Prague, Czech Republic: Overview

Prague has been on our radar for awhile. The good news is that it turned out to be a really good city to fly into with the Airlines points we used. It also gave us a good excuse to take the train, which we both love doing. 

Prague Airport

 

We got a decent little Airbnb and stayed right on the edge of Old Town Square. 

This was a really convenient area to stay because it was easy to walk just about anywhere. For the few places we went that were too far, we were able to Uber with no issue (normally we would buy a SIM card to make our phones, and thus Uber, work but this time we just had our mobile carrier activate the international option on our phones because it made more sense in our case.)

Upon arrival, we stashed our stuff and wandered around the square to find something to eat. We weren’t picky, and found a place that sold sausages and trdelnik. Trdelnik is a cylindrical doughnut like thing covered in cinnamon and sugar. We got ones with ice cream and Nutella in it. Very tasty!

In the square, was the Astronomical clock, which mesmerized onlookers every hour on the hour in gothic cuckoo fashion. The show was underwhelming, but the clock itself was pretty neat. It told the time, showed what phase the moon is in, displayed the current zodiac, and probably some other useless shit but it was fun to take pictures of, especially at dusk. 

Old Town Square

Old Town Square at dusk

Our first full day we walked across the Charles Bridge and over to the Prague Castle. These are two of the “must sees” in Prague. 

Prague Castle

Charles Bridge

Our first impression of the city after exploring it on foot for a good 12 hours is that it was like if Edinburgh and Amsterdam had a baby. Castles, cool architecture, great food, and a history that includes Nazis. 

Add a dash of communism in that history and some angry cobblestone streets, and voila, that’s Prague! The city is also safe and clean with very few homeless, at least in the areas we visited.

Pretty much every shop took Czech Korunas which was about 22 to one U.S dollar. We exchanged about $60 for Korunas which was just enough cash for the things that seemed stupid or impossible to use a credit card(do NOT do this at the airport or a random money changer. Find an atm that is attached to a bank.) Most places took a card though, and a few places even took euro. 

We stopped by a supermarket to get some food, which is one of the ways we save money when we travel. We always make sure to get a place with a kitchen and stock up on our first day. For $80, we bought enough for 3 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and  2 dinners (including wine). We still ate out and experienced the local food, but doing this saved us a lot of money. 

 We ate a ton of great food in Prague. We ate goulash, schnitzel, pork knuckle, soft pretzels, some really tasty ham, paprika chicken with pasta, some of the best eggs Benedict we’ve ever had, and a bunch of stuff we couldn’t pronounce.

These are some of the restaurants we would recommend:

Deer Restaurant: kinda fancy but good for breakfast

Eggs Benedict

Havelska Koruna: cheap, authentic, kind of like a canteen, yummy comfort food.

Paprika chicken

Havelska Koruna

Krčma : authentic hearty traditional Czech food 

Krčma

V Kolkovnê : reasonably priced, traditional Czech food. Kinda like a brewpub. 

Goulash

Pork knuckle

Probably a good idea to stay out of old town square for food. It looked expensive and touristy. 

We went to the National Museum which was 2 buildings, one with 20th century stuff and the other with some older natural history stuff. The natural history building was frustrating as it seemed like there were more hallways than exhibits, but the the 20th century building made the visit worth the price of admission. It was 400 Koruna to get in (330 with a student card).

National Museum

We also went to the Communism museum, did a tour of the nuclear bunkers underneath the Jalta Hotel near Wenceslas Square, and attended a Bohemians football (soccer) match, all of which will be covered in a separate post.

Overall, we spent about 4 days in Prague, and would recommend between 3-6 for most visitors. Don’t get us wrong, you could spend a few weeks there and there would be plenty to see, but 3 days is an absolute minimum.

Kinsky Palace

Wenceslas Square

UK/Amsterdam Trip Recap

So we are stoked to report that our entire trip went down without a hitch! 

On this trip we:

Walked an average of 5 miles a day

Went to 3 countries:

England

Scotland

Netherlands

Went to 9 cities:

San Diego

London

Liverpool

Manchester

Leeds

York

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Edinburgh

Amsterdam

Saw 5 theatrical productions:

Burnt City

Six

Life of Pi

Back to the Future

Come From Away

Attended 2 football matches: 

Man City vs West Ham and Man city vs Aston Villa

Saw 5 different football stadiums: 

West Ham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle

Went to 15 museums:

British Museum

Sir John Soane Museum

Tower of London

York Castle Museum

Liverpool FC museum

National Football museum in Manchester

Army museum in York

Anne Frank House

Hash Marihuana and Hemp Museum

Edinburgh castle

Museum. Of Edinburgh

National Museum of Scotland

Surgeon’s Hall

National War Museum of Scotland

London Mithraeum

Took in every kind of transportation imaginable:

Plane, train, subway, car, ferry, bikes

Ate at restaurants that served cuisine from 11 different countries:

English, Scottish, Syrian, Nepalese, Vietnamese, Greek, Lebanese, Indonesian, Dutch, Indian, Kurdish

On the way home, we met a catholic priest in the Amsterdam airport lounge and talked to him for 3 hours. He lived in San Diego and the Bay Area but was based in France. He was nice and put up with all our philosophical questions as we passed the time between flights. 

We had to get a picture with him as we do with all the fun characters we meet on our travels.

And with 6 different flights, a cross country train, a rental car,  5 diffferent AirBnbs, traveling during a pandemic (had to test before returning) and the Queen’s 70th jubilee, we didn’t have a single problem (except some dodgy Wi-Fi in Manchester). All in all, it was a terrific trip!

Amsterdam: A Foodie’s Dream

Amsterdam is such a cool city. It’s the kind of place you have to absorb by walking around it rather than run around and do “things” if it’s your first time. 

This was Helmut’s first time.

Helmut checking out the hot food vending machines

We stayed in the red light district in a cute little Airbnb and it was perfect! This part of town can get noisy on the weekends, but we were there mid week, so it wasn’t an issue.

Our Airbnb (red brick)

Amsterdam’s cuisine is unique and we wanted to try as much of it as possible, so we booked a food tour through Airbnb’s “experiences” to try some signature dishes. Our host was Angus, and he took us on bikes to 5 different places 

That’s Angus on the far right

On this tour we got to we got to try:

Dutch Apple Pie

Bacon Sandwiches

Kibling (chunks of fried cod)

Fries with yummy sauces

Bitterballen which was sort of like fried beef stew balls (hard to explain these…you just have to try ‘em!)

And these mini Dutch pancakes called poffertjes 

The tour was fun and there were only 5 of us. It was a great way to spend the day!

We had to go to at least a couple museums while we were there since Amsterdam has some of the best in the world, so we started off with the Anne Frank House.

Exterior of Anne Frank House

No pictures were allowed inside which is understandable. It was a somber place, but a really well done museum. It really gave us a good understanding of what Anne and her family went through when trying to hide from the Nazis. 

We then visited the Hash Marihuana and Hemp  Museum which was right across the canal from where we were staying. This was also a very good museum and we learned a LOT about the history of weed (which was everywhere in Amsterdam. You couldn’t walk down the street without getting a whiff of it). 

Weed isn’t legal in Amsterdam, but it is tolerated. And that means they can sell it in small amounts over the counter in “coffee shops”. We went to one called Dampkring. 

Amsterdam is a totally walkable city, and boy did we walk!

Smallest car we’ve ever seen!

 One day we walked over 7 miles. We walked all the way over to the Albert Cuyp Market which was kind of like a swap meet, where we got Syrian street food and a “stroop waffle”. 

Albert Cuyp Market

These stroop waffles became our new favorite snack. They’re a chewy waffle cookie type thing with caramel in the middle. SO GOOD! 

For our final dinner, we went to an Indonesian restaurant called Sampurna and got something called Rijstaffel or “rice table”.

Amsterdam is known for this kind of meal which is a bunch of small dishes with different foods. Kind of like an Indonesian dim sum, but you get it all at once. Super delicious!

Even though we were only in Amsterdam for 2.5 days, we made the most of it. We didn’t get to some of the best museums like the Van Gough or Rijkmuseum, but that’s because we know we will be back. Schipol airport is a very popular stop for a lot of destinations, so it will be an easy add to a future trip.