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Wednesday July 6th
Given that the Prague Castle tour was due to start at 2pm and that I didn’t feel like doing two tours in one day, especially given that my feet were hurting a fair bit after any time I rested, I didn’t have any major plans first thing today. I went across the Legil Bridge and up the steep back streets towards the National Museum, not really sure if I was going to go in but I’d seen the Square quite a few times and wanted to go a different way.
By the time I reached the museum, having gone a bit too far up the steep streets from not having read the guide book map correctly, I had to come back down a couple of blocks and then could get towards it. By this point it was not too far away from midday and since I had to get to the Square by 2pm *and* have something to eat, I chose not to go in and just had a sit down and look out across Wenceslas Square for about 30 mins. No point rushing the museum. I made my way down to the KFC nearby and wasn’t impressed, as it turned out, that not only did this one not allow free Pepsi refills, but they also wanted 10kr for the loo. Oh well, lesson learned and I’d avoid that one again.
2pm and I got to the Square for the Prague Castle tour, our guide being a man who was the spitting image of Canadian comedian Tom Stade, although this guy went by the name of Jeff and said he was from New Hampshire. Amongst all the pictures taken, we didn’t get to see the whole of St Vitus’ Cathedral as while the castle grounds themselves were free to get into, lots of things within would’ve cost another £10 or so apiece to access. As we were following the tour, we didn’t pay those extra things and so didn’t see every last thing, but we saw plenty. Despite taking a tram up to the top of the steep hill, it turns out there’s a much easier way to get back down, again with some steep steps, but you wouldn’t really want to walk up them, although a lot of people did.
I realised early into this tour, as it was baking hot, that jeans were really a bad idea. I had some shorts back at the hotel, but once you’re out and about in the morning you’re not really going to go back until late in the evening. I mentioned the heat to Jeff at the time and he said he did exactly the same thing. I hate wearing shorts but in this climate, it was essential.
On the way back to the Square I passed the Rudolphinium and went in where I saw the gift shop was open, bought some postcards, saw nothing else was open and came out again. In need of a reasonably priced-beer, I headed for what became my favourite restaurant, the Staromacek, who at 50kr (£2) charged much less for a beer than the rip-off so-called “Irish pubs” round the corner, but at least that kept the football louts far away from me.
For dinner that night, a tour round the streets the night before showed me that the one I wanted to try was the Cafe Domecek where I had a fillet of beef with cream sauce and bohemian dumplings. The dumplings were a bit chewy but it all tasted nice.
At 10pm, I went on the Ghost Tour, a walk around Prague for an hour and an excellent laugh with an actor in a grim reaper costume. It was a bit pricey for an hour at 300Kr (£12) but something you have to try. At first, the guy spoke in an evil-style Czech accent, but would occasionally break into a strong Scots accent and then a strong Irish one, before cycling round them all again, so I couldn’t tell where he was originally from. Either way, I got a picture with him at the end 🙂
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.