City of Spires: Prague

Photos by Betsy

We’re in Prague. It feels like a victory as we’ve been planning to come here for several years, but had to cancel for various reasons (including Covid). Stepping into one of Europe’s most beautiful squares was amazing. The vibe is young but the buildings are ancient. Prague was never bombed in wartime so its medieval cobblestone streets and its Baroque and Art Nouveau facades are intact. Prague is gorgeous and gritty, and there is something wonderful to see around every twisty street.

We left Vienna by private transfer. We never seem to make a graceful exit. We stayed in a pedestrian-only part of Old Town in Vienna, so meeting the driver was a bit challenging. After a lot of walking in circles with our luggage and frantic Whats App calls from the driver, we finally connected. He was in a large passenger van instead of the sedan we had booked. He called it an upgrade. It was not. The seats were as uncomfortable as a school bus and it rattled through every mile from one place to the next. But, it was convenient and booking it meant we had two hours in Cesky Krumlov, a beautiful Czech village along the river Vltava. It’s a major tourist attraction, but there are fewer people this time of year.

We strolled the town and went inside the church, of course.

The main square is charming and lined with Renaissance and Baroque buildings built on 12th century foundations and once the homes of burghers, titled citizens in medieval times.

We hiked up to the Krumlov castle, which has some great courtyards and excellent views of the city.

The thing we didn’t like about it, however, is the tradition to keep brown bears in the moat around the castle. Yes, they have a caretaker and a decent amount of space, comparable to a zoo enclosure. Bears have been kept in that moat since the 16th Century.

We had time for lunch so we went to Papa’s, which was recommended by our driver. It was a great spot with great food.

More scenes from Cesky Krumlov

Back in the van, we had a two-hour trip to Prague. Betsy napped while I listened to a podcast. Our driver, Martin, who lives in Prague and emphasized that it is a very safe city, was able to drop us at our apartment, which is just a block from the main square. We like this location. The apartment is fine – in need of fresh paint – but it is well-equipped and clean and comfortable. We suspect we might be in a complex that caters to citizens more senior than us, as we’ve seen two people our age escorting their elderly mothers to apartments here. After getting settled in, we went exploring.

We’ll do more walking tomorrow using audio tours to learn about the city and its sites. We have three full days here and we plan to make the most of them. Our first impressions of Prague have us falling in love with this city. We followed some online recommendations and had dinner at The Food Lab, a really nice atmosphere with great food. We didn’t do a good job of taking photos of dinner. We were hungry. We ordered stuffed sesame balls as an appetizer, which were strange, but good. Betsy ordered the sea bass with brussels sprouts. She doesn’t even like brussels sprouts, but she ate a few. I ordered crispy chicken thigh with sour salad. Turns out what I thought would be a pan seared chicken thigh was deep fried and sour salad was a lot of bell peppers, some cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and fennel heavily dressed in a slightly sour mayonnaise-based sauce. I ordered badly.

A final note: We’ve noticed something about the music we’ve been hearing in restaurants, bars, and public places. Since arriving in Salzburg, we’ve heard a lot of American oldies. We’ve heard the song “Shaft” at least three times, a song we haven’t heard in 20 years. Street musicians are playing pop music or Frank Sinatra or Elvis. Yesterday, at lunch in Cesky Krumlov, the soundtrack to the Big Chill was playing – we heard that in Vienna as well. I dared Betsy to dance her way through the restaurant to retrieve our coats from the rack – and, of course, she shimmied across the floor to “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” Now, we’ll two-step our way around Prague!