Czech Republic

Over beers in the Czech Republic

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Many times the best decisions you make in life sneak up on you.

It was a beautiful late August evening, our last night in Prague. Looking back on this from almost eight years on, it remains one of my favourite travel memories because of what this night ended up meaning to my wife and me. We hadn’t set out with any grand plans… just a way to enjoy the last few hours of what had been a remarkable two weeks in the Czech Republic. We headed up to the Letna Beer Garden with an idea to enjoy the view over the city and for me to spend the rest of our Czech currency on glasses of ice cold pilsner.

Letna Beer Garden
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A night at the opera

/ Greg / Leave a comment

After close to two weeks in the Czech Republic, I had done a good bit of soaking up some culture.  Some of that culture was food-based – pork knee, fried bread and beer cheese still dance in my dreams.  Some of it was liquid-based – the pilsners were devine.  Some of it was even of the soccer hooliganism type.  I’m not a cultural elitist, but even I felt like some more high-brow culture might be in order.

So, on the second last night of our trip, we made it to the opera at the State Opera house in Prague:

State Opera in Prague

We’ve only been to one other opera, that in Zurich a couple of years back.  With Swiss prices being what they are, we opted for el-cheapo seats in the back row.  When we booked our tickets for Prague, we decided to go all-in on a box.  Even with this great view, the seats were less than $80 for both of us:

State Opera in Prague

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Scenes from wandering around Prague

/ Greg / 2 Comments

An enormous part of any trip for me is simply wandering around.  Stashing the map and any preconceived notions of an itinerary really lets me see a new place.  And if there is a more beautiful city in which to wander aimlessly than Prague, I haven’t visited it yet.  Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Brussels…. all exceedingly beautiful in their own right.  But Prague has a little something else – perhaps it’s the age, the slight fading of some of its architecture that, for me anyway, makes it that much more stunning.  Here are a few of my favourite scenes from the streets of Prague from two special weeks wandering the city this past summer.

The Old Town Square kept drawing me back.  The energy of the crowds in the square in the evening (left) was palpable.  Much calmer in the early morning (right):

Church of Our Lady before Týn
St. Nicholas Church

You can get lost in the winding, twisted streets of the Old Town.  Walking around in circles leads to scenes like these:

In the Old Town
In the Old Town

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A castle with a view

/ Greg / 1 Comment

On the must visit list for Prague was the sprawling Prague Castle.   I was going to say the “must see” list, but the castle complex is something you can see from just about everywhere around the heart of Prague.  Its position on a hill in Mala Strana and its sheer size has it towering over the Vltava River and demanding your gaze.  No matter how picturesque the castle is from viewpoints along the river, it takes a trip through the complex to fully appreciate it.

The first stop for us inside Prague Castle is St. Vitus Cathedral.  There are a lot of beautiful churches in Prague, but this one is the most spectacular:

St. Vitus Cathedral

The outside Gothic architecture is especially striking in the early morning light and it’s a great prelude to what’s inside.  Interestingly, this is the third religious building on this site.  The precursor buildings were originally built in 925 and 1060 respectively, with this cathedral starting to take shape in the mid 1300s.

St. Vitus Cathedral

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A sombre day in Terezin

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Shortly after booking our trip to the Czech Republic, we knew we’d be setting aside a day for a trip to Terezin.  Located about an hour’s drive north of Prague, we decided to do this trip on our own.  With a bit of digging around, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out the logistics via public transit.  We arrived in Terezin under cloudy skies and light drizzle which set an appropriate tone for the day.

We knew this would be a sombre visit.  Terezin, originally built as a walled garrison town in the late 1700s, was adapted by the Germans during WWII as a concentration camp.  The first stop on our trip was for a tour of the Small Fortress, about a ten minute walk from the town square.  Just outside the entrance gate is the National Cemetery holding over 2,300 individually marked graves along with the remains of more than 10,000 who died in the Small Fortress, the Terezin Ghetto, in forced labour camps in Litomerice and in the post WWII death marches and transports.

Terezín

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Beer experiences in Prague

/ Greg / 2 Comments

Drinking beer in Prague is a true pleasure.  Great beer is everywhere; you don’t have to seek it out.  Over the course of two weeks I didn’t have a single bad beer or ever spend more than $2 Canadian for a beer in a bar.    These are a few of my favourite beer-related experiences in Prague – the bars, the delicious traditional Czech snacks, and of course, the beers themselves.

First beer in Prague:  After getting settled into our apartment on the first day, we made our way for a much needed meal at Svejk Restaurant U Karla.  We picked this location for the ease of gluten-free eating for my wife for the first night.  A few minutes after sitting down, I got acquainted with my first Pilsner Urquell:

First beer in Prague

What went well with my second beer in Prague?  My first pork knee.  Czechs know how to eat:

Pork knee

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Hockey, Prague style

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On a spectacular late August afternoon, in one of the world’s truly beautiful cities, I found myself among 1,000 crazy hockey fans taking in a HC Sparta pre-season match against JYP Jyväskylä from Finland.   Although I’ve given up as a diehard fan of NHL hockey (losing your team will do that to you), the enjoyment of the sport itself is deep in my Canadian DNA.  An opportunity to see my first game on the larger ice surface in another hockey-mad country was just too good a chance to pass up.

What do diehard Czech hockey fans look like?  Probably something like these good folk waiting to head into the arena:

HC Sparta diehard fans

Not only were there passionate HC Sparta fans, but a group of people traveled from Jyväskylä, Finland to watch their team, JYP play…. and they did that for a pre-season game.  They even shelled out for a private box for the game.  Looks like they had a good time:

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Falling in love with the Charles Bridge

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I have always felt an affection toward bridges.  My guess is that it started when I was just old enough to walk and my Mom would take me to a bridge close to our house so I could watch cars pass on the highway below.  It’s no wonder that one of my first stops in Prague (once I got over a wee bit of jet lag) was the Charles Bridge.

When I think of Prague, “romantic” is the first word that enters my head.  Nowhere was this more tangible that along the length of one of the most famous bridges in the world.  One look and it’s pretty easy to tell why:

Charles Bridge

A chilly, damp late August night only added to the mystique of this bridge to me.  The views at anytime are stunning, but looking out toward Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral as the lights just start to come on is a special kind of magic:

View from Charles Bridge

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