Travel article: Prague

Welcome to Prague, one of the most romantic city in the world (and packed with tourists !)

Prague is gorgeous , gather most of the romantic cliche like the cobblestones streets, the little cut coloured houses , a beautiful main square . All of this topped with rich history !

Czech Republic is known for its high consumption of beer: 1.5L per adult per day on average and its drunk, kleptomaniac president who hired useless bouncers (check YouTube for all these stories it’s quite hilarious )

The country changed name 9 times since 1918 ! Their national anthem say many times « where is my home » and we still wonder if it’s because they had too many beers and they can’t figure out where they live or if it’s because the country changed too many times names and borders !  

Speaking of borders and culture, during the war Protestants against Catholics , the Protestants got kicked out and replaced by Germans. The country almost lost its language with only 15% of the people speaking Czech for 300 years.

End of the culture time!

Going back to Prague now!  The city is known for its many bridges - the most beautiful one being Charles Bridge with a lot of music shows and painters. We crossed it many times and have never being disappointed by its beauty !

We also visited the neighborhood and gardens of the Castle and most importantly the St Vitus Cathedral and the St. George’s basilica, impressive (and bling bling!) churches. We’ve been impressed by the high ceilings and fresco and the big organ. There is also a royal tradition there everyday at 12pm, the Change of the Guard (similar to what we saw 2 weeks before in Copenhagen !)

This Eastern Europe trip also became a “religious” road trip with at least our 20th visit of a church/synagogue in 4 weeks! We went to see the Infant Jesus of Prague- crowned many times by many popes-  in the Church of our Lady Victorious. He is getting changed pretty much everyday and we realised that he has a bigger wardrobe than us !

We also went to the Saint Nicholas and Steveho Jilji and Notre Dame de Tyn, all beautiful and grandiose.

Visiting Prague also means spending time at the Old Town square and the surrounding streets and watching the many historic buildings with their beautiful facades, churches (again!) and the amazing Astronomical Horloge (well we couldn’t see it because it has been in renovation for over a year already...). Looks like a doll village!

One morning we spent quite a bit of time going around the Jewish neighborhood, previously ghetto as the Jewish were not allowed to live anywhere else. Despite the extermination quite a few buildings like the Spanish synagogue, the Pinkas synagogue and the cemetery were luckily preserved ! It’s one of the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe with around 12,000 graves , built one on top of each other along the years, with the light filtered by the few trees...

Don’t miss them.

Finally we wandered around in Kampa island where we found water-mill, little cute houses and a French market. We also found the John Lennon wall with many street art around peace& love,  built by locals when John Lennon died. Quite brave considering they were still under the soviet regime.

Another sign the  country used to be under Soviet Regime is the metronome dominating the city and counting the too many days lost because of Communism...

Prague is also where we (well the French soccer team !) beat Belgium and we watched the game with thousands of supporters in a park. We are going to the Grand Finale !!

Our stay in Prague was amazing but would have been perfect if they had fine food not just comfort food so we can’t recommend Czech food unfortunately...

Some recommandations:

#  we stayed in the District 1 (old town) and did everything by foot! Best location in the middle of the action.

# just enter all the churches you pass by, they are beautiful !

# don’t miss the St Vitus Cathedral and the St George Basilica

# the beer garden at Riegrovy Sady is super nice during summer !


   

  
        

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