, or Beatles songs, on it. At the time the city was under Communist control, and the words of "freedom" that the Beatles & Lennon sang about ran counter to their message, so every day they'd paint over the wall. By the next morning, though, people had spray painted it all over again. Now it's mostly just used for people to sign their names and spray paint things on it. In the city square that the tour ended in there was a huge Astronomical Clock. It showed when the days would be longer or shorter, the time, and much more, but unless you had a legend that explained what was what, you'd never figure it out. Every hour it would open doors above it and show rotating figures, then a guy at the top of the clock plays a trumpet. When you click on the link at the bottom, or any of the pictures in this post, you'll be taken to all the pictures, which includes a video of the clock at the hour mark. I'm sure most, if not all, of you know how the European police cars & ambulances sound like...it's not the same sound the ones in the US make. While we were in Prague, though, some Police cars flew by us and they made the same sound as the US ones! It immediately stood out...it's amazing how fast you get used to the European sirens, to the point where the US sirens sound different & unusual.
The boat tour was interesting, but the guy giving the tour was up front, and we were in the back. There was a family back there from Madrid, so they had a tour guide back there giving the guide in Spanish. After not having used Spanish since High School, I was surprised how much I remembered. While I didn't catch everything she said, I understood a lot more then I thought I would.
Once the tour was over, we were beat. We'd been walking all day so we decided to find a little cafe to sit and have some drinks at. Right next to the cafe was a huge chair...I thought I'd be able to sit in it and have my feet touch the ground, but this thing was just too big.
Everyone was pretty worn out that evening, so we spent 45 minutes in the Casino back at the hotel, then called it a night.
The next day some of our friends took off. They had only reserved Friday & Saturday night so they could get some things done at home. That meant it was Shanna, myself, and our two friends (who you might recognize from the Ulm & Eagle's Nest trip), Jenny & Chris. They are both our age, and moved here from Milwaukee, WI. Shanna & I have gotten to be really good friends with them over the past few months, and they've become our travel buddies. Sunday morning we took the metro down town and leisurely walked around. The day prior we'd been constantly on the move because we were on a tour, but now we could go back to the places we wanted to explore more and take our time. Mostly that meant checking out the shopping there. That evening we headed to U Fleku. It's the oldest brew pub in the world that's still open. It first opened it's doors in 1499, 7 years after Columbus discovered America. Their menu wasn't huge, but the food & beer were great and they really played up the ambiance. There was a guy with an accordion walking around singing, the staff was friendly, and it had an "old" feel to it. It's amazing to think that people have been coming to this place for over 500 years.
After we finished dinner we just walked around, stopping at various taverns along the way. The last stop of the night was this hole in the wall tavern where we ended up talking with a group of local Czech's who seemed to be about our age. It was a lot of fun...so far we've been able to do that at almost every major city we've been too. The locals are always curious to talk with Americans, and we love talking with them. Our tour guide had mentioned that the current Czech president is anti-EU, and wants the Czech Republic out, but she didn't go further into it. So we decided to ask our new Czech friends, and boy did we get an earful. Essentially their feeling is that on the outside, the EU promotes European Unity, as if they are all the same, but the reality is the German's look after German interests, French look after French Interests, and since countries like them have the most money, the most power, and thus the most clout, the Czech people feel like they are paying all this money to be part of the EU and aren't getting anything in return. Once the night was over we cabbed back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next day we headed home. First, though, we wanted to stop at a huge Asian Bazaar that was on the Czech side, near the German border. You can get all sorts of things for dirt cheap there. Shanna got a few things, as did Jenny & Chris, and after we were finally ready to head home.
It was a fun weekend. Prague is an amazing city, and one we'll have to visit again since there's no way you can explore everything in just 2 days. The people were nice (and all spoke English), the food was great, the beer was good, and the history of the city is an amazing one. If you've never visited Prague, you should definitely put it on your list.
To see our pictures from the trip, click here or any picture above.
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