Dobré Ráno Prague – October 5-7, 2014
The way Dobré Ráno rolls off your tongue sounds very Spanish. Prague had a bit of romanticism that I did not expect from the Bohemian City. Interspersed in the old architecture were gardens, fountains, and nice restaurants. On my flight to Moscow, the Russian sitting next to me described Prague as an entire city that could be a museum. Prague is an amazing town and one that probably deserves a day and a half more than the day and a half that I spent there.
The old town is fun to walk through, see the shops, the old clock tower and town square. The Hvar Castle is really spectacular – even more so when walking around the inside. The town is split, once again, by the Danube but only by the eye and not really by it’s feel. When walking down from the Castle, the walls guide you along a beautiful stroll down to the river. One can stop off at restaurants, watering holes, and gardens on the way to the river to the Charles Bridge that flows right into the town center. It is one of the most cleverly and brilliantly architected cities that I have ever walked through.
Prague has many tourists – at least this weekend was German and Jewish holidays – so I took a half-day trip to Kutna Hora to avoid some of the crowds. Taking a full day trip to Český Krumlov would have have been better. Several other tourists mentioned it was quite nice. Kutna Hora was older, quiet town. One of the tourists quipped, ‘this seems like it is just post-war’. The major attractions were an old church that used skulls and bones as a basis for the interior decorations of crosses, altars, candles, and pews. It was built this way to symbolize all of the Jewish massacred in that area. Further east of the town, the major attraction was a small castle with a nice orthodox church. We stopped off for lunch and I had bread wafer dumplings, Goulash (of course) and an unfiltered draft beer. It was worthwhile to leave Prague to see another area of Czech. We also passed a car manufacturing plant where they make small 1-2 seat passenger cars that are becoming popular in Eastern Europe.
My culturally experience was, unfortunately, somewhat limited to my taxi ride up to the Hvad Castle. His English was poor but he was entertaining. He glared out the window and pointed at the women and kept saying ‘Nice Prague’. He loved the beer just as much. Every Saturday and Sunday he drinks at least 6 pints of good beer, he says. While driving me to the Hvar Castle, he showed me his favorite drinking and dining spots. The country supports two very large beer brands: Budvar (a lager) and Pilsner Urquell (Pilsner). I did have a glass of Budvar and surprisingly, the first few sips reminded me of Budweiser then it seemed to settle into a more craft type lager. The beer cans even had written on it, ‘the original Budweiser’.
Three days is probably ideal in Prague to enjoy the city and nightlife, and take a day trip or a half-day trip. A day and half was far too short.