We landed in Prague Tuesday afternoon. Russell was recovering after a very busy period of prepping for his interviews and presentation, and then traveling to Edinburgh and The Hague to do them over a 5-day period. All went well!
That evening, we explored our neighborhood a bit and had dinner and a liter of white wine at a Baltic restaurant.
Our comfortable, funky apartment (the toilet was in the kitchen; the bathtub and sink were in a closet in the bedroom) was right on a little branch of the Vltava river across from the Old Town, in the Malá Strana neighborhood on the west side of the Charles Bridge. We had a lovely view from our windows, especially leaning out a bit. We took things easy our first day, catching up on laundry and getting some rest. Our foray into the Old Town during the day was a bit overwhelming. The number of tourists was more than we had experienced anywhere, including Paris and Barcelona. The large tour groups following their leaders through the main sights of Old Town made for a claustrophobic atmosphere. We try to keep in mind that there is no denying that we’re there to see it too, but it was dizzying.
In the evening, we went to a pizza place that happened to be in the old Jewish quarter, where we would later in our trip have a tour (more on that in a later post). Happily, we discovered on our walk to dinner that quick turns off of crowded blocks often led to quiet corners where we could breathe.
It really is a beautiful city. Everywhere you turn there are spectacular buildings, with intricate detail, or long views of castles. And hordes of tourists.
We indulged in silly tourist food #1, Trdelník (chimney cakes) which aren’t authentically Czech from what we understand, but are nevertheless tasty: a fresh warm cake tube, in this case filled with chocolate sauce and vanilla soft serve. We stopped by the famous astronomical clock to see the apostles roll by with the hourly chimes at 9pm. We also saw the Disney church, so called because of its spires which look like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, clearly the inspiration for the church. We headed home, having gone through a bit of a rollercoaster that day but also charmed by the city.
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