In large part, we lucked out with the weather for our first day in Prague, but day two wasn’t so lucky. The entire day was gloomy and overcast with periodic rain showers. But interestingly, the weather seemed fitting in many ways for our plans for the day. Prague has a history rich in both luxury and turmoil. Many of the places we saw and stories we heard we complimented by the chilly winds and dreary settings.
Prague Castle
Our first adventure for the day was a tour of Prague Castle. Prague Castle sits on a hill on the West side of the Vltava River that divides present day Prague and is often cited as the biggest ancient castle in the world. The castle complex includes everything from Gothic cathedrals to baroque halls and buildings from many periods dating back to its origin in the 9th century. Since we enjoyed our walking tour the day prior so much, we actually booked a Prague Castle Tour with the same tour guide that began at 10:00 AM. Little to our knowledge, we chose the one Saturday that all of the attractions within the castle complex were open for free (we never got a good explanation why this was, though). Our tour started just outside of Old Town and continued with short bus ride up the hill to the castle entrance. After waiting in line for security checks, we somewhat unknowingly entered the castle walls. Prague Castle is interesting in that it, in large part, does not look like a castle at all. Instead, its baroque-styled walls remind many people of the Palace of Versailles rather than a medieval castle. In fact, as we learned, several movies have been filmed within the castle complex that depict other parts of more Western Europe.
The most impressive building within Prague Castle is certainly St. Vitus’s Cathedral which was completed in a Gothic style over hundreds of years. It is beautiful inside and out and definitely worth a visit. For us, because of the free entrance day, the line was very long, and this unfortunately cut in to a lot of our guided tour time. But the architecture inside the cathedral is so impressive that it rivals some of the most breathtaking churches that I’ve visited.
We continued through the castle and visited the Old Royal Palace and St. George’s Basilica. We had to skip the Golden Lane, a picturesque group of cottages originally built for the castle’s guards, due to time restraints and very long lines. As we finished our guided tour of the castle, the rain began and encouraged us to descend the hill back down through the Little Quarter before we crossed Charles Bridge back to Old Town.
Our morning of touring Prague Castle had us feeling hungry and ready to take a seat. And sitting down for a bite to eat is always a great way to escape the rain. We settled on a pizza and schnitzel restaurant right off the main drag in Old Town. Prague’s Old Town is littered with places to eat, but so many of them are packed with tourists and offer little in the way of authentic food. This was one of those, but we still enjoyed our meal here. Truthfully, we probably would have enjoyed any food placed in front of us because we were so hungry.
After lunch we looked around the Havelsky Market. This market dates back to the 1200s and offers mainly fresh fruits and vegetables as well as tourist items. The fruit was so beautiful and looked quite tasty, but the prices were out of this world! So, we passed.
As part of our continued effort to avoid the rain, we moved indoors to visit some of the old churches located in Old Town Square. First was the Church of St. Nicholas in Old Town Square, which we were excited to visit because of my Grandmother’s connection to and love for St. Nicholas. In the center of the church hung a beautiful chandelier that caught our eye from the moment we entered. We wished we would have had time to come back for an organ concert, which is a popular way to spend an evening in many of Prague’s old churches. We then visited the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the large church with many spires that dominates the picturesque backdrop of Old Town Square. After struggling to find the true entrance to the church, we were rather disappointed by the interior of such a striking building.
Prague Pub and Dinner Tour
A short nap was a necessity prior to our final outing in Prague, a small group Local Pubs Walking Tour with Traditional Czech Dinner. We chose to book this tour rather last minute because we knew that we wanted to explore some Czech pubs at night but didn’t know where to start. Some pubs in Prague can get more rowdy than we were hoping to find, and we also learned that Prague is actually a quite popular destination for bachelor and bachelorette parties, which we saw tons of as we walking the evening streets. But in an interesting twist, themed and matching dress is very popular, so these groups can be spotted easily from afar.
We met our small group and tour guide April in a convenient location steps away from the Charles Bridge in Old Town. The 3 hour tour took us to three different pubs where we we given a pint of beer and an explanation of the beer itself. We enjoyed the company of our group which included individuals from England, Australia, Germany, and the United States. I cannot speak highly enough of April who was such a delight and did a great job getting the whole group to interact and enjoy themselves. The dinner that was included was served at the second pub and was quite delicious. We could select one of several choices of traditional Czech specialties, all of which looked and sounded delicious. At our final stop on the tour, April introduced us to a new spirit called Becherovka which I loved so much that I have purchased it back at home in the States and serve it to friends and family. The Pub Tour also gave us the chance to walk the streets of Prague at night, when many of the tourists have left Old Town and the square and streets are more empty and enjoyable. We loved this tour and would highly recommend it!
We stayed out late after our Pub Tour and enjoyed another beer or two prior to returning to the AirBNB. The following morning we slept a little later than usual before we were picked up by our arranged transport to head to the airport. We were catching a flight around noon from Prague to our next destination on this two-week trip, Dubrovnik, Croatia!