Prologue
When I started working on this blog post, news of COVID-19, commonly known as Coronavirus, was out, but it hadn’t hit the States yet. As I finish this post, the U.S. is in full quarantine mode -some mandatory, some self imposed. Around the world, entire countries are quarantined. Hotels are closed. Restaurants are closed. Borders are closed. Planes are grounded.
This is a sad and hard time for all. For countries. For economies. For communities. For businesses. For families. For travelers. But, this too shall pass. Hopefully sooner rather than later. And, when it does, we all must get back out into this great, big beautiful world. We have to support all of those businesses that had to close and lay people off. We must go back to all of the wonderful local restaurants. And, we have to start traveling. Because some of the most popular destinations have been devastated, like Italy or even favorites in the U.S. And, the only way they are going to come back is if we come back to them.
So, while it may seem like there is no end in sight. There is. And so, until we can board that next flight to take that next adventure, I hope you can satisfy your wanderlust by reading blogs like this. I hope they inspire you to plan that next trip, whenever it may be. And, I hope you get back out into the world.
Back to Prague
For years now, Chad has been pleading with me to visit the Christmas markets of Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Due partly to a Christmas miracle (a.k.a the birth of my first nephew just before Christmas), we finally made the trip. And honestly, it was amazing, and SO festive!
Prague is one of the few cities in Europe that made it through World War II with its medieval town almost entirely intact. If you love history and charming old European cities, put Prague on your list.
If you love beer and meat, well then you are in for a treat. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other place in the world. They drink more beer than the Germans. It is literally cheaper to buy beer in Prague than it is to buy a bottle of water.
In Prague, beer is like a religion. The beer culture here is so serious that you almost need a masterclass to understand it. Or you can just read all about it here.
I mean, there is an entire hotel dedicated to beer. You can literally bathe in beer (more on that later). Needless to say, Chad was in heaven!
Where To Stay
If you are coming to Prague, I HIGHLY suggest that you stay at the Hotel Residence Agnes. Let me start by saying that the following endorsement is NOT sponsored. They are not paying me to write a glowing review. They did not comp our stay.
When you travel as much as we do, you stay at a lot of hotels. Over time, we have come to prefer locally-owned boutique hotels because you tend to get personalized service with attention to detail. This is what you will find at Hotel Residence Agnes, which has made it onto our very short list of favorite hotels.
First, the hotel has an excellent location. It is located in the heart of charming Old Town. It is just a few steps from Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, and the Jewish Quarter. It is a literal 10 minute walk to the famous Astronomical Clock, and at Christmas time, to the best Christmas market. It is also close to the high-end shopping district. It is across the street from Prague’s only Michelin starred restaurant, and the famous Lokal. It truly is an ideal base for your visit to Prague.
When you check in, the owner or a member of his incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating staff will likely be waiting for you at the door with a warm welcome. They will usher you in and sit you down in the lobby area where they host a complimentary nightly happy hour. You will be treated to a beverage of your choice, traditional Czech snacks and a very informative chat about your stay. They will give you tips on what to see and where to eat. They will make restaurant suggestions (all of which were great) and make reservations for you. If you haven’t planned ahead for tours, they will book those for you as well. If you haven’t changed money, they will literally give you pocket cash! If you need a ride, the house car is free and available for use to take you wherever you need to go. They also provide free airport transfers.
The hotel is immaculate, as are the 22 spacious rooms. At turn down, a homemade gingerbread cookie from the shop next door will be waiting for you on your bed. One evening, we returned from a long day to find a fresh bouquet of roses in our room!
In the morning, you will be treated to one of the best and most delicious breakfast buffets. They will make your eggs, coffee, and juice to order. The hot and cold selections will suit any taste. But the homemade traditional sweets are the real star! After filling your belly, you will be ready for your day. And the staff will make sure to send you off with a bottle of water.
The highlight of your visit will most surely be the attentive staff and excellent customer service. Over 4,000 five-star Tripadvisor reviews cannot be wrong. Seriously, just book here.
What To Do
Prague Castle
Prague is a totally walkable city. Since we like to maximize our time, we took a few excellent private tours with Continental Travel. We started with the full day private Prague excursion. Throughout the planning process, Continental Travel was very responsive. On the day of the tour, the guide was prompt for pick up. He was also super knowledgeable about the city, its history and all of the stops we visited.
We started our day at the Prague Castle. Not only is it a UNESCO world heritage site, it also holds the Guinness Book of World Record for the largest coherent castle complex in the world. We visited the St.Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, and St.George Basilica.
The Most Beautiful Libraries Ever: Strahov Library and the Baroque Library at the Clementinum
Prague has some of the most beautiful libraries I have ever seen. Like Ever. Our next stop was to the Strahov Library at the Strahov Monastery. The library is a magnificent Baroque library.
The Strahov Library contains over 200,000 volumes, including over 3,000 manuscripts, and 1,500 first prints stored in a special depository.
The library is divided into two parts: the Theological Hall and the Philosophical Hall. Each of them are magical.
The Theological Hall has a beautiful set of old world globes from the 15th and 16th centuries. It also has a beautiful rotating desk that allows you to keep many volumes of books opened at one time.
The Philosophical Hall has a false shelf, the panels of which conceal the door to a staircase that leads up to the hall’s balcony.
But, the most fascinating part of this hall is the Napoleon cabinet. In this cabinet is one of only three sets of catalogs, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte himself, of the entire inventory of Versailles and the Louvre – including the origin of each item (which, by the way, is why Napoleon only had three sets made, since he realized that he was essentially providing proof of where many of the items were plundered from!).
Most visitors to the monastery are only allowed to walk through the library’s curiosity hall and peek into the two beautiful rooms of books from behind a velvet rope. However, if you pay a small fee to the monastery in cash (about $30 USD), you can arrange a private guide to take you INSIDE the Philosophical and Theological Halls. You can do this yourself by emailing the library and waiting for weeks for a response. Or, Continental Travel can just take care of it for you! Trust me, it is worth it.
Across from the Strahov Monastery is the Strahov Monastery Brewery, which serves about ten variations of St. Norbert beer (3 all year round and 7 seasonally). You can also have a traditional Czech meal here as well.
The second library we visited was the Clementinum. We visited on our own because you are required to take their guided tour.
The Clementinum is the second biggest complex of buildings in Prague after Prague Castle and one of the biggest in Europe. It is home to Prague’s National Library, which is one of the biggest and oldest European libraries, storing over six million documents.
Tours begin daily at 10 am, with tours starting every 30 minutes. The tour takes about 50 minutes and is always guided, with maximum of 20 people per tour. Tours are mainly in English and cost about $14 USD per adult. The tour includes the Baroque library hall, the Meridian hall, and the Astronomical tower.
Keep in mind that in order to take the tour, you have to (gradually) climb a BUNCH of winding staircases. The tour ends with spectacular views from the outside of the astronomical tower.
Gingerbread Museum
Okay, so its not exactly a museum, but it might as well be. The Gingerbread Museum is a craft bakery specializing in traditional Czech gingerbread. Gingerbread is a BIG deal in Prague. You can learn all about its history here. It is a traditional Christmas delicacy. These people love their gingerbread!
At the Gingerbread Museum, you will find the prettiest and most intricate gingerbread cookies ever! These make the perfect sweet souvenirs to bring home!
Answering the call for a unique experience, Continental Travel set up a private gingerbread cookie decorating workshop for us. We got to design our own cookies, which they packaged for us to take home…not that they actually made it back. This is a super fun activity to do if you are traveling with kids.
Also, the shop smells like heaven! The owner is a gingerbread master, and she speaks Greek!
If you are staying at the Hotel Residence Agnes, make sure to stop by the gingerbread shop next door, Pernickuv Sen. It is run by two sisters-in-law who are trying to single-handedly revise Prague’s gingerbread tradition. Their authentic gingerbread is made with nothing more than honey, butter and nuts. They also serve up some of the best poppy-seed kolache.
John Lennon Wall
So, this is probably mostly an Instagram stop. But, it is really beautiful and on the way to the Charles Bridge, is you walked down from the castle, so I think it is worth it.
Essentially, this is a large wall near the French Embassy that is filled with John Lennon and Beatles inspired graffiti. There is a large painting of John and various Beatles song lyrics.
The Lennon Wall was created after John Lennon was shot in 1980. Apparently, Lennon’s songs of freedom and independence were an inspiration to Czech youth, during communism. The Czech authorities repeatedly painted over the wall, but the Czech youth continued to repaint the wall with Lennon images and song lyrics. The Lennon Wall is credited with helping to start the Velvet Revolution, which was non-violent stand against Communism.
Go as early as you can to get the best people-free photos because this is an insanely popular spot.
Charles Bridge
Dating back to 1357, this bridge connects Old Town and the Prague Castle. Once important to commerce, this bridge is now pedestrian. It is lined with statutes and lamp posts on either side. There are also vendors, street performers, and buskers on either side selling art or jewelry or performing tricks or playing music.
If you want to enjoy the bridge with less people, you are going to have to get there very early in the morning. Otherwise, expect it to be very crowded. The best view of the bridge is actually from the side.
Brewery Hotel
Because Continental Travel knew that Chad loved beer, the next stop was included just for him: a beer hotel.
If you really love beer and are looking for a unique experience, why not book a night at U Medvidku-Brewery Hotel. The hotel is located in a historic building and is connected to one of Prague’s oldest restaurants from 1466. It also has a famous, historic brewery with a pub serving traditional Czech cuisine and their beer. The hotel is in a great, central location, close to Old Town and Charles Bridge.
You don’t need to be a guest to visit the brewery or dine at the pub. But you do need to be a guest to take a beer bath. That’s right, a beer bath.
If you book a beer suite, your room will come with a tub that has a hot and cold water valve and a beer tap. Each beer suite comes with 5 liters of free beer per day. So, you can bathe in beer or just enjoy a brew while you soak in the tub. Also, all of their amenities are made from their beer: soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc.
The owner told us that the beer ration per room used to be unlimited until these two Russian guys checked in. Apparently, they checked in and consumed about 5 gallons of beer each per day! After that experience, the hotel decided to limit the beer ration per day.
We took a tour of the brewery, which is available upon request. We were then treated to a traditional Czech lunch and beer tasting. What followed can best be described as a beast feast. Literally all kinds of meat were set before us on a tray, paired with beer cheese and fried bread. Yes, you read that correctly– Fried. Bread.
The beer tasting included a beer they called XBEER-33, which is basically the strongest beer in the world and made using historical technology.
Old Town Square
Bellies overfull, it was time to take a a much needed walk to Old Town Square. It is here where you will find the Astronomical Clock— the oldest and most celebrated clock located on the sidewall of the Old Town Hall.
Every hour, people gather around the clock to see the show. As the bells chime on the hour, two doors above the clock face slide open and statues on a rotating platform move into view, one after another. These figures represent the Apostles. There are also figures on the sides of the clock representing vanity, greed, death, and lust. Vanity is the figure of a man admiring his reflection in a hand mirror. Greed is the figure of a man with his sack of coins. Death is represented by a skeleton. Lust is the figure of a man with his instrument. As the last chime fades, a trumpeter in the tower, wearing a yellow-and-red uniform, plays a short tune to the crowd below, waving to them after his performance.
Dating back to 1410, this is the only astronomical clock that is still in operation. The inner ring of the clock face shows the symbols of the zodiac. The outer ring is numbered in Roman numerals, from 1 to 24, to show the time. On the very edge of this ring, Schwabacher numerals indicate Old Czech time.
If you are in Prague during the holidays, it is in Old Town where you will find the best Christmas Markets.
In addition to beautiful holiday decor, the markets are filled with food vendors selling roasted nuts, Czech specialties, sweet treats, and of, course, alcohol: beer and mulled wine. There are also vendors selling handcrafted ornaments and other decorative items. These markets typically run from the end of November through the New Year. Prague’s Christmas Markets proved to be every bit the kaleidoscope of sights, sounds and smells that we’d hope they would be. A truly magical holiday experience.
Jewish Quarter
The Jewish Quarter is located between Old Town Square and the Vltava River.
The Jewish Quarter has six synagogues, including the Maisel Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue and the Old-New Synagogue, the Jewish Ceremonial Hall, and the Old Jewish Cemetery, the most remarkable of its kind in Europe.
Hitler decided to preserve the Jewish Quarter as a “Museum of an Extinct Race”. You can learn more about the history of the Jews in Prague here.
We visited the Pinkas Synagogue, which is the second oldest surviving synagogue in Prague. The walls of the synagogue are covered with names of about 78,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust, also known as Shoah. The names are arranged by communities where the victims came from and include their birth and death date. There is a video display that helps guests find specific victims.
Perhaps the most moving and tragic part of the synagogue is the permanent (and heartbreaking) exhibition of pictures drawn by children in the hybrid ghetto/concentration camp in Theresienstadt. Most of these children later died in Auschwitz. The drawings survived because the children’s teacher hid them in the concentration camp before she was deported and later killed in Auschwitz.
Classical Concert
Even if you don’t particularly care for classical music, you kinda have to see a classical concert when you visit Prague. After all, it was in Prague where Mozart chose to premiere his opera, Don Giovanni.
In May, Prague holds the Spring Music Festival, which is a collection of classical music concerts in their most beautiful venues. This is actually the biggest annual cultural event and one of Europe’s most important festivals of classical music. Also, over the holiday season, many classical performances are held all over the city, including Christmas concerts.
We chose a classical concert at the beautiful Rudolfinum, home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a lovely way to spend an evening, where you will be treated to a truly world class musical performance.
You can view the season and purchase tickets for all venues here.
Where To Eat
If you love meat, you will NOT go hungry in this country! If you love beer, you will NEVER be thirsty.
There are so many options and cool little local places that I truly think that taking a quality food tour should be one of the first things you do. And, that is just what we did.
We joined Taste of Prague for their 4-hour food tour. Yes, the tour is a bit pricey, but when you consider that the tour is structured as a progressive meal, it really is not that bad. They take you to the best spots, many of which would be hard to get in without a reservation or advanced planning. Also, the food is not small bites like on most tours, but a full sized portion of whatever dishes you are trying.
We chose the Prague Foodie Tour (as opposed to the Traditional Czech Food Tour). Accompanied by a local foodie, you will taste both modern and traditional Czech food. There will, of course, also be beer and Moravian wine. The tour will end with delicious sweets and coffee at a fantastic bakery. Also, you will leave the tour with their guidebook filled with recommendations for restaurants, bars, shopping, and things to do.
Honestly, don’t eat before this tour. It is A LOT of food.
In addition to this tour, we dined at Eska (also a stop on the food tour), which we loved. We also dined at one of Prague’s two Michelin star restaurants, La Degustation. The other one is called Field. La Degustation has a set menu only, and it is comprised of Czech food. Field is a la carte with international touches. We had reservations at Field as well, but we cancelled them because we did not feel like sitting through another long meal.
I thought La Degustation was just okay. It was incredibly expensive, and I did not love the menu. In hindsight, I would have probably skipped this. I think Field would have been better because you don’t have to do the set menu and can choose a la carte, which helps you be able to eat what you like and is also easier on the wallet.
Day Trips From Prague
The options are almost endless. There are literally so many day trip that you can do from Prague. Continental Travel offers 17 different day trips. Here is a list of some of the more popular ones:
- Kutna Hora, or the bone church. Kutná Hora is a small town that is home to the ‘bones chapel’. The inside of the small church has been decorated using the bones of over 40,000 people, most of whom died during the Black Plague that swept across Europe in the 1400s.
- Karlštejn, a 14th-century Gothic castle in remarkable condition.
- Dresden, Germany.
- Karlovy Vary, which is best known for its 12 natural hot springs and its beautiful architecture.
- Terezín Concentration Camp.
- Český Krumlov. This little town is made up of a maze of winding little streets and also has a 13th century castle that is one of the Czech Republic’s most visited sights.
- South Moravia Wine Region
- Bohemian Switzerland National Park.
- Pilsner Urquell Brewery. The city of Plzeň is the birthplace to a popular type of lager, the pilsener, that was first produced in the Pilsner Urquell brewery nearly two centuries ago.
Chad got to choose the day tour, so guess where we went:
For the record, I would have preferred Kutna Hora, Karlovy Vary, or Dresden.
Pilzen is the capital of West Bohemia. It is a significant cultural, business, and industrial center, famous mostly due to the Pilsner Urquel beer produced in the Prazdroj brewery.
The 70 minute tour takes you to their bottling plant, to an exhibit dedicated to their ingredients, to the brewhouse, through their historic beer cellars, and finishes off with a beer tasting of unfiltered and unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell beer tapped directly from an oak lager cask.
If you haven’t been to Prague, I highly suggest that you put it on your list. It is an easy city to pair with Vienna, Budapest, and various cities in Germany. To get the most out of your visit in Prague, let Continental Travel do the work. In 3 short days, we felt like they showed us pretty much all there was to see.
Also, I’d like to thank my friend Donald Floresca for contributing some of the beautiful photos in this post. Donald traveled to Prague right after we did, but his trip was cut short due to the Coronavirus. But, not before he captured some amazing shots!
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