Prague - Part 1

As a birthday gift to me, Christine decided we should use some of her travel perks (from flying too much for work) to go see a big bike race in Europe. The world championships were in the Czech Republic this year, so we decided to check that out. I’ve heard from several people over the years that they loved Prague so it’s been on my list of places to see for a while. Time to check that one off the list. Last Wednesday we embarked on our journey, DEN->IAD->FRA->PRG.

The first two legs of the trip weren’t much to write home about. With Christine’s status on United, we were put in the Economy plus cabin. Short as we are, it’s still nice to have some extra space when you’re hurtling through the air in a tin can. I tried to watch the movie “Whip It” on the plane, but it was abysmal and I eventually had to resort to occupying myself with a book. I had a hard time sleeping on our trip from Washing to Frankfurt. I think it was because the flight left a little too early for me to feel like sleeping. Plus, I didn’t have my usual airplane nightcap of Jack Daniels. Now I know. Don’t skip the JD.

The Frankfurt airport people get to ride bikes around

We arrived in Frankfurt and found out that our flight to Prague had been canceled. Not that big a deal, it just meant that we’d get into Prague a few hours later than planned. We wandered around the Frankfurt airport, got our new tickets, and went to go hang out in the Lufthansa lounge (another perk of having a wife that flies too much). That gave us some time to go through our travel books and figure out what stuff we wanted to do.

Self portrait

First order of business in Prague was picking up the rental car. There was a surprising lack of signage in the Prague airport, but we eventually figured out where the rental cars were located and picked up our underpowered Skoda.

One of the first billboards I saw as we left the airport was for a Scorpions concert. It just seemed fitting, and I had a brief flashback to Olaf in Clerks (“My love for you is like a truck, Berserker”). Later I also saw signs for another old metal band (Iron Maiden maybe) and Metallica. They do love their rock. And apparently they also love ABBA. I heard more ABBA on the radio and in restaurants than ever before (with a healthy dose of Lady Gaga mixed in).

There are a lot of things that feel different about Prague compared to other places we’ve been. The language was way different, for starters, but Christine did a good job of learning some key phrases. I learned how to saw hello and thank you etc, but for the most part I was happy to point and grunt like I usually do in foreign countries. The one thing that I could never get my head wrapped around was the push/pull direction of the doors. It’s amazing how my brain is trained to think about which doors should be a “push” and which ones should be a “pull”. In almost all cases, it’s the exact opposite in Prague. Sometimes I’d stop before getting to a door and think about whether I should push or pull it, and I almost always got it wrong. It was hilarious (to me).

Our first afternoon in Prague, we walked around from our hotel and stopped for a couple beers and snacks. One of the places we walked was Wenceslas Square. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it seemed more like a tourist shopping area than anything else. Like the Times Square of Prague, only less flashy and less busy.

Beers at U Medvidku

Let’s talk about beer. The Czech’s love to drink beer. They don’t just sip it, they guzzle it. On more than one occasion, Christine and I each nursed a beer in about the same amount of time some locals sitting next to us drank 2 or 3. Seriously. It’s a little understandable being that they’re 4%-5% ABV pilsners which tend to go down really easy. At one bar I saw a dude throw down 3 Pilsner Urquells and I was thinking he must be storing that in his leg. Then he got up, grabbed his crutches, and crutched away with his one leg, no joke.

I’ve never considered myself a big pilsner fan, but any beer lover in the know has said that the true Czech Pilsners are the best. Hell, they invented pilsner in Plzen in the 19th century. After drinking many different Czech pilsners on this trip, my opinion remains unchanged. I’m still not a lover of the pils. I would certainly choose a Pilsner Urquell over an American Budweiser, but I wouldn’t choose either over another lager like a stout. The superior flavor of the pilsners in the Czech Republic probably comes from their use of barley (instead of adjuncts like rice that get used in the macro-brewer recipes). One of my issues with pilsners is there seems to be a lack of variety. Sorry to the pilsner fans, I just can’t join you.

On the way to the castle

On our first full day in Prague, we hit some of the major sights beginning with the castle, one of the biggest in the world. There were a lot of neat things to see in there, but I’m not sure we entirely did it justice. We should have gotten one of the audio guides, but the pushy sales attitude of the person at the ticket counter left us feeling that it wouldn’t be worth it. Our guide books filled us in on a lot of the stuff, but the audio guide would have really helped.

St. Vitus cathedral

The cathedral was amazing, as old European cathedrals tend to be. It’s always mind blowing to me that these things were ever built that long ago and the amount of time that went into their creation. It was also super cold in there. I swear it was colder in there than it was outside, and standing on an ice cold floor didn’t help.

Astronomical Clock

From the castle, we walked across the Charles Bridge, with all its old statues. There was a nice chilly breeze coming off the river, so we didn’t linger too long on the bridge. Instead, we headed to the Astronomical Clock. It’s a pretty wild clock that displays all sorts of information that I couldn’t even begin to read. Every hour when it chimes, some windows open up and figures of the 12 apostles parade on by.

Dinner was calling, so we went out for some more food and beer before calling it a night.

(More pictures are on my Flickr account)