Two days in Prague and the end of J's awesome Euro Vaca!

JJ and I schlepped our bags to the train station in Dresden for the 2.5 hour ride to Prague.  We missed the earlier train because, well, Mr. Time wasn't with us anymore and we are Flynn's, but still managed to leave at a decent hour.  We had a 6-seat compartment on the train shared with 2 girls from Brooklyn who were on their way to Prague as well.  It was fun chatting with them and enjoying the Eastern European countryside.

A little castle perched on the hillside in the Czech Republic

At Prague's main station we purchased dirt cheap metro tickets to get us into the Old Town-Staroměstská, where we were staying at The Charles Bridge Palace which is the former home of a Count and it was very "palace like" inside.  It was great that I had some familiarity with the city but really any city with a river flowing through is tough to get lost in!  It was an easy walk to the hotel (minus the rolled luggage on the cobblestones) but I was a little weary when I saw the sign on the building of our hotel:

I didn't see this on the reviews of the hotel!

No worries, it was no bother to us!  Our entrance was around the corner on a completely separate part of the building.  It was a fine part of the Old Town, places like this are everywhere in Europe not just the sketchy streets by train stations. 

This is a much better view of our hotel location on the River Vltava and we had a river view!

The yellow building to the right of the clock tower is The Charles Bridge Palace

It was perfect timing as we could check in, drop our bags and head over to the Old Town Square for the free tour that I found online. The Prague Extravaganza Free Tour is a volunteer initiative organized by people who are passionate about their city and work for tips only.  Needless to say, our guide Vitek did a great job taking us through all of the major sightseeing spots on the 3.5 hour walking tour.  Even though I'd done a similar tour before I learned some new things and saw some new places and of course it was all new and exciting for J!

The Prague Extravaganza Free Tour at the Kafka Statue

One of the highlights was being able to get a sneak peek into the Church of St. James because Vitek had just told us a story of a 400 year old mummified forearm that hung to the right of the entrance.  The arm belonged to a thief who tried to steal some jewels from the Madonna on the high altar one night. But the Madonna gripped onto his hand and didn’t let it go. The thief had to wait there until the next morning. The next day, when the people came to the Church, they tried to separate the thief from the Madonna, but with no luck. They had to cut his arm. Then the Madonna let the hand go. The monks hung the arm to remember this event and as a warning for other thieves.
 

The mummified forearm - creepy but cool!

The church was closed but Vitek talked a Priest into letting us in for a minute to take a look because it is considered Prague's most beautiful and valuable Church.

Inside the Church of St. James

We walked into the Jewish Quarter, around to the Charles Bridge and made a little pit stop for snacks and Gluhwein before climbing up to the Castle to where the tour was ending.  Vitek was a fun guide and I think (and hope) we all paid him appropriately.  It was nearly 7pm so mostly everything at the Castle was closed but we planned to go back the next day.  We made our way back down the hill since it was getting colder and darker, in search of someplace for dinner but of course making a few photo stops along the way.

Charles Bridge view from the river

One thing we learned in Prague is that the bars and restaurants display the beer they serve on a sign hanging above their entrance (as most places do - BUT - they ONLY serve that beer) so choosing a place to eat basically came down to what they were serving to drink.  We were on the lookout for a place other than the typical and popular Pilsner Urquell.  I have no idea of the name of the place we found but J was happy with his "throne like" seat and Czech specialty food and I was happy with the Kozel beer - not so happy with my bowl of goulash.

"Please, come to my table."

Vitek had told us about a bar that his friend works at and we set out in search of the "hobbit door" that it was located behind but for anyone who has been to Prague, there are a lot of "hobbit doors" and even more crazy little cobblestone streets to get lost in.  Plus we were also in search of a place that served Krušovice Beer.  We went into a Freemason bar that ended up being another great find!  It was a really nice place, only 2 others there (young Germans), and an English speaking bartender that we could practice our new Czech words on.

And Krušovice Beer:

Thanks goodness my dear cousin and I have the same interests :) because this place had not only the delicious Krušovice but another draft...wait, what?  Yes two draft beers.  We stayed until close.   Back at the hotel this old lady went to sleep but the young kid went across the street for one more beer - not at the Night Gym.

Pictures from our first day in Prague:

 

Tuesday, April 2nd

Setting out on our second day to explore Prague!

We went back across the Charles Bridge and up to the Castle grounds in the morning.  We purchased the Castle Pass that allowed us into the St. Vitus Cathedral, The Old Royal Palace, the Basilica of St. George and the Golden Lane, all of which we visited the night before but could see inside the places today.   It was a really great visit for JJ as he could follow right along with Rick's explanation of everything and great for me as well since I had only visited the Cathedral on our prior visit.  We caught another changing of the guard, this time it was quite the production with many guards, trumpets blaring and pushing tourists trying to be in the front!

The midday changing of the guard

Before we ventured back down the hill to the other side of the river J had to try the infamous Trdelník that I claimed made me so viciously sick last time but thankfully he survived! :)

Fingers crossed that he didn't experience the same reaction as me!

The sights in the Jewish Quarter were still closed for the Holiday and I so badly had wanted to visit them and see inside the Old Cemetery that has 12,000 stones and over 100,000 layered graves. All I was able to see from climbing the bottom two steps of the Ceremonial Hall and standing on the iron gate was this:

My free shot of the Old Jewish Cemetery

Time for lunch and we found ourselves at a nice Czech place, Kolkovna, for a good bowl of goulash, pretzel and a beer.  Wandering back through the Old Town Square and checking out the Easter Market we were waiting for "the top of the hour" so J could see the big Astronomical Clock in action.  Then  we followed Rick's walk up Wenceslas Square where J read all about The Good King Wenceslas and told me how he had previously learned about him from the Christmas Carol....oh my cousin is so smart, I had no idea.  And funny thing is, I saw the episode of Big Bang Theory last week where Sheldon sang it!

It had a been a long day of cobblestone walking so we went back to the hotel to rest up before dinner.  I wanted to find a place that was away from the tourist areas and found the most awesome place ever! U Medvídků is a hotel, restaurant and brewery and we both said it was our favourite stop.  Great ambiance, a secret third floor of the brewery where we ate and a bar downstairs that we stayed at pretty late! On the  walk along the river back to the hotel we enjoyed the beautiful castle and bridge all lit up.

Prague at night

We dodged a gigantic rat, that ran out in front of us and JJ got a good long laugh at my close encounter with it.  Luckily we made it safe back to the hotel! 

I usually add a lot more "city" detail into the blogs but since this was a return trip you can feel free to reference my previous post on Prague if you want additional info on the sights.

Pictures from our second day in Prague:

 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel before catching the hotel taxi to the airport.  We chose to fly using some of DH's mileage because it ended up being cheaper for both of us than one train ticket....plus the time factor!   

 

At FRA we bought a regional train ticket to the city's main station only after running back and forth between tracks 10 times trying to catch a train.  It was my first experience with the Bahnhof in FRA and it's huge.  I understand how it works now  - for next time. At the Main Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt we checked train times to get us back home and there wasn't anything convenient for our timeline to meet DH back in KL AND to get to see Frankfurt.  I wanted to show J the modern city with skyscrapers so instead we took a quick stroll to the front of the station, looked down at the city, and now he can say he saw it! 

 

This is why I plan, I'm not a good fly-by-the-moment traveler and get super frustrated when there is no plan.  Since the train tix were inconvenient and super $$$ I remembered a bus that goes from Frankfurt to KL to Trier to Luxembourg.  We picked up some sandwiches and walked out to it's location and luckily were able to pay on the spot and head home.  Frugal Fern was a bit frustrated again because if she had planned ahead and booked the tickets online she wouldn't have had to pay full price.  Or maybe figuring out how to use her smart phone would be a solution???? I think we were both glad to be getting home.  J had been on the go since the minute he landed in FRA 5 days prior and now I was getting a stupid sinus cold.  DH picked us up in KL, we went home and I cooked my favourite Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, Kraut and Speck for J and we had a nice night back at the house. 

 

Thursday we took the train to Heidelberg because it's an awesome castle, not too far, and a great river town to walk around in.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and climbed up to the castle.

 

J on the Old Bridge in Heidelberg



Sundial at Heidelberg Castle



The Powder Tower at Heidelberg

Heidelberg and the River Neckar

JJ and Heidelberg Castle

Thursday night we took J to our gal Stella's for a scrumptious dinner but due to his sampling of German culinary delights during the day he wasn't able to finish his dinner and boy oh boy was Stella upset!  You must go hungry to Stellas!!  We took it home and pawed through it for the next few days.  Friday morning I let J sleep in....after all it was his vacation and we had been quite busy.  We had a very low key day around the house and when DH got home we went the Barbarossahof Restaurant (and hotel where lived when we first got to Germany) for a farewell dinner of tasty German cuisine.

It was such a fun time with my little cousin and I'm so glad he was able to visit and we had the opportunity to show him around here.  I'm quite confident that he had a fabulous time and probably would have stayed longer if he could have.  Our door is open as long as we are here!