Prague - Day 1

Prague has been a semi-plan since very soon after we got here. Em & I were going to go with a friend and her son last June, but that didn't work out. The mom and I tried to make a few different weekends work, but it never did. So, it was off the table. Then, we had so many other awesome vacations that Prague got put to the side. I had heard it was the most beautiful city in Europe, and was a favorite of a lot of people that I had talked to. But, I didn't really have anything I personally wanted to see there, so it wasn't a priority. This summer, we didn't have any big trips planned, so Prague was again in the works. Again, though, we had a few weekends where we were going to go, but it didn't work out. It finally came to fruition over Labor Day weekend.

We left early Saturday morning. It's about a 5 hour drive, so if we left at 5am, we could get there in time for a full day of sightseeing. It almost worked out. The drive was uneventful. We remembered to get our vignette (the sticker you need to buy to be able to drive in a good many European countries), which we hadn't realized we needed when we went to Austria, and failed to buy in Switzerland. We listened to Bohemian Rhapsody as soon as we crossed into the Czech Republic.

Good thing we did buy the vignette this time, though, for we had a little run in with the police. We missed the final turn to our hotel, and Prague has a good many one way streets, so we had to go around several blocks to get back to the street we needed. Unfortunately, we couldn't tell which lanes were which, so we ended up on the wrong side of the road. Then, we turned left into our street, which was apparently not a legal move. They pulled us over on the street of our hotel, in the midst of lots of construction. After we were yelled at in Czech, we then had to move a little further down the road, so we weren't sticking out into traffic. They didn't see where we pulled back off, even though it was just on the other side of a truck. So, they were mad that they had lost us. The did find us again, and gave us a ticket. Two, actually. One for being on the wrong side of the road, and one for turning illegally. We didn't have any Czech cash, so they offered to take Max to an ATM, so he could get some. It was either that, or we could go to the police station and settle it there. Max decided on the ATM route. They stopped to give tickets to two more people on the way to the ATM. He paid, and it was done. It was quite scary, though.

We got to the hotel at about 11, and Kristina, the owner, greeted us warmly. There wasn't any check in, I just told her my name. She had written me an email when we made the reservation, so she knew who I was. I have to tell you about the hotel. I had seen it on Trip Advisor. It was number 10 out of 666 hotels in Prague, and also number 10 on the TA top budget hotels in all of Europe. It was great. It's a small place, made up of apartments. Before she took us to our room, she took us to the breakfast room, and let us eat whatever we wanted from the little breakfast buffet. It was stuff like meats, cheese, and breads mostly. Nothing fancy. A good little breakfast, though. She sat down with us and showed us her recommendations for what to visit and how to get there, and then gave us the keys to the apartment. She also warned us that there are lots of pickpockets, so to be really careful on trams and such and in crowded places. She told us that there were safes in the rooms, so to not carry any more than necessary. She assured us that nobody would ask us for our papers, which was something that I never thought about, but must have been a real concern back when. We had a one bedroom on the 4th (5th in American terms) floor. It had a nice big couch for Em to sleep on, and a bedroom for Max & me. It was a big bed by European standards. We've had some pretty small beds in the past. We had a kitchenette and a nice little patio. No view, but we don't get hotel rooms for the view.

the Dancing Building

We headed out. Kristina had told us about Vysehrad, a place a bit out of t he way that most tourists don't go. She said it was her favorite place, though, and within an easy walk. So, we started there first. It was exactly the opposite direction of where we wanted to go, but it didn't seem too far on the map. We got about halfway there and gave up. It was really hot, and we were already tired from having gotten up at 4:30am. We didn't have any CZK (Czech Koruna), so we had to walk until we found an exchange or an ATM. We found an exchange after a while, and got some water, because we were all dying of thirst. We had planned on going to the castle and Petrin Hill the first day, since they were both on the opposite side of the river from Old Town, and since it was Saturday, the Jewish sights in Old Town would be closed anyway.  But, we wanted to take the hop-on, hop-off bus, and we had to buy the tickets in Old Town, so we headed there first. On the way, we saw the Dancing Building, which is one of the things I wanted to see. If you've ever gotten one of those "Unusual Buildings of the World" emails, you'll have seen this place.

We were almost there when we realized we wouldn't make it. We only had 5 minutes to get our tickets and get to the bus, and the next one didn't come for another 45 minutes. By now, it was after 2, and we didn't have time to wait for another bus. So, we gave up and went to the castle on foot. To get there, we needed to cross the Charles Bridge. It's a very famous bridge over the Vltava River. It was covered with people. People trying to sell stuff, people trying to buy stuff, people taking pictures, people wandering aimlessly, people looking at the 30 statues on the bridge, people begging. The beggars in Prague are the least obtrusive beggars ever. They all kneel down with their heads on the ground and their hands outstretched in front of them, like some tragic child's pose.

Oh. My. God. You know how castles are often built on hills? Yeah. This one was no exception. It was quite the trek up the hill, and it was really hot. I'm glad we went, though. The castle isn't just one castle. It's a complex of several things. St. Vitus Cathedral was gorgeous, with some absolutely wonderful windows. We also went in the Old Royal Palace, which was OK (not as good as a lot of other castles), and Golden Lane, where castle servants and craftspeople used to live. Franz Kafka spent some time there, too, at number 22. That was probably my favorite part, as many of the little houses were decorated as they would have been at various points in castle history. Up above the houses is a long gallery with armor and weapons. It also has a small crossbow range, where, for about 2 Euro, you can shoot a crossbow. Em's not as good with the crossbow as she is with the rifle, but she still did a pretty good job!She shot three bolts. One didn't make it on the paper, one was a bit high (but on the paper), and one was between the 40 point circle and the 60.

After the castle, we headed to Petrin Hill, a large park area in western Prague. Emma was about to die, so we bought 24 hour tickets for the transportation system from a kiosk. The guide book said that each 24 hour adult ticket included a child under 15, so we just bought the two. The tickets there are for a certain amount of time, and are good for all of the public transportation options - buses, trams, the metro, and the funicular up to Petrin Hill. I wasn't sure exact;y what stop to use for the funicular, so I guessed. We were only one stop off, so that was good. Just a short walk. Then, we had quite a line for the funicular. We got to the front and showed our tickets, and headed off. We were then yelled at in Czech that Emma needed a ticket, too. We tried explaining that she was only 11, but the lady was having none of it. I went to the little ticket machine, but I couldn't figure it out. Luckily, there was a booth where I could buy one. We had missed that train, though, so we had to wait another 10 minutes for the next one.

We finally got to the top of the hill, and went to see the observation tower, kind of a mini Eiffel Tower built for an exhibition in 1891. We were too tired to go to the top, though. So, we headed to the mirror maze, which sounded like fun. It wasn't. We paid to get in, and Em enjoyed the hall of wavy mirrors, but it was hot and smelly, so we didn't stay in there long. The mirror maze wasn't a maze at all, just a path lined with mirrors. We were quite disappointed. I wanted to see St. Michael's, a little church that was transported log by log from the Ukraine. Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near the other stuff, and no paths led directly to it. We had to go on a very circuitous route, and had a few false turns. Fortunately, it was all downhill. We did eventually find it.

We were all exhausted then, so we headed back to the hotel. Thankfully, it was a straight shot on the tram from the bottom of the hill to the stop near the hotel, and just a 5 minute walk from the tram to the hotel. We all took cool-down showers and sat in front of the fan in the bedroom. Em played on her DS, I checked my email, and Max promptly fell asleep. Kristina had told us that there was a special show at the Astronomical Clock in Old Town that night, so we decided to go see it. The show was every half an hour between 8 and 11, so along the way, we stopped in to see how the line looked at Hard Rock (if you have read my blog thus far, you know we try to hit all the Hard Rocks). We figured if the line was too long, maybe we could go to the clock show and then come back for dinner. There was no line at all, which is amazing for a Hard Rock, especially on a Saturday night. We had dinner. It was lovely. Entertainingly, our waitress was an American girl who had just moved to Prague a few months ago. After dinner, we headed to the show, which was just around the corner. We had just missed a show, so we waited the 15 minutes for the next one. I'm so glad we did. It was seriously cool. It was about the history of the clock tower since it had been built in 1410. It was mostly symbolic, though. They projected it onto the tower itself, projecting both the things that were actually there (since it was dark and we couldn't see the colors of the actual clock, they projected a picture of it on top of the clock itself). I can't even describe how neat it was. To show communism in Prague, a red star was projected on the tower. Then, the projection showed ropes pulling the star apart, and everybody cheered. It was cool. The crowd was mostly local, so it was really fun to be in that.

Then it was back to the hotel. We stopped in at Tesco by the hotel to grab some shampoo, since our room didn't have any, and then it was off to bed.

Emma says - The drive was not the longest, but it was still a pretty long drive. I actually fell asleep, which is unusual. I played a lot of Pokemon Soulsilver. The hotel room is the greatest hotel room we have ever been in, and Kristina was really, really, really nice. She let me have lots of food. I had a stomachache the rest of the day because I ate too much. It was really really hot, and my head started to hurt because of the heat. I think wearing a black shirt was not the best idea. The castle was really pretty, and the stone in the castle was nice and cool, so I sat in a corner. The crossbow took some convincing, but it was really fun. I'm pretty proud of myself with how well I did. The mirror maze was fun. I wanted to run into a mirror, but the sign said not to touch the mirrors, so I didn't. The little church on Petrin was cute. There was a really pretty sunflower there, and Mom took a picture of it for me. There were people doing ninja moves, and I wanted to stay and watch them, but we had to go. Hard Rock was so delicious! I had chicken strips. There was really really loud music, and I liked that. The clock show was really cool, and it wasn't hot when it happened, so that's a bonus!