The beauty of the "City of a Hundred Spires" is often compared to Paris’, and its beers are said to be the best in Europe. During a short weekend, I had the chance to taste this historical city, and I think we liked each other a lot.
I am one of those people who would like to see every corner of the world, so the list of places I would like to visit is technically endless – and yet I relatively rarely go somewhere, and even if I do, it’s only for a short time (or maybe I am insatiable). Last weekend I had a family trip to Prague, so I can cross it off the list… But let’s face it: one and a half days of Prague are not enough.
We left at 7am on Friday morning, and arrived to the Czech capital by car around 4pm; this was partly due to the frequent visit of rest stops (well, we hydrate properly, which has consequences), and partly because the Czech highway was under a lot of constructions, which slowed us down.
We booked our accommodation at Prague through Airbnb. This was my second Airbnb experience, and I probably will stick to it. There’s something special about going back to an apartment that’s quasi yours for a few days instead of going back to a hotel after exploring the city. This way you get closer to the place you only visit for a couple of days. By the way, the apartment was located in Prague’s district 2, near the river, thus near the public transportation, so it had a great location – we could even walk into the historic city center.
After we quickly freshened up in our apartment, our first order of business was to find a pint of local beer, so we walked to a nearby place. Even during this short walk, it felt like we travelled back in time, with all the cobble stones, and the charming old, but not ruined houses. We had dinner at a place called Pivovarský dům (and we tried the Czech beer here, and it was truly a different experience), where, since we are in the Czech Republic, we choose from the "Czech Cuisine Classics" segment of the menu. I had the pork with thyme in beer gravy with bacon dumplings, and I devoured it in a record time. Talking about time, if you visit this place, don’t be surprised how quickly things happen here. I think we spent less than half an hour at Pivovarský dům (which has the vibe of an old coffee house), and we were already on our way to explore the city.
We walked to Charles Bridge, and by the time we got there, it was already dark. As the weather was really nice this weekend, and it was Friday night, the city was very crowded, with locals and mostly tourists – however, the next day we realized that it wasn’t really that crowded on Friday.
Anyway, after crossing the bridge, we climbed up to the castle, took in the gorgeous night view of Prague from above, and then we went to the St. Vitus Cathedral, which we weren’t able to see form inside, as it was closed by then, but it was an incredible sight to walk around it and see it in its full Gothic glory, with gargoyles and pillars and all of that. And as it was quite late then, there weren’t as many people up there, which was an added bonus.
Our first day was getting close to its end, and since we were pretty tired by then, we walked home (got a bit caught in the rain), and fall asleep in our beds.
To be continued…
