Included in our room rate at the Andels was a great, Euro-style breakfast buffet. This being the first buffet day, both of us overate; unable to resist the meats, cheeses, muesli-yoghurt, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, breads, jams, Nutella, etc. etc. And this didn’t even involve taking advantage of the miso soup and other Japanese items or the spaghetti or ratatouille!
After breakfast, we booked tickets for evening entertainment, got some helpful advice from the hotel staff on tram routes, and headed out. We caught the #20 tram (right in front of Don Corleone’s Pizzeria) which took us down Stefaniva Street and caught the Malá Strana funicular which climbs to a beautifully manicured rose garden. We walked to the Petrin lookout tower and climbed the 300 steps to the top of this
structure that was based on the design of the Eiffel tower, but on a smaller scale (sort of like the one in Vegas at the Paris hotel, but not as close a replica). By this time, it was starting to rain, so our panorama of Prague was somewhat limited and grey, but exciting nonetheless. It was a great place to start the sightseeing, since we could get a birds-eye vantage point of the city and the Vltava River.
After carefully descended the wet steps, we continued to walk down a path which took us to the Prague Castle area. Having discovered that my new semi-Euro-style Puma shoes had “slippery when wet” soles, I was forced to take tiny, cautious steps and grab hold of any available railing. Annette’s full-Euro-style new Pumas, however, gripped the sloping path like cleats and she confidently bounded along. We were quite a sight as a couple.
Prague castle and Hradcany is really an entire small town – not just a “castle” as I had pictured it. Contained within the walled town is the phenomenal St. Vitus’s Cathedral, which has some beautiful stained glass windows done by modern Czech artists. The church was started in 1344, but the front half was built in the 19th and 20th century – a data point to keep in mind to help put extended and frustrating remodeling projects into perspective.
We also really liked the Royal Palace, especially the stately, vaulted-ceilings of Vladislav Hall, and were fortunate to see the noontime “changing of the guard” by the entry gates to the Castle, complete with fanfare. The view of the proceedings was obstructed by the sea of umbrellas in front of us, but we were able to catch a reasonable glimpse. Our only disappointment was “Golden Lane” a hokey little street of shops that were actually an “attraction” that required a ticket. The shops date back to the 16th century as housing for guards and gunners, and they’re now filled with “artisan shops” which are mostly ersatz shops that seemed about as authentic as Disney’s Main Street USA.
We headed from the Castle down the hill and had a brief lunch at a spot called Café Gourmand (Salade Nicoise, smoked salmon sandwich –OK, but nothing special). What was special was the single scoop chocolate gelato cone, which we enjoyed as we strolled through a nearby park. Then, it was on to one of the “street by street” walking tours laid out in our Eyewitness Travel tour book, which took us up Nerudova Street, which we found very reminiscent of a street in Granada, Spain that leads up toward the Alhambra – except the souvenir shops featured kitschy Prague junk instead of kitschy Granada stuff. From there, we headed back to the Charles Bridge, which we had passed by but hadn’t crossed before. As beautiful as the bridge is, the sight is somewhat spoiled by the masses of caricature artists, cheesy souvenir kiosks and other touristy junk that has spread on the bridge and the streets on either side like a cancer.
The Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti) was a real highlight. The Church of Our Lady before Tyn has some of the most “fairy tale castle” roof turrets imaginable, and we returned at 6:00PM to watch the astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall tower go through its full animated antics, which date back to the late 15th and 16th century. In addition to the skeleton representing death, who initiates the series of movements by pulling on a rope he’s holding, there are other symbolic characters including “The Turk” representing lust, (why not?, let’s pick on the hated Turks!), “the Jew” representing avarice (complete with Shylock-style hook nose and money bag!), and vanity represented by a guy (actually appears to be a white guy, imagine that!) holding a mirror and admiring himself.
We had dinner at Klub Architectu, (Betlemske Namesti 169/5A), the restaurant where we had intended to eat last night before Don Corleone’s pizzeria made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. We’re glad we made it on the second try. The restaurant is in a subterranean grotto, with vaulted stone ceilings and an intimate, wine-cellar like feel. We chose to have a light dinner – a delicious garlic soup, an appetizer of ham rolled around an apple horseradish cream filling, piquant pork with asparagus and red peppers (which was somewhat like a stir-fried Chinese dish, a la Czech) and small salad, and headed off to see a puppet version of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. I had read about the tradition of marionette theater and opera in Prague, and although it seemed like a rather touristy thing (again), we figured “where else are we going to see a marionette version of Don Giovanni?” This production was performed by the National Marionette Theatre of Prague and we had learned when in the Old Town Square, that this was not the only marionette version of Don Giovanni running in Prague.
It reminded me of the story I heard on NPR about Tiny Kiss and Mini Kiss, the two Kiss cover bands made up of midgets and dwarf that have been engaged in a struggle over which is the authentic little person Kiss cover band. Since we only saw one of the productions during our stay in Prague, we’ll never be able to offer an opinion on which is the superior production. The one we saw was quite amusing, with seven puppeteers working the opera characters and a Mozart conductor and keeping it light with a fair amount of slapstick puppet humor. The costumes and sets were a bit threadbare, but the “performances” were excellent and it was certainly a unique way to spend a couple of hours. The efficient Prague Metro zipped us back to the Andels station and we were “home” soon.
After breakfast, we booked tickets for evening entertainment, got some helpful advice from the hotel staff on tram routes, and headed out. We caught the #20 tram (right in front of Don Corleone’s Pizzeria) which took us down Stefaniva Street and caught the Malá Strana funicular which climbs to a beautifully manicured rose garden. We walked to the Petrin lookout tower and climbed the 300 steps to the top of this
structure that was based on the design of the Eiffel tower, but on a smaller scale (sort of like the one in Vegas at the Paris hotel, but not as close a replica). By this time, it was starting to rain, so our panorama of Prague was somewhat limited and grey, but exciting nonetheless. It was a great place to start the sightseeing, since we could get a birds-eye vantage point of the city and the Vltava River.After carefully descended the wet steps, we continued to walk down a path which took us to the Prague Castle area. Having discovered that my new semi-Euro-style Puma shoes had “slippery when wet” soles, I was forced to take tiny, cautious steps and grab hold of any available railing. Annette’s full-Euro-style new Pumas, however, gripped the sloping path like cleats and she confidently bounded along. We were quite a sight as a couple.
Prague castle and Hradcany is really an entire small town – not just a “castle” as I had pictured it. Contained within the walled town is the phenomenal St. Vitus’s Cathedral, which has some beautiful stained glass windows done by modern Czech artists. The church was started in 1344, but the front half was built in the 19th and 20th century – a data point to keep in mind to help put extended and frustrating remodeling projects into perspective.
We also really liked the Royal Palace, especially the stately, vaulted-ceilings of Vladislav Hall, and were fortunate to see the noontime “changing of the guard” by the entry gates to the Castle, complete with fanfare. The view of the proceedings was obstructed by the sea of umbrellas in front of us, but we were able to catch a reasonable glimpse. Our only disappointment was “Golden Lane” a hokey little street of shops that were actually an “attraction” that required a ticket. The shops date back to the 16th century as housing for guards and gunners, and they’re now filled with “artisan shops” which are mostly ersatz shops that seemed about as authentic as Disney’s Main Street USA.
We headed from the Castle down the hill and had a brief lunch at a spot called Café Gourmand (Salade Nicoise, smoked salmon sandwich –OK, but nothing special). What was special was the single scoop chocolate gelato cone, which we enjoyed as we strolled through a nearby park. Then, it was on to one of the “street by street” walking tours laid out in our Eyewitness Travel tour book, which took us up Nerudova Street, which we found very reminiscent of a street in Granada, Spain that leads up toward the Alhambra – except the souvenir shops featured kitschy Prague junk instead of kitschy Granada stuff. From there, we headed back to the Charles Bridge, which we had passed by but hadn’t crossed before. As beautiful as the bridge is, the sight is somewhat spoiled by the masses of caricature artists, cheesy souvenir kiosks and other touristy junk that has spread on the bridge and the streets on either side like a cancer.
The Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti) was a real highlight. The Church of Our Lady before Tyn has some of the most “fairy tale castle” roof turrets imaginable, and we returned at 6:00PM to watch the astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall tower go through its full animated antics, which date back to the late 15th and 16th century. In addition to the skeleton representing death, who initiates the series of movements by pulling on a rope he’s holding, there are other symbolic characters including “The Turk” representing lust, (why not?, let’s pick on the hated Turks!), “the Jew” representing avarice (complete with Shylock-style hook nose and money bag!), and vanity represented by a guy (actually appears to be a white guy, imagine that!) holding a mirror and admiring himself.We had dinner at Klub Architectu, (Betlemske Namesti 169/5A), the restaurant where we had intended to eat last night before Don Corleone’s pizzeria made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. We’re glad we made it on the second try. The restaurant is in a subterranean grotto, with vaulted stone ceilings and an intimate, wine-cellar like feel. We chose to have a light dinner – a delicious garlic soup, an appetizer of ham rolled around an apple horseradish cream filling, piquant pork with asparagus and red peppers (which was somewhat like a stir-fried Chinese dish, a la Czech) and small salad, and headed off to see a puppet version of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. I had read about the tradition of marionette theater and opera in Prague, and although it seemed like a rather touristy thing (again), we figured “where else are we going to see a marionette version of Don Giovanni?” This production was performed by the National Marionette Theatre of Prague and we had learned when in the Old Town Square, that this was not the only marionette version of Don Giovanni running in Prague.
It reminded me of the story I heard on NPR about Tiny Kiss and Mini Kiss, the two Kiss cover bands made up of midgets and dwarf that have been engaged in a struggle over which is the authentic little person Kiss cover band. Since we only saw one of the productions during our stay in Prague, we’ll never be able to offer an opinion on which is the superior production. The one we saw was quite amusing, with seven puppeteers working the opera characters and a Mozart conductor and keeping it light with a fair amount of slapstick puppet humor. The costumes and sets were a bit threadbare, but the “performances” were excellent and it was certainly a unique way to spend a couple of hours. The efficient Prague Metro zipped us back to the Andels station and we were “home” soon.
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