Touring Prague

Charles Bridge from River Boat

After a great first evening in Prague, we began questioning whether we had scheduled a long enough stay in this beautiful, historic European capital where beer and meals are so inexpensive.

As it turned out, taking a tour considerably sped up seeing the city, as it usually does.

Existentialist author Franz Kafka was born in Prague.

Guided tours are a big reason why so many people who initially believe a day in a port isn't nearly enough to really see a city end up eschewing a future cruise that calls on that same port on the basis that they've already experienced it.

Our Central Hotel stay included breakfast, which is always appreciated in a foreign city, as long as it doesn't pad the room-only price too much.

We rolled down stairs to enjoy cappuccino and assorted breakfast choices that included eggs, fruit, cereal, meat, cheese and, best of all, pastries.

In addition to two hotel nights, our Travel Bound package included the Best of Prague Tour, and we were soon off to the meeting point in Wenceslas Square.

Julie's infallible sense of direction and a map brought us there without undue hardship, although we walked right past the meeting place when it turned out to be under heavy construction that obstructed its sign.

Soon, we boarded a bus that took us up the hill toward Prague Castle.

As we drove along, the guide pointed out the Dancing Building inspired by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, as well as many other landmarks with quick explanations.

I worried the whole tour could be nothing but a blur.

However, as with many such tour bus rides, it was primarily transportation with a bit of narration to keep us from becoming bored.   In this case, once we stepped off the bus at the Castle, we never rode it again.

Over the course of the day, we walked something like 6 miles, so we were happy to have taken that bus ride, especially when we saw the alternative stairway to the Castle, which we took down to the city later.

The Castle complex started as a church and expanded over the years to its current 750,000 square feet.

The government still convenes there, and when the national flag flies atop the Palace, it means their President is on the grounds, as he was during our visit.

We watched the ceremonial Changing of the Guard at the palace gate.  The video I shot didn't turn out that great, so I'm afraid you'll have to go see it for yourself.

With the madness of crowds, lots of people pushed up to the rope line by the gate to try to get the best view of the drum and bugle corps.

If everyone would have backed up to about a 75 foot radius to make an arc, we all could have seen better.

Near that same gate is a statue of Czech hero Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia.

Perhaps you remember that during World War I, our ally Russia underwent the Bolshevik Revolution, whereby the royal family was ousted from power and communist rebels took over the government.

Somehow, Russia remained our allies against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire despite the regime upheaval, although the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed by Bolshevik Russia and the German-led coalition on March 3, 1918, ended Russia’s participation in World War I several months earlier than the cessation of hostilities.

Mazaryk took advantage of the fog of war to similarly lead a movement to split what are now the Czech Republic and Slovakia from Austria-Hungary and unite them into a new country.

With sympathies to their fellow Slavic peoples in Russia and Serbia, Mazaryk headed a counterespionage unit against his Habsburg leaders.

Ex-patriot Czechs and Slovakians had already formed the Czechoslovak Legion to wage outright war against their former country.

The Allies decided to support his plan for the new country, and Czechoslovakia emerged from WWI as one of the ten most industrialized countries in the world, thanks to the fact that it had about three-fourths of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire's manufacturing capacity.

The languages of Czechs and Slovakians are similar but not identical.

Like our 13 colonies, they combined the economies of an industrial Czech region with the agricultural Slovakia.

Similar to our Northern and Southern states, there remained inequalities throughout that union in terms of development.

Nonetheless, Czechoslovakia turned out to be a stable parliamentary democracy until 1938, when Hitler set his evil sights on them.

A large ethnic German population in Sudetenland made up about 25% of Czechoslovakia's population of 14 million, and Hitler considered them his natural subjects.

In the Munich Agreement, France and Great Britain signed away Silesia and other Czechoslovakian lands.  Hitler proceeded to expel all Slavs from his new territories.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain famously proclaimed this and other concessions to Hitler would assure "Peace for our time."

Totally renovated Jewish District

When World War II erupted, Czechoslovakians naturally sided with the Allies who had recognized their country at the end of the first world war.

To make a long story short, Germany essentially divided and conquered Czechoslovakia, but the region was "liberated" by Russian troops in 1944.

Founded in 1375, oldest tavern in Czech Republic

Much as Hitler considered Sudetenland his natural annexation, the Soviet Union felt this formerly free Slavic country should be subject to them, and peace for our time came at a heavy price for the people of Czechoslovakia.

It wouldn't be until 1989's Velvet Revolution, itself made possible by a resolute American stance that forced the Soviet Union to crumble, that Czechoslovakia would emerge from heavy-handed communist rule.

When in 1991, the last Soviet troops had withdrawn, a schism between Czech and Slovakian political leaders became increasingly evident, and as 1992 came to a close, the 74 year union ended with Slovakia and the Czech Republic as independent nations.

As lunch time approached, we made the long descent on an ancient stairway and proceeded past a lot of street construction to Hotel Leonardo for lunch.  Concerns about noise dissipated when we passed through the hotel into a lovely patio area restaurant, Platino.

Lunch included with the tour was another opportunity for me to have goulash and for Julie to have wiener schnitzel, among other choices.

This meal was much better than the one at the jazz club the prior night.

The jazz club goulash had been cubed stew meat in spicy gravy served with rolls, whereas Platino's was more like my mother's slow-roasted roast beef seasoned with some extra paprika and sliced dumplings.  Unlike individual dumplings made at home, it was apparently a loaf of bread dough boiled and then cut into slices.

After lunch, our guided walk around Prague took us past the oldest tavern in the Czech Republic, Prague's Little Venice, statues of the Charles Bridge, huge clock where we watched the changing of the hour, and the Jewish Quarter, eventually winding our way to a river boat as the grand finale.

Every picture has a story to tell, and I have far more photos than the ones included in my three blog posts featuring Prague, but at a certain point even I get tired of writing about them.

Starting with cake and coffee as we embarked, it was a relaxing hour-long boat ride back past the Charles Bridge to see the city again from a different perspective.

We were pretty well worn out by the end of our tour, but we walked back to Charles Bridge one more time and found a table with a nice view on the river for drinks at sunset.

As often seems to be the case, relaxing at that perfect table, just taking in the moment, proved to be the very best part of our sojourn in Prague.

Early that morning, we had passed sausage carts at Wenceslas Square that smelled delectable, but we had already had breakfast and knew we'd be having lunch on our tour.  I had been thinking about ordering one all day.

We didn't find any such carts closer by, so we walked back to Wenceslas Square, and the giant sausage served on a role with a Coke Zero on the side was delicious.

When we collapsed into bed, thoroughly exhausted, we felt like we really had experienced plenty of Prague for this trip, so after a good night's sleep and breakfast, we headed to the train station for a four hour ride to Bavaria in a train that turned out to lack wifi and air conditioning.

However, I definitely would be happy to return again to Prague.