My grandson, Dan is turning 21 in early September so as a present I decided on a four night break in Prague. We hunted for deals together and decided on a package deal with Jet2, which was by far the best deal. Dan had some ideas of where he wanted to visit after conversations with his friends.
At 5.45 Thursday August 29th we were transported to Manchester where we took off on the 8.30 flight. Coming into Prague I was impressed and surprised to see how green and forested areas of the countryside were, particularly as large swaths of Europe had been overcome by extremely high temperatures. And from several thousand feet looked very brown.
Prague had been forecast with temperatures of 30C and as we emerged from our taxi the forecast was clearly correct We arrived at our fairly basic hotel, Le Petit Hotel Prague and off loaded our luggage. The lift wasn’t working so there were immediately five flights of steps to climb.
After acquiring some maps from the hotel receptionist we set off to walk into town. Dan had found a Czech restaurant that he wanted to try, where TripAdvisor had. said they were welcoming to British people. The walk was very informative and I was amazed at the beauty of the architecture. Trams constantly passed us and the next day this became our more regular form of transport. The sun was gradually burning off the morning mist although it remained quite humid.
Our first view of the River Vltava was exciting and when we crossed the bridge there was a great view of the castle. After negotiating a number of streets we came to a narrow alleyway and shortly after arrived at our destination. It was extremely hot by now so I ordered water and Czech beer; Pilsners. It came cold with a frothy head, which took up a third of the glass, but it was very refreshing and we drank as we perused the menu. Having both settled for authentic Czech dishes; they duly arrived and the waiter kindly photographed us.
After lunch, which was quite late by the time we got there, we retraced our steps to the hotel and made enquires about the tram. The one other thing Dan was very keen to do on our first day was walk up to the Petrin Tower, which he had been told was a fantastic vantage point for seeing the city at night. He’d found another authentic restaurant called “Wine O’Clock”, but read it was very small so chose another as a back up.
After showering and in my case changing we took the number 17 tram into Prague centre. Having alighted, Dan negotiated us through the busy Charles street, which was thronging with tourists, down some side streets. Wine O’Clock was both small and full, so the manager told us to email for a reservation. We retraced our steps and Dan navigated us to plan B, where we were shortly joined by a group of Germans away on a boys’ weekend.
Leaving the cheery Germans behind we headed for the nearest bridge ,where there was a fireworks display. We seemed to be walking for ages until eventually we came to the gardens at the bottom of Petrin hill. We climbed and climbed and were rewarded with some nice views. Eventually the tower, lit in The Czech Republic colours came into view. Sadly, when we arrived the tower was closed and we discovered there was a Funicular railway. Dan called a taxi and we decided to return, both going earlier and catching the railway. We had walked for the day in total 14 kilometres. I was both hot and tired, but I’d gained a feel for the geography, which would be further enhanced with our all day tour on Friday.
