This was a lovely last-minute booking. The half term holiday came around so quickly and I had the opportunity to squeeze in a short four-day break to Prague, Czech Republic. This has been on my bucket list of European cities to visit for a long time and I had actually booked to go during the pandemic and had to cancel my plans.
I knew it would be very cold, with a forecast of minus 5 at night, but the weather was dry, and remember, there’s no such thing as too cold, just the wrong clothing! I hoped I’d packed the right clothing and off I went. What is there to do in Prague and would I recommend it? Yes, and most definitely yes, it’s a fantastic city.
I went with hand luggage only, which was quite a challenge given the temperature forecast! I just about managed at 9.8kg but did have to board the plane in Leeds dressed like an Eskimo as I had to wear most of my luggage allowance! I like to travel independently and prefer to use to local transport if possible. Prague has an excellent system of trams, buses and a metro system and it was no problem getting from the airport to the city. Once in the city it’s really compact and you can walk everywhere. I stayed right at the end of the Charles Bridge at the Hotel Pod Vezi. It was on a B&B basis as I like to venture and try local food on an evening. I would definitely recommend the hotel to anyone that is thinking of visiting. I like quite small, traditional places, not the big, pretentious, impersonal hotels and it was perfect. It was excellent value for money and in a super location but still had all those special little touches (think bathrobe, slippers, Nespresso machine and a chocolate on my pillow every night!). Every girl likes spoiling a little bit!
First stop had to be the number one attraction in Prague and everyone’s iconic photo, the Charles Bridge! It’s beautiful. It’s a medieval pedestrian only bridge which crosses the Vltava River, linking the two sides of town. It was started in 1357 and completed in the early 15th century. It is over half a kilometre long and has a large tower at each end. Along the bridge are 30 statues of various prominent figures of Prague. One of them is St John of Nepomuk who was the Queen’s priest at the time. He was thrown off the bridge for refusing to divulge her confessions! Apparently if you rub this statue legend has it that you will return to Prague. There are also excellent views of the bridge and river from one of the towers which you can go up.
I like to visit cities which have quite a lot of history and Prague is no exception. It’s not so long ago that the Czech Republic was under communist rule and it wasn’t until the end of November 1989 that Czechoslovakia, as it was known then, overthrew communist rule and ceased to be a satellite state in the Soviet sphere of interest. I guess we sit in a sort of bubble at home in the UK. We see the Ukraine / Russia conflict daily in the news but it feels such a long way away, and our daily lives, other than the price of gas and some food stuffs, are relatively unaffected by it. That’s not the case here. They quite clearly feel much closer to it, and I guess they are, being geographically just one country between them, but you can very much sense the solidarity with the Ukraine and the anti-communist stance. There are Ukrainian flags and banners ‘Hands off Ukraine, Putin’ draped off many buildings. They do not hide their celebration of the events of 1989, in what was called ‘The Velvet Revolution’, which saw an uprising of the people to overthrow the regime. I visited the ‘Memorial to the Victims of Communism’ which really brings the impact home and depicts disintegrating human figures descending a staggered slope. I guess all over Europe the symbol of the fall of Communism in 1989 was very much the removal of the Berlin Wall, as that is a physical image which we remember. However, the death toll and impact of communism across Europe went much wider. This memorial remembers the terrible human toll of the communist era on the Czech Republic alone: 205,486 arrested, 170,938 driven into exile, 248 executed, 4500 died in prison and 327 shot trying to escape. ‘The Velvet Revolution’ started on 17th November 1989 and there is actually a brass plaque on the side of a lawyer’s office in the street where it started to mark the tragic events of that day when tens of thousands of protesting students marching to remember the Czechs murdered in WWII were attacked by riot police. Nine of them were killed by the police and the plaque represents the 9 outstretched hands with fingers splayed in a ‘V’ for victory. I have to be honest I’d been oblivious to the impact on the Czech Republic before my visit and it was actually quite moving to learn how many suffered in just this city and country.
Anyway, on a lighter note, Prague is also good for beer! Its local beers are Budwar and Pilsner Urquell and they are good. They are more what I as a Northern girl would call a lager though, not a ‘proper’ beer like we have up North in Yorkshire! But not to worry, I found the proper beer. If there is one thing that monks are good at, other than praying, it’s brewing beer. Just like in Belgium I managed to find a monastery, the Strahov monastery, that lets you into the brewery to drink. They do a dark ale, with a proper head, called St Norbert’s that could rival any Belgian beer, and is almost as good as a proper Yorkshire pint! It was really good.
Another must see is Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral which are both together on the same complex. The Castle is very interesting and the cathedral is spectacular inside, particularly the stained-glass windows. It is guarded by a number of sentries in their very official looking uniforms. They look really intimidating and trust me, you’ll not get one to smile, I did my very best guard impression but I’ve just not got a face serious enough for it.
Next stop, the main squares, there are two. First there is Wenceslas Square. This square is the least pretty of the two but has historical significance. It’s where in 1918 the republic of Czechoslovakia was announced, in 1945 the end of the war was declared, where a number of ‘The Velvet Revolution’s’ protests were held and where the Jan Palach memorial is situated. This memorial remembers university student Jan Palach who, in 1969, set fire to himself to protest about the Soviet invasion the preceding year. He died from his wounds and is now a national hero. The Old Town Square is the prettier of the two and is where the ‘Astronomical Clock’ is. The clock was built in 1490 and does a little amusing performance on the hour with its many figures and the cockerel.
If you like food you’ll love Prague, but possibly not so much if you are vegetarian. Think lots of pork and lots of goulash and dumplings. There is smoked roast pork cooking on a spit in a lot of places. There is also a traditional cake called a Trdelnik or Chimney Cake. It’s a spiral of cinnamon and sugar-coated dough roasted on a spit and then filled with a filling of your choice. Mine was filled with strawberries, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and then topped with cream. The photo demonstrates just how excited I get about ice cream, I really must try to contain myself! Then there are cakes, I like cake. The pistachio cake was just delicious and then I found myself in another cake shop where there were just so many beautiful cakes I could not decide. So, in short, if you like food, you will not be disappointed with Prague.
Oh, and there are some very quirky cafes. I loved this one, Vytopna, in Wenceslas Square. It has a model railway running all around the café with a train line to every table. You order your drinks or food and it is delivered to your table by a little train, which hoots and chugs around. It even knows when you have taken your drink out of the wagon at the back and then chugs off again. Childish as I am I will admit to ordering my drink and then my food separately five minutes after my drink came just to make the train come twice!
If you like sculpture and architecture there are lots of examples to see. There are the obvious buildings of baroque, gothic and cubist architecture, which you would expect to see in Prague. A more modern design, however, is the ‘Dancing Building’ designed by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic. It opened in 1996 and is ‘Deconstructive’ in style. It opposes the order of form, structure and symmetry and is meant to defy and rebel against the more traditional styles.
Prague is also the birth place of Franz Kafka, novelist and short story writer. The sculpture of his head by Czech sculptor David Cerny is definitely a must see. It is 11 meters tall and has 42 rotating panels that rotate in differing frequencies throughout the hour before finally resting in their original position. There are many Cerny sculptures in Prague. In addition to this one, another quirky funny one is that of two men urinating into a pond. The weirdest one though is out at the TV tower a short tram ride away. It’s another one of those that’s a bit lost on me. Ten large very creepy babies crawling up the outside of the Zizkov TV tower, creepy because instead of a face they have a sort of embossed bar code face, very odd.
Another interesting part of the visit was to the Jewish Quarter. Again, something else I was a bit oblivious to before the visit. I never realised the country had such a large Jewish population which suffered horrendously during the Holocaust. The Jews were confined to their own area of town and this has been really well preserved as a museum of 6 synagogues and a Jewish cemetery. Each one tells a different story but for me the most moving and informative is the Pinkas Synagogue because on the walls are inscribed the names of the almost 80,000 Czech Jews that perished in the Holocaust. There is also an exhibition in there at the moment of children’s drawings which were completed in the ghetto under the supervision of artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis between 1942 and 1945. They really are quite moving and telling as they unconsciously express the emotions of the ghetto children at the time. It’s amazing what truths you get if you ask a child to draw a picture, it’s a window into the mind. There are similarities in the pictures: lots of black, lots of trains and lots of train tracks and it really makes you quite sad.
Finally, I just had time to squeeze in a quick walk up to the Letna gardens for the most amazing view of the city from up above, with the added bonus of a beer garden!
So that’s it, the whirlwind guide to Prague. Four days was just enough time to see everything I wanted to see. An amazing city with so much to see, do, eat and drink!