Day 8, Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Itinerary: Prague

Time awake: 7:15 (felt good)

Odometer (in kilometers/miles) at start:

Weather: Nice and warm

Steps: 33327

Asleep: 1:50 AM

Map Link(s): 

Video Link(s): Old Town at Night 

Of all the wonderful breakfasts we enjoyed on the trip, the ones at Casa Marcello were the most sumptuous. The dining rooms were dark paneled and cozy without being cramped. The variety and quality of the food was incredible. It was gustatory nirvana. So we took our time enjoying it, savoring two or three cups myself of the assorted blends of coffee, each better than the last if that makes sense.

After breakfast, we headed out to explore Prague by daylight. We walked north to the Vltava River a few blocks away and then west, arriving a little before 10 AM at our fist planned stop, that being the Municipal Library and its famed Book Tower in the front lobby. We had to await for another couple to finish their photoshoot by the tower, and then snapped a few shots of ourselves by it. There may have been more in the library worth seeing, but if so, it wasn’t apparent to us. So we moved on and soon came to the Charles Bridge.

According to Wikipedia, there are 18 bridges that cross the Vltava River in Prague. Charles, however, reigns supreme for it has it all—history, majesty, and location. And it’s a pedestrian only bridge with vendors selling paintings (mostly of the Charles Bridge), jewelry, and other stuff. We stopped to look at some unusual earrings, and were struck by how beautiful they were and how reasonably priced (it seemed to me that the merchant was underselling them). So we bought a pair. 

Our intended next stop was the Hotel Café Dvorak, but first we wanted to find some facilities. We found the latter in a park beside the river, but there was a charge, so we went looking for Café Dvorak. Finding it, however, proved to be a challenge, as we would soon learn was true for finding most anything in this part of town. We passed what we thought might have been the café, but we weren’t sure, so we continued on. Eventually, we did find the café, but it didn’t strike us as a place we needed to visit, so we kept going. And that brought us to the Lennon Wall, where young and old gathered to pay homage to John Lennon and if inclined to add their own Lennon-inspired graffiti to the approximately 12-foot high by 110-foot long wall. Whatever gets added is by necessity painted over whatever was there before, making it an ever evolving work of art. It was pretty cool. The fact that it’s in tribute to the great Beatle made it all the cooler. It was also a lovely, shady section of town, with troubadours playing Beatles’ music. We visited the gift shop and found a couple of nice things, but didn’t buy anything. We probably should have gotten one of the tee shirts. We checked out a few nearby restaurants, but chose to keep going.

Then we really got lost, or more precisely I should call it “GPS lost,” because we knew where we were, we just had no clue how to get where we wanted to go. And that was Wallenstein Palace Gardens. Google maps directed us down narrow Letenska Street onto the bustling Klárov to a public restroom. Then it would send us back the way we came, and after that right back to the restroom. It was getting maddening, so on about our third pass, we decided to just venture in through an unmarked passageway in the wall lining the street. And presto there was Wallenstein Palace Gardens. How strange is that? Alice in Wonderland strange. Anyway, the garden with its pool, statuary, fountains and peacocks offered a cool, quiet, and green sanctuary from the city with its torrent of tourists. And best of all, or so we thought, was the Dripstone Wall. And it all was free.

Before proceeding, I should mention that no place I’ve ever been has as many tour groups per block as we saw in Prague. No other place even comes close. Prague is without question a spectacular city. But you cannot say it hasn’t been discovered.

Our next order of business was to find a place to have lunch. We figured to be inundated with enticing options, but to our surprise it took some doing to find a place that grabbed our fancy. We walked and walked, often in circles because of our baffled GPS, at one point through what appeared to be a movie set, until we eventually found a row of restaurants along Malá Strana. We chose Malostransky Hostinec, probably because it was billed as a “Beerhouse.” We did not regret our choice. Inside the restaurant had an old world ambiance, and the outdoor patio overlooking a side street where we ate had an elegant contemporary feel. And our fare, consisting of a chicken Caesar salad, soup, bread, and a couple of local draft, was excellent. Just after 3 PM and after our waiter convinced us to tip him handsomely, we resumed our peripatetic tour of lovely Prague.

We succeeded in leaving the tour groups behind, for a while at least, but it took a hell of a lot of exertion to ascend the zillion or so steps to Petrin Gardens to do so. The hike was memorable, but the gardens not so much. There’s a Mirror Maze, but we didn’t visit it, and there’s a tower, the highest thing around, by far, but we didn’t go up. Having climbed all those steps, we didn’t need to climb a tower to get a bird’s-eye view of Prague. That we had. Moving along we stumbled upon a lovely outdoor beer garden called Restaurant Peklo, which is run by the monks who reside at the nearby Strahov monastery. So of course we stopped for a cold draft. And of course we loved it. Continuing on we skirted around the monastery and soon emerged back in town along Pohorelec St., which was lined with shops and restaurants. I stopped at Café Melvin at 8 Pohorelec St. for a cup of coffee to go. A little further on we came to an area called Castle Square, where the street opened into a vast cobblestone covered plaza filled with people milling about and lined with street vendors selling food, souvenirs, and artsy stuff. On far edge of the plaza was a Starbucks with seating on the roof that had to have had the best view of any Starbucks anywhere, looking down as it did on Prague. I wished I hadn’t stopped at Café Melvin’s for coffee, which was nothing to trumpet, and had one here.

Instead of Starbucks it was to another castle, another stunning medieval structure in a city full of them, that we proceeded. Prague Castle to be precise. It was pretty clear that we weren’t going to be able to pull a Carcassonne here. Unlike the nearly deserted French fortress during our visit in 1992, Prague Castle was awash with tour groups and tourists. The castle complex dates from the 9th century and is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. Contained with the complex is the gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral. While admiring the imposing structure from the courtyard that surrounds it, I took one photo and the battery in my camera died. That would be the end of my photo record for the next three hours. Oh, well, there wasn’t much to capture on the walk back to our hotel, and what there was I believe Sharon shot. 

We started back to the hotel a little after 5 PM and after descending a long, cobblestone walkway, we found ourselves on the bustling Klárov, in the same spot we kept landing upon hours ago while looking for the elusive Wallenstein Palace Gardens. Well, as T.S. Eliot wrote in Little Gidding, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the first time.” How true. We took Klárov back across the Vitava River via the Mánes Bridge. On the other side of the river was a nice little park and concert hall, where it might have been nice to hang, but we didn’t dawdle and instead headed directly back to the Casa Marcello. Of course there were scads of other places we would have liked to have visited in Prague, but they would have to await another day. All in all, and despite GPS’s best efforts to forever send us in the opposite direction, we saw a heck of lot on this beautiful day. And we still had the night.

After our return to the Casa Marcello and giving our legs a little respite from a long day’s walk, we soon headed out again in search of the perfect place to dine. And to that end, we once more circled about Old Town Square and eventually settled upon Cerny Slon S.R.O Hotel Praha. Our table was outside and in a small alcove across from the restaurant itself, and actually beside the wall of what I found to be the most enchanting of all of Prague’s enchantments—that being Týn Church. This church struck me as the anti-Disney castle—it was black and menacing, but every bit as beautiful. And we ate dinner beside its outer walls. According to the receipt, we had pekáč, příloha zelí. I think it was pork, maybe it was steak, or was it a meat medley? I think it was really good, maybe it was just the time and place. One thing I do remember, and always will, is that this was a fascinating place to have dinner.

The next order of business was to return to a souvenir shop we’d visited the night before to buy a very sharp looking “Prague” baseball cap. I had intended to buy the beige cap, but the saleslady expressed her preference for the dark blue one with silver stitching. I reconsidered. She’d made her point. I bought the dark blue one with the silver stitching. We then stopped at a nearby saloon for a last draft (or two) in Prague. We took a table outdoors, where we enjoyed our brews and for the most part the scene. The part of the scene we didn’t enjoy was a crew of late-night workmen across the street loading a truck and making an awful lot of noise doing it. We could have done without all the racket. And although still to come were a few navigational missteps on our way back to the hotel (you had to know that was coming) and a few more beers in our room, we had for all for all intents and purposes reached the end or our Prague fairy tale. Goodbye night, Prague.