Visiting Prague soon

Discussion in 'Travel Tips & Advice' started by brad, Jul 28, 2008.

  1. brad

    brad Member

    My wife and I will be visiting Prague at the beginning of November to attend a wedding. The wedding will be at St Ludmilla and we will be staying nearby. I'm interested in tips from locals or frequent travelers on places to visit. I've been to Europe twice before, but never in the Czech Republic. My wife has spent several months in Europe over the years, but has also not been to the Czech Republic.

    I love finding local food, so tips on where to eat and what food to try would be great. We enjoy architecture, music, food, science and history. We enjoy getting out of the tourist areas, but neither of us speak any Czech. She speaks some German and we both speak a little French. I'm going to learn some basic Czech words and phrases before the trip. We don't care much about stores and shopping.

    Thank you.
     
  2. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Prague is a magical place and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. You'll get lots of ideas from the site and I'm sure people here will let you have their own personal favourites. I'm glad you're starting early. Let me think about it and I'll give you my own suggestions.

    But just to be going on with, try to watch Amadeus and Casino Royale as they both have scenes filmed in Prague!
     
  3. brad

    brad Member

    Thank you, I look forward to your recommendations.
     
  4. brad

    brad Member

    The trip is approaching, so I thought I would bring this thread back up to the top for recommendations. Thanks.
     
  5. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Sorry, Brad. I will buckle down and type up my notes for you. I was never very good with long deadlines - November still seems a long way away, particularly when the temperature here in Prague yesterday was in the early 30's!
     
  6. Lilac

    Lilac Member

    Hi

    Although I'm not a local or a frequent traveler (I spent only 2 weeks in CR) I think I can mention some places where I had lunch or dinner, since I discovered most of those places here in this forum, from other topics where people were asking the same tips as you and many locals/frequent travelers were kind to help us on that with their suggestions. So, here are some tips from my notebook.

    My first dinner in Prague was at U Spirku (Kozna 12 - M Staromestska) because I was looking forward to try the famous goulash, and that's what I had there, a spicy beef goulash and a very nice pivo (can't remember which one). I really liked it and I think it was a good way to start my days in the city.

    My next lunch was at Pivovarsky Dum (Jecna/Lipova 15 - M Karlovo Namestí), that has a very nice decoration and has its own beer, you can try it with many flavors, from banana to coffee (I had a normal one... or two :D, not quite adventurous on that). As I really wanted to taste local food, I had roast pork with Bohemian dumplings and sauerkraut (I was curious for some more dumplings, after my introduction to it, at U Spirku, and to try sauerkraut, I'd never tried it before) and I liked the pork and the dumplings but I must confess that I really hated the sauerkraut. I've tried in other restaurants in CR and even in other countries later but...I can do well without it :wink:

    I liked czech food and I had the opportunity to try it in other cities (I had a wonderful goulash at Plzen, near the main square and my favourite meal was a mix of roasted meats with some kind of sauce and potatoes at a restaurant in the fabulous Cesky Krumlov) but at some point I thought I had to eat something else other than goulash, dumplings and other typical czech food so I tried two italian restaurants. One was Pizzeria Grosseto (Namestí Mirú - M Namestí Mirú), which was a good choice but I didn't find anything local about it, it could be an equally good pizzeria here in Lisbon as well. Near there (Belgická 17), you can find a very nice cafe, Medúza.

    The other one was U Chlupatyho Ducha (Konviktská 6 - M Narodní Trida) and I loved it. The food was great, and so was the decoration and the service (it looks like a cellar and the pizzas were made at a balcony right next to us) and we could see many locals there, some of them just having a chat, with a glass of wine. Really recommend this one.

    My last tip is Restaurace Sklep (Seifertova 53 - M Hlavní Nadrazí but you have to walk for a while) which hasn't quite what we would call local food but it is more into modern continental/european one. It was good but I have to mention that after dinner we didn't feel very safe walking back to that area of Hlavní Nadrazí, tram is a better option, or maybe we had too much pivos :oops:

    We also tried a mexican restaurant (I'm a big fan of mexican food and I like to try it almost everywhere I go) not far from the castle but I didn't write down its name.


    Well, I hope this long post can help you in some way. I always ask for locals' recommendations when I travel and these were really helpful to me at that time. I'm sure you will get more suggestions here and you'll love Prague, you'll find architecture, music and history in every corner. Have a nice trip!
     
  7. brad

    brad Member

    Thank you for the great eating suggestions. I really like Hungarian and Austrian goulash, so I'm looking forward to trying Czech goulash. I'm looking up your suggestions and noting them on our map.
     
  8. MK

    MK Well-Known Member

    Regarding "what to see". I think there is lot of places described here. "Minimal package" or "You can not leave Prague without seeing it" contains:

    + Old Town Square - with at least Orloj (astronomical clock) performace at each whole hour
    + Prague castle with Saint Vitus Cathedral
    + Charles Bridge (just walk there or better with visit to one/both bridge towers)
    + maybe also Jewish Town
    + the outlook on Prague Castle from Palach Square (near Staromestka station) - close to Old Town Square, Jewish Town and also close to Charles Bridge

    MyCzechRepublic recommendation for 3 days stay on is here:
    http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/s ... erary.html
     
  9. MK

    MK Well-Known Member

    and additionaly to it if you will feel ready for something more modern:

    + Prague Zoo with ship trip from city to Zoo
    + Krizik fountain performance
    + Zizkov TV Tower

    maybe others add more "must see" places
     
  10. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Sorry, Brad. I've been trying to send you a pm for the last two weeks, asking for your email address so that I could send you my Prague Notes, but for some reason, it refuses to leave my outbox.

    There are several pages so I can't post it here but if it's not too late and you're still around, let me know.
     
  11. brad

    brad Member

    I'm sorry I didn't see your PM until now. Thanks for the effort to contact me.

    We did attend the HC Slavia Praha v Plzen game on the 4th. It was a good game and it was fun to see the very organized cheering sections. The O2 arena was very new and nice.

    We got to see a lot of the typical Prague sites:

    Prague Castle and St Vitus
    Charles Bridge
    Cocktails on a boat on the river
    Old Town
    Lesser Town
    New Town
    Jewish Quarter
    Vysehrad
    Dancing house
    Many churches (St Vitus, St Ludmilla, Tyn, St Nicholas, St Francis, Our Lady Victorious, SS Peter and Paul, St Barbara)
    Mucha Museum
    Museum of Communism
    Kutna Hora and Sedlec
    Cesky Sternberg (a less visited castle in a pretty setting)

    Since we were staying at the Hotel Beranek (nice place if the location works for you - good included breakfast) we walked several times up and down Wenceslas Square when going to and from Old Town.

    [​IMG]

    Of course, there were many more things to see that we didn't get to, but we saw a lot.

    I would sometimes get up early and see things before they were busy, or would wander in the evenings to find new things. Seeing Prague Castle in the morning is great since it's almost empty and the morning fog made for interesting pictures

    [​IMG]

    Visiting the Charles Bridge at night was nice too.

    [​IMG]

    I also walked towards the TV tower at night and stumbled across the unusual Church of the Sacred Heart nearby. Both were very neat when lit up at night.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    We had many good meals (I enjoy gulas, so it was great to visit a country where it's so popular). I think my favorite place was U Graffu next to the IP Pavlova station. The food was very tasty, well priced and the restaurant was a nice place.

    Whenever I wandered, I usually found something neat. I went up to the Holesovice area to see the marketplace. While the main market wasn't that interesting to me, the farmers market was neat (beautiful peppers were only 30K per kg) and I found some beautiful graffiti at the Vltavska metro station.

    [​IMG]

    I definitely recommend the Mucha museum for anyone into art nouveau or art in general. While I learned a bit of Czech history in the Museum of Communism, I didn't think the exhibits made it a notable stop.

    Vysehrad is a very peaceful place to visit after walking busy streets and tourist sites. It's quiet and pretty. The church has lovely art nouveau paintings of saints and the cemetery has many unique and creative tombstones.

    The small amount of Czech I learned didn't turn out to be very useful other than the courtesy of words like 'please' and 'thank you' in the recipients native tongue. Almost anytime I tried to speak in Czech, I received an English response - which made things easy, but I had hoped to use it a bit more after devoting many hours to learning.

    This was my first trip into a former "eastern block" country and I was struck by the numerous memorials to victims of the communist regime.

    [​IMG]

    I also brought along an older film camera loaded with B&W film to try and capture some of Prague in the special way that B&W does.

    St Vitus:

    [​IMG]

    View of Old Town from the Charles Bridge tower:

    [​IMG]

    Groom entering St Ludmilla

    [​IMG]
     
  12. kibicz

    kibicz Well-Known Member

    Gotta say WoW. Nice pictures! :)
     
  13. brad

    brad Member

    Thanks - I've got a bunch more. I enjoy taking pictures and there were many lovely things to photograph in and around Prague.
     
  14. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Yes, really super photos, Brad. And you obviously did fine without my notes! Never mind, I've done them now and someone else will be able to benefit in the future, I'm sure. I'm particularly pleased that you got up to Vyšehrad, which is one of my favourite places in Prague.

    Re your photos, are you on Facebook? Are you going to put them on there? And a stupid question, but can you take digital black and white pictures or did you scan them in?
     
  15. wissy

    wissy Well-Known Member

    Hey Brad,

    These really are superb photos. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us. It's what MyCzechRepublic is all about. :D
     
  16. brad

    brad Member

    Thanks for the compliments. I enjoyed taking pictures in Prague.

    I am on Facebook, but the pictures are not posted there. If you'd like to see these and others, you can look at my Prague galleries on SmugMug (great photo hosting site) - http://bradjudy.smugmug.com/share/MLjsdelpuesng

    The B&W photos were taken with film and then I scanned the negatives. You can take B&W pictures with a digital camera (or convert the pictures to B&W later), but it does not have the same effect as B&W film.

    Here's an example of one of my film pictures:

    [​IMG]

    And a nearly identical digital picture converted to B&W:

    [​IMG]

    You can see how the digital one has less contrast and detail.

    With a little bit of adjustment, the digital image can me made to look more like film:

    [​IMG]
     
  17. SMZ

    SMZ Well-Known Member

    Hi, Brad -- I just want to chime in and add my own "Wow" to the list! You obviously have a good eye for capturing images that resonate with the viewer.

    It sounds like you crammed a lot into your trip and I hope you'll be able to return to the Czech Republic in the future.
    Susan
     

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