The First Day in Prague

Prague is a new city for us, so we decided to spend the first day wandering and trying to find our way around. I had some ideas of places I wanted to head so we had a general idea where to go. That being said, it is not as easy as one might think to find their way around. Even using google maps and real maps it seemed complicated. However, that didn't really matter as we mostly just wandered and eventually ended up where we wanted to go anyway 😀

To give you a general idea for the day we each had to pick three words that described how we felt about Prague (I know... we're such teachers 😉 ) Anyway, my three were beautiful, expensive and under-renovation. Steve's were walkable, pricey and historical

We were both surprised at the cost of things here. I got some kind of amazing deal on our apartment (I didn't realize how amazing it was until we got here) which gave me the false impression that things were cheap here. Not true... at least not in the tourist zone. I think if you headed out to the suburbs things would be much cheaper. That being said, we are here to see the things in the tourist zone... and it is easier to be here, because there is at least some English! (We are not fluent in Czech... okay, honestly we don't even know one word!)

The money is slightly confusing because we are having to convert in our heads all the time. We've basically narrowed it down to 105 Czech Koruna is about $6 Canadian... still not an easy translation! Every time we see the price of something Steve gets out his phone and calculates the price divided by 17 because I just can't seem to get it through my thick skull 🤷

Okay enough ramblings, let's get to some photos!

We walked down to old town square, and one of the things we wanted to see was the Astronomical Clock. By eavesdropping on a tour group (very few in English by the way, most appear to be in German) we learned that the Czech's commissioned the clock because they wanted to put Prague on the map as a "scientific and academic" city. It was first installed in 1410 and has undergone many renovations and additions in the years since. It was significantly damaged in 1945, but has been repaired since then. It is currently under renovation and covered in a lot of scaffolding (like many other buildings we saw!).

Next we wandered around the old town square with two bajillion other tourists. We were quite enamoured with the architecture of this building... but didn't go investigate more thoroughly yet.

We were fascinated watching the guy in red seemingly hanging from a rope doing some sort of work on the outside of the building. Here is as close as we could zoom in on him.

Just for good measure, here is a selfie so you can see we were really there 😉

Next we headed down towards the river to have a look at the Charles Bridge. This is where our first unintended detour happened. We ended up going down a fancy street where all the designer stores are. Think Jimmy Choo and Gucci. We amused ourselves calculating the conversion to figure out the cost of some pretty jewelry in a storefront window. I was sure we were doing the calculations wrong until I looked up and noticed it was Cartier. OH. I guess the math was right after all.

When we got to the river we thought we were supposed to be at the Charles Bridge... but it appeared to be just a regular bridge. We discussed whether this was actually it, and it was just oversold to us... but Steve finally found a sign that told us the name of the bridge (something different... I can't remember!). We watched the boats touring up and down the river and then continued walking along towards where we thought the Charles Bridge might be.

The view of the river and Prague Castle on the other side reminded me of Budapest.

After buying an expensive bottle of water ($5 Canadian!) we decided to take a break from walking and cool off in the shade. There was a nice park overlooking the river, and we found an inviting bench to relax on.

After a shady rest we continued walking to see if we could find the Charles Bridge. We may have stopped for some more photos along the way...

At last we found the famous bridge. Just for future reference, if you see a regular bridge that is not it. The Charles Bridge very clearly reveals itself with this tower at the beginning.

They began construction of the bridge in 1357 as the only connection over to Prague Castle. It was originally known as Stone Bridge, but has more recently become known as Charles Bridge because King Charles IV commissioned it to be built.

It was PACKED with people.

We enjoyed listening to some of the buskers...

... and strolled along the bridge looking at the many different vendors and statues.

On our way back to our hotel we decided to try one of the traditional Czech treats called the Trdelnik (try pronouncing that!). It is basically a pastry rolled in cinnamon, sugar and nuts with some sort of filling. We opted for the ice cream filling of course! I did notice one on the menu that had a salad inside... but didn't see anyone trying that one out!

If you are in Prague, do not deny yourself one of these tasty treats! We both loved it!

After our treat, we headed back towards our hotel... eventually finding it... 😉

We are looking forward to visiting Prague Castle tomorrow.