Prague

On May 23th to 27th BF and I went to Prague.

Monday May 23th:

We went to Düsseldorf International Airport early in the morning by car. We had made a parking reservation there beforehand so we could just use our credit card as parking ticket. Unfortunately the parking area was quite a bit away from the departure terminal so we had to walk a little. Next time I know that high heels are definitely not an option for completing my travel outfit.

Check in was very fast because it was rather early in the morning and most people seemed to be on business trips and had no luggage to assign. We were in the waiting area by sunrise and had plenty of time to kill. I finally finished the Dr. Kawashima Sudoku on hard mode...
The flight was very pleasant and we got raisin buns and coffee for breakfast. We arrived at Prague airport sometime around 10am. Our luggage came out first and so we could leave immediately and have a look around for our shuttle taxi to our hotel right in the middle of Wenzel´s Square. Czech car drivers are insane. Even before noon the whole city is clogged with traffic. The streets are narrow and historic, trams always go first and nearly everyone seems to think "I can afford a German car, I have the right of way, not your little poor Skoda". But we survived and ended up in our small little hotel room.

After quick unpacking and a little nap a friend of BF, who is working in Prague for a few years now, called and invited us to a quick look around our hotel.

By the time we met it was almost 6pm and we were starving. So it was time for us to see the first (and definitely not last) beer parlor and brewery of our trip.

U Medvidku was the choice of this evening. A nice old brewery with atrium-style beer garden. We ordered roasted garlic bread with creamy beer cheese (forgot the price but it was really cheap) and  "Táborská basta" (333Kc=13,50€) a dish which contained all the czech kitchen classics: lots of meat, potato dumplings and cabbage.

Of course we had half a liter fresh drafted beer (I think I had 5l total by the end of the day...). BF´s friend also tried to convince us of the opportunity of having this speciality:

We decided that we are too German to torture beer that way and left this strange creation to some Japanese tourists. By the time we had finished another friend of BF was done working and came to join us for calling it a day the Czech way...with lots of booze.


We changed location to a nice beer garden right at the riverbank when the sun downed over the castle on the other side of the river. Amazing sight and great location to drink and listen to live guitar music!

Tuesday, May 24th:


After sleeping long and getting the last bits of the breakfast buffet, we went to the hotel reception and got tram tickets. We went on the big sightseeing tour starting at the up at the castle and cathedral, went down through the golden alley into a nice tiny toy museum, crossed the river to take picture of Charles´s Bridge from another of the numerous bridges.

Then we went through the historic center, took a quick look at the powder tower und searched desperately for the golden M because meanwhile we were nearly starved and dried out because it was really warm that day. It is unbelievable but when you are hungry and looking for a Mc Donald´s you won´t find one..(note that there must be at least 11 M´s and nearly 15 KFC´s in Prague)

Finally, back at Wenzel´s Square we found something to eat. Then we went to a supermarket for cool drinks and some sweets. After a refreshing shower and a little rest in our air-conditioned room we went out for another beer and some delicious duck with....dumplings and cabbage...

Wednesday, May 25th:

After the sightseeing overkill we overslept breakfast and decided to start the day with lunch. Since we didn´t wanted to eat something cabbagy again we searched our guidebook for international specialties and discovered a small nice Japanese restaurant only a few blocks from the hotel. We had teriyaki bento lunches and some cold Calpis drinks. It was really delicious and definitely the cheapest Japanese food I ever had in my life.

We spent the rest of the day surfing via the hotels own WLAN and had some beer and burgers. Lazy day at all...In the evening we met our friend and some of their co workers. We went up to a very nice alternative beer garden that is overlooking the whole city.

It was crowded with pot smoking neo-hippies and other nice people ;) After a few beers one of the co workers told us about epic burgers...so we went to seize them:

We also had some fun being creative ourselves with this (Czerny might get jealous) modern art light installation:

Thursday, May 26th

This was our last real day in the city so we did some more sightsseing at the old town hall with its famous astronomical clock and the old jewish ghetto.

In the evening we had the obligatorical KFC, stopped at the riverside beer garden again where we could see an awesome firework at the other side near the castle and went to have a little last party evening with our friends at the Cross Club. This is a very steampunky location a little outside of the town. There was a nice French band this evening that played gypsy music. After dancing and drinking we took the last tram back to the city and fell asleep as soon we touched the pillows.

Friday, May 27th

After a quick breakfast and packing again I spent my last crowns on cigarettes and then we went back to the airport. The weather went rainy that day so we were glad that we could leave again. But it was worth the trip and we decided to come back again!