Fact: The Czech Republic has the highest annual consumption of beer per capita in the world. Whilst the source of this piece of trivia may be wikipedia, it was verified by the Easyjet magazine and our Prague free street tour guide who is a teacher - teachers don't lie, right?
Prague was on our 'to do list', based on other friend's reviews of scenic streets and picturesque buildings. Our trip to Prague was accompanied by three friends - Wai, Farrah and Steph. We hung out together as a group, exploring the city and getting in touch with the local cuisine.
Arrival in Prague
We arrived in Prague on Saturday morning, checked into our respective hotels near Old Town Square, then set off to explore the city.
In the shuttle from the airport
Our route around Prague
Prague lived up to our expectations of it being a beautiful city. It has the Baroque architecture of Vienna and the green copper domed roofs of Copenhagen and without the Scandinavian prices. It is a popular destination for shopping, stag parties, eating sausages and of course drinking beer
Beautiful stonework on the buildings
One of the churches in Old Town
Hanging out at one of the bridges
The odd flashy car
Hotel Cerny Slon
Our hotel, Hotel Cerny Slon was located within a 12th century building known as the Black Elephant that had Gothic arched ceilings to show off its age as one of Prague's original buildings and beautiful painted ceilings.
Ceiling of our bedroom
Prague Old Town Square
Next to our hotel is the main square - Old Town Square where there are a number of food stands that were geared to target tourists. 'Prague Ham' - really just ham rotated on a spit, was advertised at 60 Kr per 100g, but the shopkeepers have a well tried scam, where they cut big chunks of 300-400g per serving. As such, we ended up paying the equivalent of 10GBP for ham and were also not very happy that we got ripped off.
The Prague ham vendor
Old Town Square
Astronomical clock in Old Town Square
Adam and Eve Towers
One of the churches surrounding the Old Town Square
From the main square, we walked through the laneways and ended up at a small market where small trinkets, souvenirs and big bowls of berries were sold. The berries looked very appealing, however even in a small market you need to be aware of the fine print. On closer inspection, we worked out that the advertised price was only for 1/4 of the actual container's weight. The 'cheap' fruit then on conversion back to GBP became not so cheap and we decided to give it all a miss.
Prague Castle
We headed to the number one tourist attraction in town, Prague Castle located on the other side of the river bank from the Old Town. The castle area is more like a fortress on top of a hill, surrounded by many sausage vendors at the bottom, some steep stairs and an entrance with two very solemn guards that are changed with a bit of pomp and ceremony each hour.
Prague Castle
Changing of the guards
St Vitus Cathedral
The highlight of our visit to Prague Castle was climbing the tower of the St Vitus Cathedral. The journey upwards involved a very tight staircase, 287 stairs but the view from the balcony was worth it.
Outside St Vitus
Getting warmed up before the tower climb
The tower looks higher than we first thought
Prague skyline
Charles Bridge leading into Old Town
Video - view from the top of Prague Castle
Charles Bridge
The next stop was to be the sausage vendor at the bottom of the Castle grounds as a reward for the effort of climbing to the top of the Tower. From there, we headed for the Charles Bridge - completed in the 15th century, it is one of the icons of Prague with its decorated statues and street artists.
Charles Bridge
One of the many decorative statues
Olie with Charles Bridge in the background
U Prince Hotel
Crossing the Charles Bridge, we headed back into the Old Town and onwards to the U Prince hotel for a snack of ox-tail soup and cocktails. The hotel had an amazing terrace that looked over the city, however the heater was on the highest temperature, so combined with alcohol, Mei started dozing off.
Olie's cocktail
Ox tail soup
Napojovy Listek Restaurant
A few hours later, we met up for dinner and after some false starts with restaurants being closed or full, we ended up in the New Town area at the Napojovy Listek restaurant for a filling meat platter of various meats, dumplings and vegetables.
It is also cheaper to drink beer in Prague than water or orange juice. Even in a tourist-trap area where prices are usually over-inflated, we could buy a 2L tower of beer for 200 Koruna (about 7GBP) whilst a small 200ml bottle of juice was already 95 Koruna.
Getting ready for a meat-feast
Walking Tour
The next day we all met up for a 'free' walking tour around Prague. This tour would give us a better insight into the history and famous sites of the city. All walking tours commence from the Astronomical clock and each tour company is represented by a different coloured umbrella
The Astronomical clock - the white outer ring containing 'name days'
Jewish Quarter
One of the first stops on the walking tour was the Jewish Quarter, where a famous writer by the name of Franz Kafka had a dedicated statue and a fountain. From there we moved through Old Town to a church that contains a mummified hand of a 15th century thief, and finished off outside the Opera House where Mozart performed Don Giovanni.
Statue of Franz Kafka
Peeing statues at the Kafka museum
Giant metronome representing the 'time lost' under the Communist government
Spanish style synagogue
Food stop during the walking tour
Statue of the ghost from Mozart's Don Giovanni
One of the towers surrounding the Old Town walls
Cafe Trinity
After the walk, we had developed quite a thirst, and stopped off at Cafe Trinity whilst the other girls went shopping. We discovered that Budweiser was originally a Czech (Bohemian) beer with a 700 year old brewing recipe but then the Americans stole it. We were educated in this fact by a waiter at Cafe Trinity in Wenceslas Square after we had indicated that we weren't interested in his cafe as they didn't sell authentic Czech beer. But thanks to his persuasive nature, we stayed for a pint and spent some time people watching.
Restaurant Stoleti
A late lunch was eaten at Restaurant Stoleti, based on a recommendation from a friend. The menu was interesting - steak with banana, chicken and cheese - but quite tasty.
Chicken and cheese
Trio of beer - dark, mixed and light
Dancing Building
After lunch, we continued along the river, until we reached the architectural marvel known as the Dancing Building. Unfortunately it was a Sunday, and the recommended balcony bar was closed.
The Dancing Building
Disappointed, we headed back for the hotel to pick up our luggage and to get ready for the shuttle bus pick up. On route, we found a crepe maker - that satisfied Olie's craving for banana and Nutella crepes.
Crepe maker outside our hotel
La Casa Argentina
Stopping for a last minute cocktail to polish off the last of our Czech currency, we found La Casa Argentina - where there was a surreal decoration of a piano connected to the ceiling of the bar.
Olie's martini cocktail
The upside down piano on the ceiling
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