Pivos in Prague

Ok, enough about the baby already! Lets talk about travellin'!

We have just returned from a delightful long weekend in Prague. This was an exciting trip for us for several reasons. First, it has been high on our Bucket list of destinations since forever; second we were lucky to travel with our good friends the Jacksons; and finally the trip was William's first ever flight! And things went exceptionally well on all counts.

We set out late Friday afternoon, which meant we would be travelling right at William's bedtime. so I was trepidatious about his behaviour. But he was a gem. Both to and from, he settled happily down to napping and nursing, and no-one heard a peep from him (You could see the look of horror on our fellow travellers faces.....oh no they've got a BABY!!!! But he was awesome).

We were extremely impressed with our accomodations at Hotel Christie right from the start. Greg ordered a car for the 6 of us to get into town, with baby seat. Car was waiting for us when we arrived, seat properly installed, and we were efficiently whisked into town: 1 point for the hotel!

Then our room....did they think we were the high rollers, we wondered? We were installed in the top floor suite with King sized bed, gleaming bathroom and charming aerie that looked out over the spires of Prague. When they were unable to provide us with a baby cot for the first night (not a problem as the bed was enormous) the hotel sent us a gorgeous fruit tray as an apology. Breakfast each morning was 'full on' as Greg would say, which we happily partook of before setting our for fast paced days.

Since William has arrived, our ability and interest in researching our destinations has plumetted; lately we show up, look around, and wish we knew what we were looking at. So this trip we were doubly glad to travel with friends, and we rode their researching tailfeathers the whole way! This was only problematic when we took the tram seperately as Greg and I got completely lost, ended up in the suburbs of town. Kindly locals soon set us straight in a language soup of Czech, English and French.

We started with the top priority site as far as the lads were concerned: brew pubs! Our first stop was at a Medieval monastary that has been making beer or pivos, since the dawn of time....and time to perfect the recipe they obviously had, for it was delicious. It took several pints to wash down our heavy, satisfying potatoe pancakes, sausages and dumplings before -finally- doing some siteseeing.

We went to Prague castle, which was the usual hodge podge of buildings from different eras, and toured St Vitus cathedral, looking in admiration at Mucha's stained glass window. As interesting as the sites were, the view was the best part of this day, which gave us an appreciation for the charm and beauty of the city spread below our feet. We meandered back downhill, stopping to eat icecreams, shop for garnets, get 'walking beers' and goggle at the amazing architecture. On our way home we crossed the touristy but charming St. Charles Bridge which was alive with artisans and buskers. We returned to our aerie (Subway in hand...we don't get to eat dinner out these days) in time to watch the sun set over the city. That night we hosted drinks for the Jacksons and other friends we found out were in town, and we all enjoyed the nightly fireworks display over Prague Castle.

The next day our friends had to head home, so we (happy that we had another full day) set out on our own to explore Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. We watched the ancient Astrogical Clock spin and whir at the hour and waved to the trumpter posted on the turret. The cool interior of St Nicolas Church soothed both our sore feet and souls before heading to the Jewish Quarter.

Jews have had a strong presence in Prague since the Dark Ages and much of their history as a people -pogroms, religious persecution and the Holocaust- were played out here. One synagogue is a memorial to all those killed during WWII, with names and dates being hand painted on the walls during the 50's. During the Communist regime, these names were painted over and had to be re-written again in the early 90's. What tenacity.

The Old Jewish Cemetary was fascinating! According to Jewish custom, burial is the only option after death, and it is forbidden to disturb a grave once it has been established. And so, over centuries of life in the ghetto, people have been buried on TOP of one another, yeilding a strange, Tim Burton like garden of crooked headstones and meandering paths. Apparently the cemetary is 10 bodies deep and is one of the largest and oldest in Europe.

On the final morning I was very keen to see the Mucha Museum as Alphons Mucha is one of my favorite artists; he is an especially interesting artist as he also has a strong association with Paris during the fin de siecle period. Greg took DouDou for a long walk to allow me to enjoy the gallery undisturbed. Among the posters that made Mucha famous were also some exceptional paintings, including an especially moving one called 'Star'. I love how I go to a museum to see a certain painting or painter, then in turn get excited about something new from my visit. I walked away wanting to know more about French actress Sarah Bernhardt (who had a 6 year contract with Mucha to do her publicity posters) as well as Mucha's lesser known painting career.

After a final look at the Municipal Hall (designed by an amalgam of Czech artists) and to munch on a 'big weiner' we headed home, happy to have experienced this warm and lovely city.