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Sunday July 3rd 2011
Travelling to Prague was my first holiday in 14 years. I’d been to this city back in 1992 as part of a month-long interrailing trip with Nigel, a good friend from University, and we spent three days there. This time I took a flight, but back then we got off the train and, seemingly despite our better judgement, when approached by a man who had accommodation available for students, we ended up following him back there via tram and streets which were a bit off the beaten track. When we eventually arrived at the house, which was owned by a woman, it turned out she let out a room on a regular basis and that this was the done thing in Prague. However, once we were there and were left to our own devices to dump our stuff and head out, Nigel produced a Swiss Army knife, which I hadn’t seen before and said, “Just in case…” 🙂
Flying to Prague was also the first time I’ve been on holiday by myself, which does present the occasional logistic annoyance such as the fact that I couldn’t just leave my bag in most places while I went to use the toilet, but since it was a backpack it wasn’t the end of the world as I could just sling it behind me. You soon learn to time things such as using the loo when you’re planning to eat somewhere or when you get back to the hotel. Yes, there are public toilets, but they often charge around 10kr (40p). Still, that’s better than chancing it with the cheap 5kr (20p) price charged in the underground because those toilets not only fail to come equipped with toilet rolls (you have to make sure you get some from the area outside the cubicles before you go in) but the standards of hygiene were such that they made the toilet from Trainspotting look plush by comparison(!)
Getting to the airport, since I hadn’t been abroad by plane since before 9/11, I was clueless about all the 100ml liquids thing, the clear plastic bags, etc. and had no idea whether my suitcase was over the limit and if my hand luggage was oversized, but my sister said about the suitcase that since I was going by myself, there’s no way it would be over the 22kg limit, and also it was quite compact so I took a chance rather than buying one of those hand-held weighing things. As it turned out, on the way out my luggage weighed 14.5kg (on the way back it was 18kg) and my backpack hand luggage was fine with the rack by check-in which checks the size (on the way back I found it weight around 3.2kg, where the limit was 10kg, so all was fine with that).
Anyway, once the BMI Baby plane set off around 8.15pm, almost an hour behind schedule, the pilot told us that he’d try to make up some time, and so a 2hr 20min scheduled flight ended up lasting just 1hr 45mins. Due to the time difference of an hour, it was then 11pm rather than 10pm. It took another 30 mins to get my suitcase at Prague Airport, during which there was nothing really to guide us towards the baggage claim for a while so I just ended up following everyone else. I also had a Shuttlebus to meet on the other side of it and was wondering what would happen if I’d since missed that as a result of the late flight and delayed suitcase collection.
Once I got through to the other side, thankfully, the guy was still there to meet me, but he did acknowledge that he’d been waiting for a while. For a while we had to wait for someone else who was meant to be on that flight, but they can’t have got on as he gave it another 20 mins and then we set off for the hotel, the Best Western Hotel Kampa on Vsehrdova 16, Prague 1, around 20 mins walk from the Old Town Square and across the River Vitava, so it was close enough to easily get to everything important, but also far enough away not to be bothered by pissheads. In fact, thanks to the period I picked to travel, from Sunday to Friday, that worked out best as it meant I would have avoided all the stag parties.
The hotel was very clean with a medieval banquet-style restaurant area and for around £43/night when I went, it couldn’t have given better value. There are many pictures on the Tripadvisor website here.
(it’s actually a twin-bed room even though I only wanted a single)
As soon as I got in the room I noticed the sealed 1litre water bottle on the table. While the mini-bar is self-explanatory and contains a clearly-printed price list which is typed, I didn’t realise at first that the water bottle had a price tag of 120kr (£5) around the neck because (a) it just looked like a regular label, (b) the price was written on in joined-up writing and (c) the lighting is quite dark: there is no ceiling light in the rooms, just a couple of lamps including one bedside light. Since I often used the socket for one of these to charge up my mobile, that took me down to one lamp and so when I was there late in the evening, I’d frequently leave the bathroom door open with the light on so I could see what I was doing.
I unpacked and made use of the free wi-fi on my phone and put the TV on. Let’s face it, there’s not a great deal to watch, but then you won’t be spending too many waking hours in there. I generally flicked between CNN, RTL for the breakfast show (since the only clock I had was on my phone, it made it easier to have one viewable as I was rushing around to get ready) and Pro7, which mostly showed US programmes and films dubbed into German. Once the first one I saw had finished, I found via Google I’d been watching the last 20-30 mins of Watchmen, which didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense in German, but then I gathered from what I saw that it probably would’ve been just the same in English, too. I’ll have to get the Blu-ray at some point and watch it properly.
Next was the film… erm… Next, with Nicolas Cage, which I’d seen before and you didn’t really need English dialogue once you knew what was happening as it was a piece of engaging sci-fi nonsense. I’d very much recommend that for anyone who wants a bit of escapism. With that, it was nearly 3am and I so needed some sleep. Given that breakfast was only served from 7-10am, I would be getting there towards the tail end of it, no doubt. I am not an early riser.
Go to page 2 for what I saw on Monday July 4th, and subsequent pages for subsequent days.
Monday July 4th
Well, for my first night, I only got around 4hrs sleep. The bed is a bit too hard, but then it’s not always easy to get a good sleep when you’re in a strange bed. It also didn’t help that whoever was in the next room would get up much earlier than me and so would be banging and clattering about before me. So did the cleaners. Ughh…. why can’t they wait?
I got to the restaurant around 9.40am and found the food available to be a bit decimated. Bread rolls, some ham and salami, and slices of cheese. I tried the cereal but it was a bit tasteless (I was going to try another one during the week but just made do with what else was on offer) and the tea was lukewarm: later in the week it got better but I think it was down to the urns having been out for a while so not being as hot as they should be. Orange juice was okay-ish. I found after I got back on Tripadvisor that they’re meant to serve bacon and sausage (and eggs for those who want them) but none of that was present while I was there. Surely they’re meant to serve all that throughout the full 3hrs too? Oh well.
I set out from the hotel around 11am after I’d got all my stuff together and despite the weather being predicted as raining most of the week, things changed such that it was mostly sunny, often humid and only gave a few drops of rain over 3 days of the week including Friday, where it went the most for 30 mins as I walked from the hotel to the Old Town Square.
Most days I would walk to and from everything via the Legil Bridge, but for my first day I went to the next one up, the famous Charles Bridge. As it was quite overcast on the Monday, the pictures of everything on the bridge didn’t turn out brilliantly. My first day was just going to be a recce round Prague so I wasn’t going at speed anywhere. Before getting onto the bridge, I saw the first of a large number of Segways which you could rent, but a 3hr trip including 30 mins training cost around £60 so I wasn’t that desperate to try one. Technically, you can buy them in the UK but you’re not allowed to legally use them on the roads so there’s not a lot of point.
Along Charles Bridge, I saw an organ grinder and skiffle band. I’d like to have put a bit of money in their respective hats as they were a bit of fun, but at that point I only had notes of 200kr (£8) and up, so they had to go without.
At the other end, I saw there’s a museum and roof area in the Charles Bridge Tower so went up there. Afterwards, I was drawn to the Boat Trips along the River Vitava, the latest one of which was about to start. It cost 290kr (almost £12) but as well as including a ticket to the Charles Museum (normally 150kr), it also included a free beer and ice cream :-p
In the pictures, the balloon by the Kafka Museum is a hot air balloon in which you can go up and hover above the river. Later, on Weds, when I went on the Prague Castle tour, we saw someone doing this. While the weather was all calm and serene, our guide, Jeff, said he’d seen it on other days where it was swinging about all over the place. I commented that if you were to fall, then it’d only be into the river.
After that it was into the Charles Museum and then a few shots in the Church of St Francis de Assisi before looking for somewhere to eat, by which time it was 2pm. That place turned out to be the outside area of the Hotel U Zlatého stromu. Not feeling too adventurous, I went for the burger and chips.
After lunch, I took in the Astronomical Clock where it chimed at 4pm and then the trumpeter does his bit. That is something introduced only 3 years ago to pep up the fact that the clock’s usual hourly ‘performance’ doesn’t seem to quite cut the mustard these days. As one of the tour guides later put it, they needed something for the audience to clap at. I went up to the top of the clock for the 5pm top-of-the-hour to see the trumpeter first hand.
Afterwards, I went to Wenceslas Square and up towards the National Museum, but by the time I arrived it was after 6pm, the time they closed. In addition, they were also shut on the first Tuesday of the month so Wednesday would be my first chance to go in. After another walk, I went for dinner around 8pm at the 7 Angels restaurant on Jilská, 110 00 Praha, which I’d been recommended. I had the Venison with rosehip sauce, with potato croquettes (below) and it was delicious but I learned the hard way that you need to know in advance whether the bread and water they offer you before a meal is free or not. Like in the hotel, always assume it isn’t. I found that out too late, but when I did try to ask if it was free or not, the guy was all “Oh, my English probably isn’t so good.” Hmm…
In addition to a 50kr (£2) cover charge, they charge the same for the bread and once you take into account the service at the end of the meal, the 0.75litre water bottle cost somewhere between £7-8! As such, while the food was nice, I doubt I’d go back to this restaurant when the bill for one came to just over £25. There’s much better value to be had elsewhere, and closer to the Square.
Due to having had hardly any sleep last night, I made my way back to the hotel along the Legil Bridge and got back around 10.30pm. Early for me, but like most nights, despite there being the occasional wi-fi spot around, as I found out, the hotel’s wi-fi allowed me to have my internet fix 🙂
There are a lot of free wi-fi hotspots about, but they don’t seem to function too well and just tended to connect long enough – when I didn’t even realise it was – to get me up to date on my Gmail account (all my regular emails are copied to my Gmail so I could see everything I’d been sent) even if I then couldn’t get onto a proper signal so I could connect to Tweetdeck and reply back to things on Twitter and Facebook.
Note that Vodafone have a European Data Traveller option which gives you 25Mb internet for £2/day and that’s pretty good value, but I only ended up using that on one day because I eventually found, from Tuesday, that if I went for something to tide me over at KFC for lunch (where they had free wi-fi so I could catch up on everything) then inbetween getting up to date in the morning and back in the evening at my hotel, apart from checking occasional emails, if I spent a lot of the rest of the time on the internet then I’d be missing out on everything I’d actually gone to Prague to see.
Tuesday July 5th
Again, a mere 4hrs sleep. This didn’t bode well. Once I awoke, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.
My plan of the start of Tuesday was to get to the Old Town Square for 11am for one of the free Prague tours. My guide book told me they started at 11am and that was more recently published than a review online which stated they were at 10.30. Thankfully, the guide book was right and we were taken round the town by Deanna, a woman born in the Czech Republic, but who then was taken to live in Australia with her family at an early age. She came back to live in Prague six months ago after marrying a Czech.
The tour took in the Church of St Nicholas, the Rudolphinium, the Jewish Quarter, the old New Synagogue, the Powder Tower, the Estates Theatre and the Jan Hus statue, for a man who was a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague. He is said to have influenced the reformation.
One thing these free tours do is to plug their paid tours, such as the Prague Castle tour and a Pub Crawl tour. It’s been some time since I went on the piss for the evening to that extent and wasn’t something I fancied doing again. Seeing people on the tour, a couple of nights on the run, only served to confirm that.
Once the 2hr 15min tour was over, after which most people tipped Deanna around 100kr (£4), as I did too, I went back to the Rudolphinium as she said they held classical concerts there and it was the best place to see one sound-wise. However, when I went in, the gift shop was closed and there seemed to be no way to get in to find out about these concerts.
I then had lunch at the nearby KFC where I first found they had free wi-fi and with a meal that would fill me up and also give a free refill of Pepsi, you couldn’t say no. On the way back to the Square, I saw there was a concert at the Church of St. Nicholas at 4pm. I thought the line-up was that shown round the side, of works by Dvorak, Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi but it turned out to be a benefit concert for something. It was free to get in but with suggested donations. Again, 100kr sounded like a reasonable amount as the guy running it said it lasted 2hrs. In the end it lasted for 3hrs and was quite something.
Church of St Nicholas, Prague
As we couldn’t get into the Church of St James during the free tour, since they were closed at that time, and we’d been told about the gruesome severed arm, I went to have a look. However, I then found that the opening hours were 9.45am-midday and 2-4pm, which means it is open for the afternoon free tours. Anyway, I’d go back there another day.
I then went for a wander to see where I was going to eat that evening and to explore some of the streets I hadn’t been round yet. I came across the Staromácek, positioned very close to the Old Town Square and near to the Jewis Quarter, where I had the pork steak with pineapple and cheese (below), plus bacon dumplings (and no ketchup! Well, they did have it on the table but I chose against it). All very reasonably priced, there was no charge for bread, no attempt to sell me water on top of the beer I’d asked for and this turned out to be the best place where I ate during the whole holiday.
I got back to the hotel around 11.30pm and went via Charles Bridge for the second and last time during this trip.
This is the best restaurant I came across. You MUST go here!
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 🙂
Thursday July 7th
My night’s sleeps were improving but not by a great deal and by now I was getting an ulcer on my tongue. Not fun. Next time I go away I’ll definitely take something for it rather than just try and deal with it on my return.
I went back up to the National Museum, having left the hotel around 10.45am and in my shorts, but I didn’t go the same route as last time. I went up so that I came out in Wenceslas Square around the halfway point and then walked up. On entering the museum, it was good for a while but then I got a bit bored with it all. Plus, I paid 200kr (£8) for the audioguide which was okay for a while but you soon find it drones on and on, and if I wanted that then I’d have got married(!)
For lunch it was KFC again, around 2pm. but this time I went back to the one near the Square. For the rest of the day I went into the Wax Museum and did some gift shopping, including buying a clock that was apparently hand-painted in Prague, yet said “Made in Germany” on the back. This was the same clock that was sold in lots of places.
As it was my last full evening in Prague, I went for dinner at the Staromacek again, where I’d been for a meal on Tuesday and the drink on Weds, and where at least one waiter laughed to see me again because it was my third night in a row (well, it was cheap and delicious). After the meal and a couple of drinks, I went for a wander and eventually to a bar on the way back to the hotel, the U Vejvodu, which had one of the cheapest beers I’d seen listed at 32.90kr (I don’t know why they don’t round it up to 33kr as when I bought crisps at 19.90kr from a supermarket, they managed to add a random tax to make it a round 20). I went on, ordered a beer, gave the surly barman 35kr and watched how he didn’t return with my change. Okay, so I didn’t care about 2kr (around 8p) but I still thought, “You cheeky twat. How many more people are you doing that to?” Maybe it’s like the ‘take a penny, leave a penny’ trays in the US where you get your small change from those, but I didn’t see one. Hey ho.
After that, it was heading towards midnight and I had to get everything packed in the morning for a latest check-out time of midday.
I tried out the clock which I bought, but even when testing it with some of the newly charged batteries, the hands would not go round. Shit. We’d been told by Deanna, on Tuesday, how poor customer service is in the Czech Republic, so I didn’t know how I’d fare in the morning when I took it back. Hey, at least I’ve got my receipt!
Friday July 8th
In the morning, I ended up leaving the hotel around 11.30am after leaving my suitcase with them. I’d forgotten to check the weather outside inbetween breakfast and packing, so chanced it with shorts again. I’d found Google’s weather prediction to be fairly accurate, but either way, once I’d got outside I found it was raining. Well, I could’ve got my suitcase back and changed into jeans and gone out again, but apart from the time factor, it was very humid so I stuck with my shorts even though I’d end up in them all day.
I got to the shop for midday and the woman there put in a proper battery – and not one of the rechargeables I use (even though they were fully charged) – and it worked fine. So, with a working clock, I left the shop.
I went into the Sex Machine Museum, then to the Church of St. James (nice contrast) and saw the severed arm… well, there’s not too much left of it now. Predictably I went for my last lunch at KFC, but hey, free wi-fi and free toilet – you can’t say no.
My last museum was the Museum of Torture. Overall, I think that with a 5-day trip I had spent about one day too long there. You can look at more and more events and places while you’re there, but after a while you get “museum’d out” and I had plenty of time to sit and relax in the Square inbetween doing all the things I wanted to do.
Anyway, after that, and as there had been a couple of national holidays earlier in the week, this week concluded with some dancing and a school band playing in the Square. After watching some of that, I headed towards the Jewish Quarter to have a look round and do some more shopping, then walking up Parížská towards the Cechuv bridge. I didn’t cross the bridge, and had I had stronger feet I’d have gone across and headed up further to see the National Technical Museum. I could also have looked at the Chocolate Museum and the National Museum in the Square itself, but like I said, sometimes you can get “museum’d out” because you’re just looking at one place after another and taking loads of pictures but not really taking it all in. Perhaps I’ll go back again in a few years and go to those places and see what else is new.
Old Town Square, Prague
After a final ice cream and a last sit down in Prague’s Old Town Square, I took the last few shots and headed back towards the hotel around 7.15pm, was picked up from there at 8.40 by the Shuttlebus, which gave me enough time to move some items from my suitcase to my hand luggage and vice versa. The plane wasn’t due to leave until 11.15pm and drop me back in Manchester at 12.35am (taking into account the time difference), which it managed despite setting off a bit late but sticking to that 1hr 45min duration from before.
Back home it was raining, but I’d beaten the poor weather forecast in Prague, having learned when I arrived that I’d only just missed a thunderstorm on the Sunday, with another one due the day after I returned.
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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.