Prague – The Czech Republic

Timing is everything.  Yesterday we walked into a bar just in time to watch Mahe Drysdale win gold, beating the Czech contender.  The Czech patrons in the bar were very gracious in defeat.

Once again a beautiful city and new territory for us. We again did the Munich thing and joined a ‘free walking tour’.  Another Keith but, this time an American.  A great raconteur – so if you need a guide in Prague – he’s your man – just look for the man in a green t-shirt and umbrella in the square.  As he’s married to a Czech he had the ‘inside scoop’ on lots of things.  We started at the Old Square and its beautiful old buildings and worked our way around the ‘Old Town’ area.

Highlights:

·         Keith

·         The buildings especially the Tyn church with its Adam and Eve steeples (one bigger than the other), the art nouveaux Municipal building, the cubist  Black Madonna building and St Nicholas church (there seems to be one in every city much to Nick’s delight and Prague has two!)

·         Josefor – the former Jewish quarter where bodies were buried 12 deep in the cemetery to conserve space and the Moorish style Spanish Synagogue.

Day 2

Sustained by a ‘sumptuous’ breakfast prepared by Nick, we headed for the ‘Farmers Market’.  Not a highlight - mostly clothes and junk – ‘same, same but different’. From there we trammed into Prague centre and leisurely wandered around till it was time to pick up Keith’s afternoon ‘Castle Tower’.  After a bit of history of Mala Strana (Lesser Town) we caught a tram to the top.  (As Keith said “This is a downhill tour”).  My kind of man.  Bit more scene setting at the top and a panoramic view point, then our first major stop was the St Norbet Monastery to sample their ‘brewed on site bevy’.  It was stinking hot so gave us a chance to revitalise and chat to all the other tour members from all over the world.

Refreshed we started the castle tour proper.  Once again with all those juicy little tit bits only a local knows.  We caught the changing of the guards then checked out the buildings within the Prague Castle area - which is the largest castle complex in the world. 

The highlight for me was St Vitus Cathedral – magnificent.  It suddenly looms in front as you enter the 3^rd courtyard.

We finished our day by eating at a Czech restaurant frequented by locals that Keith recommended for us.  Menu entirely in Czech.  The boys spotted these massive pork knuckles being devoured by other dinners so they were set.  Our waiter was able to translate the menu enough for Michelle and me to take a leap of faith on chicken surrounded by potato pancake.  Very yummy as it turned out and washed down with house beer for the boys and a glass of excellent Czech red for me!  

Did you know that Traditional Austrian, German, Hungarian and Czech food doesn’t really include vegetables – potatoes in some form yes , dumplings and raw or pickled cabbage.  However, there is a good range of fruit and veges available to buy in the supermarket or local markets.