My Grammy's family was Slovakian; my great-grandparents immigrated from Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, before Slovakia and the Czech Republic were independent nations. While I realize that the Czech Republic is not the same as Slovakia, there were a lot of overlapping similarities, and it was fun to be in the vicinity of my ancestors.
We arrived in Prague mid-morning and arrived (via Uber) at our hotel shortly before lunch. Brad did an awesome job finding a great deal on a hotel just a block away from Wenceslas Square. We checked in, got a little orientation to where we were, and headed to check things out.
It was an absolutely beautiful day! We enjoyed walking through Wenceslas Square while we searched for a spot to eat lunch. We'd looked up a "traditional Czech" restaurant but could not find it, try as we might, so, much like in Copenhagen, we ate non-local (but mostly because I was HUNGRY and needed to eat). We ate at an Italian restaurant that was WONDERFUL, and while we were there, we learned from our server that the owner of the restaurant also owned a traditional Czech restaurant just a few streets over. Perfect for our culinary redemption!
Wenceslas Square
The Good King
After lunch, I was fighting off a migraine, so we actually went back to the hotel for a few hours so I could take my meds and sleep it off a little. I deemed it wise to fight it early so we could do more fun stuff later, but it was kind of a bummer to lose a few hours.
My friend, Breanne, spent some time in Prague several years ago and told me we had to try trdelnik. Boy, she was right! Also: I had to look up how to pronounce it. That's a lot of consonants... Breanne described it as kind of like a hollow cinnamon roll. Y'all! It was SO GOOD! We got 2: one with Nutella inside and one with strawberries and cream. They were delicious. (spoiler alert: we got another one the next day)
They wrap the dough around a cylindrical form and cook it over hot coals. Then they coat them in cinnamon and sugar. Mmmmmm...
After we scarfed our trdelnik, we walked to the Old Town and the Astronomical Clock. It was really close to the top of the hour, which meant that we were able to see the hoopla that occurs when the clock chimes. We had (shocker) watched the Rick Steves episode about Prague, and he covered all the details about the Astronomical Clock's details and workings. We (and buckets of other tourists) gathered around to watch. I was a little bummed that they are doing work on the clock, meaning that there was tarp and scaffolding surrounding it, but it was beautiful, nonetheless.
After we watched the clock chime the hour, we walked around the Old Town Square, admiring the Church of Our Lady and St. Nicholas Church, as well as the monument for John Huss and his followers.
From there, we made our way to Charles Bridge (along with every other tourist in Prague), because according to Rick Steves and Breanne, this is on the to-do list when one visits Prague. And it was beautiful. It was super crowded, but it was such a nice walk over the Vltava River, with really quaint views of the city.
There were all kinds of beautiful statues lining the bridge, presumably all telling significant religious stories, but we weren't really able to get close enough to find out. This crucifix, however, was pretty obvious.
This shot is extremely misleading about how many people were swarming this bridge. Do not be fooled.
For supper, we picked up a couple hot dogs and headed back to the hotel. We were quite tired, and Brad was still feeling a little yuck, so we turned in on the early side. Bonus: in contrast to the constant sunlight in Copenhagen, WE HAD BLACKOUT CURTAINS in Prague. It was glorious.
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