Weekend Wanderings: Prague - Food

Part II! In case you missed Part I, the focus of the last post was on activities in Prague. And now we move onto the reward for all that walking and biking: food! And beverages because Prague is a serious beer town.

We stumbled upon a small beer cafe on our way to a hypothetical beer garden (we never found it) that only served pickled cheese, pickled sausage and two beers. Made choosing easy. There were also a bunch of dogs around and the weather was sunny so helped make this oasis feel like paradise. There is also a beer garden in the large park on the north side of the river which will undoubtedly provide a great view! We passed it on the bike tour but didn't stop for a beer there (we stopped for one at the Castle instead).

Although this is a chain, Bakeshop is worth it! I couldn't say if these are traditional but it had the feeling of an old cafe and there are some just off the Old Town square if it's too hectic there. They have a great assortment of pastries but also egg dishes. They are also super fast, we had a sit down breakfast in about 20 minutes.

And if Bakeshop is full, there's a cafe across the street called Au Gormand that has a back garden area which is lovely for breakfast as well. They seemed to have additional lunch offerings beyond take-away pastries.

On the recommendation of a foodie friend, we went to dinner at Lokal. Although it also has multiple locations, they have traditional food and I couldn't even make it through the goulash and bread dumplings. It was extremely good but also so filling.

You will see a lot of vendors selling chimney cakes with ice cream in them. They look amazing and are delicious but our tour guide told us these are traditional as of about 2014 when they caught on from a Hungarian tradition. And although strudel is usually associated with Austria or Germany, their Czech neighbors adopted the tradition too. I've heard hot chocolate is great in Prague too but it was pretty warm so stuck with strudel for dessert. So go ahead, treat yo'self.

Weekend Wanderings: Prague - Activities

This is one time when I wish I had digital photos from my youth. It would mean instant access to some strong #tbt photos but at the same time, I looooved the whole printing photo process. Waiting for the prints, then flipping through them and hoping your pictures came out as intended and you hadn't blinked or stuck your finger over the lens. The struggle was real.

If I had those pictures readily available and not in storage, I would throw some up here of Prague circa 2005. I'm pretty sure I had a really good hair year at that time (more reasons to find those photos and be like "hairdresser, make this happen again") so I'm not even worried about embarrassing teen style. Okay, we were on a class trip and we had to wear the same bright blue jacket as all the other students and when we weren't, we had to wear our designated color which for me was 'silver' aka grey aka I'm super pale and that is not a good look.

At any rate, I don't mind visiting a place twice, especially with a fresh perspective and Prague was no exception. A friend of mine was in nearby Germany for work so away we went to Praha.

Smetana Hall / Municipal House

The first time I was in Prague was for a choir tour and we sang in the Municipal Hall, also called Smetana Hall. It was the first time I was travelling sans parents/family and our choir director was intense. People were paying money to see us! It wasn't just our parents in the audience or other kids forced to sit through a school assembly. No. Pressure. But it was also an amazing experience to be in a real concert hall so convinced my travel companions to attend a classical music concert there during our trip. The hall was pretty empty which made me wonder if it had been that way for our concert all those years ago. I'm going to tell myself it was full, just like my hazy memory remembers it.

The interior

This time around though, did a few more things, starting with a bike tour! I'm terrified of biking, mostly because cars crush bicycles (real-life rock, paper, scissors here) but it was worth the fear to take a bike tour of Prague.

Safety first!

We started in the Old Town and crossed the river to go up to the giant park and rode over to the castle. One thing from my travels the first time around that stuck out: the Metronome statue. At one point this was a giant statue of Stalin which they destroyed after the fall of communism. It was then temporarily replaced by a statue of Michael Jackson (no joke!) before the current Metronome was installed. To signify the sway of time? The delicate balance of life? Something nifty?? All of the above.

We then pedaled over to the Castle where we stopped for a bit and walked around. The castle was built over time so has a number of different architectural styles. As with most palaces, they have a royal garden and changing of the guard ceremony. There is also a cathedral you can visit, rumor has it the lines are shorter towards the end of the day but probably depends on the day.

St. Vitus Cathedral

The Castle is up on a hill, as you do, so while we had to work to get up there, we got to cruise downhill on our way back into town. And I do mean cruise, it's pretty steep and I rode the break pretty hard but ultimately my mass and inner child won out and away we went! Next stop was the Lennon Wall which started as a memorial to John Lennon when communism was still sort of a thing so kept getting painted over. But the wall is part of the embassy of Malta who were like "it's cool, we dig it" and so the wall remained. Now you can tag it to your heart's content. But it will most likely be promptly painted over.

Lennon Wall (sorry kids, graffiti isn't censored)

We then took a brief pedal past the Charles Bridge which was a relief because it was packed with people! Definitely worth a visit but perhaps on foot. You get great views of the castle from down below.

Charles Bridge with Castle in the background

The tour ended back near Old Town which is also a great place to visit. If you go to Prague now, you will see a lot of construction and the famed Astronomical Clock is closed for refurbishment. This is all in preparation for the big celebrations this fall for 100 years of Czech independence. Check back in October for all the sites to be open and shiny!

Further out, more towards the Castle on the north/west side of the river, you will find the Kafka House with the Pissing Statue out front (not sure what this is about, it showed up on Google maps and how can you not check it out...). The Infant Jesus is also an attraction on this side of the river, housed in the Church of Our Lady Victorious.

Sweet baby Jesus

This post started as one really long post including food recommendations but it just became a novel (it might still be too long...). So keep an eye out for part II: Food!!