9/9/19-9/13/19 Prague Czech Republic

Greetings from the lovely city of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic!

We left beautiful Krakow with a planned six hour driving trip from Krakow to Prague, easy trip all freeway. However, about 150 km out of Prague we see traffic slowing down, not a good sight to see on the freeway. Construction the next 150 km and the freeway went down to one lane. Our six hour trip turns into an almost eight hour trip with heavy rain on top of that. We have decided that the same people who are in charge of making the Polish maps are in charge of road construction in Czech 😳 We check into our Airbnb, which is in the suburbs, a one bedroom apartment in a high rise. Safe underground parking for the trusty Peugeot and right on the tram lines, perfect! The apartment also has two lovely balcony’s. Here’s the view from one. Bet you can guess who built that building🧐

The next day, we head out, get the local currency, Korunas, it’s 20 to 1 for the dollar. Prague is a very inexpensive city out of all the tourist areas. We buy our tram tickets. Okay, ready to explore one of the great travel destinations in Europe!

Prague is a very, very old city dating from 1300 BC, with lots of different people in charge over the years. Celts, Germans, Slavics and Czechs all ruled the area in the medieval times. It is the capital of Bohemia and was destroyed by fire in the 1700’s. The majority of Old Town was rebuilt in the 1800’s, that’s why it looks so similar throughout the Old City. Pragues main industry now is tourism. It’s quite the busy place with river cruises starting here and tour buses by the hundreds, every day. It’s also quite the party city. More beer is drank in Prague than in any city in the world including Munich.

Old Town

The Charles Bridge is a famous landmark

The city is staggeringly beautiful. It wasn’t destroyed in WWII so it has retained its beauty and charm.

One of the things that makes Prague so beautiful is the pastel colors of the buildings and the intricate designs and paintings of the buildings, staggering.

We rode the Tram everywhere. It’s so smooth and efficient.

However, Prague has a notorious reputation as a tourist ripoff city, shortchanging, overcharging and different menu prices for tourists are common. Venders tried both on us, once putting his finger on a scale asking for the equivalent of $17 for a bowl of potato salad 🧐 and once failing to give correct change. They failed on both😎

Beautiful, beautiful city, over 1.3 million inhabitants and the fourth most visited city in Europe. It can be very crowded however, so we started early and beat the crowds!

We did find some beer gardens and a winery 🍺🍷

You know we love to try the local foods. Check out the wiener, Frankfurter and sausage selection in the neighborhood grocery

The local delicacies Trdelnik, sweet dough rolled in sugar, BBQ’d then filled with anything from ice cream to fruits. Very different.

Wonderful four days, we even caught a little rest between the 43 miles we walked in four days. Thank God for the beer gardens and the sausage bar👍

We are off tomorrow for Vienna Austria. Na zdravi. Cheers in Czech 🍺