Prague has won the best city in Eastern / Central Europe award for our trip. Here's why:
- Fantastic metro and tram network that makes travel easy and cheap
- Consistently the best food experiences we've had in Europe
- Koruna instead of the Euro means much cheaper cost of living than Vienna and Ljubljana
- Ridiculous amount of historic buildings / castles to ogle at that are well maintained, yet not too much that they look brand new (ahem Vienna)
We would definitely include the Czech Republic in a future Europe trip and check out some of the outdoors activities it has to offer. Here's a quick summary of what we did over the three days, some advice if you visit, fun facts, and a summary of our favorite pictures.
- Stay at Courtyard Marriott Flora
- Best Food Experiences: U Kroka (dinner x 2), Per Te (lunch)
- Old Town Square
- Charles Bridge
- Prague Castle
- Climbed South Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral
- Strahovsky Klaster
- Flora Mall
Advice if you visit
- Its worth getting the three-day public transportation pass for 310 CZK (~$12.50). It gives you unlimited rides on the metro, trams, and buses. The airport is connected to the metro station Zlicin with a 15 minute shuttle bus #100. All of the attractions we visited were easily reachable through the metro/trams.
- To get a good picture of the Charles Bridge, walk on the bridge to the north. Its not crowded at all and provides a nice photo opportunities. After crossing the bridge (assuming you start on the Old Town side), there's a bunch of giant swans you can check out towards the left of the bridge.
- Try to grab a meal at U Kroka. It gets busy quickly but they don't take reservations for the outdoor seating. So if its a weekday, you should be able to grab a seat as long as you show to dinner before 7pm or after 8:30pm. The food is amazing. You can get drinks, an appetizer, two entrees, and dessert for around $25. And it comes in oversize fancy white plates on white tablecloth :) But the dark beer is rubbish, stick to the pilsner.
- To get to Prague Castle, get off the metro at Malostranska station. Then take Tram 22 going uphill. Get off at the second stop. This way to get to skip the long uphill walk to the castle and can use that saved energy roaming the castle grounds and climbing the tower of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Fun facts
- You will be asked about five times whether you want to try a Segway if you hang out in Old Town Square. We're not sure what the end game is since they keep saying it's free to try...
- Engagement photo shoots are a big thing at Prague Castle. But with Asians, not Czechs.
- The view of Prague from the top St. Vitus Cathedral's South Tower was most accurately described by a fellow American tourist as "DOPE!"
Summary of pictures
|
One of our favorite Old Towns |
|
After the 10th Old Town, you recognize good old towns |
|
The 500+ yr old Charles Bridge |
|
Swans are dope too |
|
We have walked over Charles Bridge to the other side, where more Old Town-ness continues! |
|
Things were a little busy |
|
In the city palace, more like palace compound |
|
Huge cathedral inside palace compound |
|
They squeezed in a obelisk too |
|
Praha oh Praha |
|
Great view from climbing a tower |
|
You guessed it, still in the palace compound |
|
Still palace compound, gah sun glare ruined the awesome artwork on the building |
|
At a monastery brewery |
|
Hands down favorite dessert of the trip, U Kroka forever |
No comments:
Post a Comment