Prague

We went to Prague this past weekend! We definitely thought it was in our top 5 to 10 favorite places we've seen in Europe (and would recommend for others to visit). It was the first former communist, Eastern European country we've visited (the only other former communist place that we've been is Berlin, Germany). It ended up being a wonderful weekend. When I packed on last Sunday (Oct 17) the weather was supposed to be rainy, snowy and cold all weekend. As the week progressed, the weather forecast improved! It ended up being sunny on Saturday and somewhat sunny today and decent temperatures...50's during the day, 30's or so at night.


Saturday, we walked to a market going on, hit a few shops to get some souvenirs, watched the astronomical clock, walked around the "Taste of Prague" that was set-up in one of the main squares (Gene was amazed and there were great smells), grabbed lunch at the largest Hard Rock in Europe (has an awesome guitar chandelier), walked to the river front and along the bridges and just enjoyed the city! We hit the hotel for a quick nap...which ended up being a 2 hr+ nap. But, it was needed. We got up and got ready to go to dinner. We ate at a traditional Czech restaurant. The food was decent, but nothing to rave about. There was a good band there. But, the big downfall was the chain smoking going on in the restaurant. They have not joined the "new world" of smoke-free eateries! The guy sitting at the table next to us, smoked more than 7 cigarettes - Marbolo reds none-the-less - in a little over 1 hour!!! I thought I was going to die. After dinner, we decided to walk back down to the river front and across the bridge to see the castle lit up at night and hopefully get some great pictures. Gene was impressed that I was still out seeing the town after 11 pm...I routinely am up past then, just usually not out of the apartment/hotel I'm staying in at that current point in time.

Sunday, we slept in more than what we planned...neither one of us slept well (I was in the middle of a CSI episode in my nightmare and woke up in the middle of the night a little freaked out). We hit the town running as our time was limited. We trekked up the hillside via the metro and some walking and actually visited the castle. We walked around inside the numerous courtyards, but did not visit any of the large number of museums inside. The cathedral within the castle walls reminded us a lot of Notre Dame in Paris. We then took the tram back down the hillside and tried to see the Old Jewish Cemetery...basically hundreds if not thousands of Jews that died in WWII are buried in a small area, with tons of headstones just piled upon each other. Unfortunately, to really see it you have to pay to visit and see the museum. We found one tiny little fenced area where you could see a few grave stones on the very edge of the cemetery. We did not have the time to wait in the extremely long line to get in. We walked back to the center of town to grab a bite for lunch....they had a TGI Friday's and Gene was wanting some good ribs (he hasn't had any really good ones here in EU). After a not-so-quick lunch (that waiter did not get much of a tip at all), we grabbed our suitcases from the hotel and headed back to the airport. I headed back to Hamburg and Gene to Switzerland.

Another great weekend visiting another place on our long list to see. We'll try and get the pictures posted this coming weekend.