Czech Republic: Day I (Prague)

Saturday, June 11^th:

Old Town Square of Prague, with the Jan Hus Monument, and the Church of Our Lady Before Týn:

            Today we woke up super early to walk to the train station, get to the airport, and catch a 9am flight from Copenhagen to Prague, Czech Republic. The travel, while tiring, went without a hitch and we landed in Prague, or Praha, at around 1030am and made our way into the city center by taxi by around 1130. One great thing about this city is that the exchange rate (even though it has gone down in recent years) is wonderful at 15.5:1 Czech Koruna to US Dollar! Things are relatively cheap here still, even though tourism in Prague especially is driving up prices.

Dobry den Česká Republika!

First impressions on Prague: apparently the cities on my trip keep getting older and more beautiful. The skyline of Prague is lined with spectacular gothic spires of ancient churches, castles, and palaces from the Bohemian world of old. I had heard that Prague was a romantic city, but now I finally got to see it with my own eyes. Jen and I took a taxi cab from the airport to our hotel, the Hotel Rubicon Old Town in the Old Town district, known as “Staré Město.” [Note… since the language is so difficultly written and has so many foreign characters, I will only be using it for the really important sites/districts].

The Church of St. Nicholas:

We could not check in until 2pm, so we left our luggage at the hotel and walked through Old Town Square, the tourist center of the city. The square is built around two massive gothic towers and the monument of preacher Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in the early 15^th century. We peeked inside one site, the Church of St. Nicholas (which there are two of in the city), and looked around for some food. We settled upon a little place called Gurman Flint Bar and Restaurant, and had our first taste of the wonderful Czech Beer selection! Beer is literally cheaper than water in this city, and our first beer was called Kozel. I also ate some honey roasted pork (the Czechs are big meat…) with apple horseradish, vegetables, and potato pancakes, and Jen had a seafood salad.

Old Town Square at Night, with Old Town Hall and the Jan Hus Monument:

            We walked back to the hotel to check in and take a nap as we were exhausted from the early morning awakening for the airline travel. We woke up around 830pm and walked back to Old Town Square for some dinner under the beautifully lit up gothic spires surrounding us. We ate at a restaurant called Kammený Stůl where Jen and I both had Wild Boar Goulash with a red wine sauce—yes, Jen actually had a meat meal! We also sipped down a bottle of Lambrusco and I tried some Absinthe with the flaming sugar cube in it as an after-dinner treat. I had tried the stuff before, but not the real kind; it basically tastes like black licorice but if it was on fire. Intense stuff! After dinner we walked around Old Town a little more before heading back to sleep to be ready to tour the next day.