Exploring Prague

When planning for this trip started we booked an apartment through AirBnB for Prague, but when our flights changed slightly we ended up arriving one day earlier than originally planned which is why we ended up in a hotel. A beautiful hotel I might add, the Prague Marriott and when we checked in they told us we were upgraded to a one bedroom king suite and we received a personalized welcome letter and a box of specialty Czech wafers in the room - how special is that? So on day two we moved from the hotel to our apartment which was a short walk away. Our host met us at the apartment, gave us the tour and we were set to "live like locals" for the balance of our stay. The apartment building is old and not really anything to write home about, but the unit itself is quite nice. It's located on a rather busy street we've learned with a very popular bar just down the street where most of the pub crawls seem to frequent. That's one thing we noticed, the amount of pub crawls every night. I guess when the beer is as cheap as it is and as tasty as it is, there would be a huge market for that! But back to the apartment....it's a one bedroom with full European kitchen and cozy living room. The washroom also has a washing machine in it which was great because knowing this before travelling here made it easier to pack a little less.

We've felt very safe in Prague. There isn't a very visible police presence anywhere, though we have seen quite a few police officers because the police station is just around the corner from our apartment. The only other place I've seen police is in the Old Town Square and even there they seem to be more for show. We've seen a few people begging for money, but they appear to keep to themselves and actually knee in a very humbling position. Haven't really seen any "homeless" people sleeping in the streets.

Prague is a very walkable city and it's quite easy to get around by tram. The streets are all cobblestone as are the sidewalks so you do need to pay attention when walking because the ground can be uneven.

Z found a food tour called The Taste of Prague, which we decided would be cool to try. We booked prior to arriving because the guide limits the group to 8 people. More to be written about this in another post. The tour was four hours long and needless to say we were rather full after. We had also wanted to do a river cruise so we booked a Jazz boat cruise the same evening we did the food tour. We chose the dinner option for the cruise and later really questioned why we chose dinner as well. The cruise too, is up and down the Vltava River. At one point we had to go through a lock because the water level drops roughly 10 metres. This was a really neat experience to see and quite unexpected for me until we were in it. I had no idea. The jazz artist was a local Czech artist by the name of Martina Fišerová Quartet. They were quite good and provided great background entertainment while we enjoyed the sights of Prague from the river.

Our last day in Prague was spent walking with some more walking....and have I mentioned walking? We ended up walking something like 20,000 steps as we toured around Prague Castle and then over to Petrín tower - Prague's version of the Eiffel Tower. We walked up the tower to take in the breathtaking cityscape which on a clear day like ours was just stunning! By the time we walked down the countless stairs of the tower we had been walking around for probably a good five hours so we decided to take the funicular down. We ended the evening watching the anticlimactic hourly Astronomical clock show in the old town square. This was just as our guide Terry warned us....a big yawn.