If you’ve missed part I, you’ll find it here.

The second day of our wonderful weekend in winter wonderland Prague started as the first day had closed: with lots of snow!! We saw little snow men everywhere! Very cute 🙂

We had decided that we want to spend this day just wandering around, sucking in the atmosphere of this beautiful city. After breakfast (which was very nice in our Grandhotel Bohemia!), we headed to the Old Town Square again and walked to Charles Bridge.

When in Prague, make sure to look up from time to time. There are so many beautiful, historical houses. You’ll find a lot of Art Nouveau for example.

But you don’t have to get a stiff neck, there’s also a lot to explore by looking straight ahead:

And sometimes, it’s also worth looking to the ground…

Isn’t that cute? Four hearts in a golden circle. I nearly missed it… 🙂

We crossed Charles Bridge and entered the “Kleinseite” (“Malá Strana” in Czech – which translates to “Little Side” and refers to the part of Prague in the west of the Vltava River).

When you leave Charles Bridge, you’ll find the park Kampa on your left. I’ve never been there in winter so we wanted to find out what it looks like covered with snow. And our undertaking got rewarded: Suddenly the sun came out and the snow was sparkling. We had such a beautiful view from Kampa over to Charles Bridge, with a blue sky over it.

It was so magical, time could have stopped moving, I wouldn’t have minded…

But to bring you guys back to reality, too, that’s what we found in front of Kampa Museum:

Yes, it’s a museum for modern art, why are you asking…? 😉

There’s a little canal leading around Kampa and that’s why this part of Prague is sometimes called “Venice of the east.”

A very romantic spot. 🙂

We left magical Kampa and started to walk up the winding streets to the castle.

The last part of the street is a bit steep but it’s worth the climb because you get rewarded with a stunning view.

Even this little snow man liked what he saw… at least I think so, he didn’t talk much… 😉

We didn’t visit the castle, we just had a look at St. Vitus’ Cathedral from the outside.

OK, I couldn’t resist, I had to get this touristy picture taken:

We also had a look down on the city from the other side of the castle…

… and descended by using the stairs next to this wall:

On our way back to the city center, we passed Charles Bridge again.

When you’re on Charles Bridge, you might observe many people touching pictures of a saint. Let’s talk about this cult for a moment: John of Nepomuk was drowned in the Vltava River at the behest of King Wenceslaus in 1393. As the confessor of the queen he refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional – and thus got in trouble with the king. Today, he is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional and a protector from floods. And many people touch his picture for good luck. But some people get confused by who exactly they have to touch…

This is one of the pictures of Nepomuk. So, if you have to, touch it…

Here’s another picture of Nepomuk – but there are other individuals on it, as well. Question: If you want to touch this picture for good luck, what figure would you go for?

a) the random dog

b) the rubberneck, watching poor Nepomuk getting killed without doing anything

c) Nepomuk, falling down the bridge

d) none of the above because by touching this picture, I’ll get in contact with billions of bacteria, the hundreds of tourists, who touched it before me, left.

Well, this woman is not on the right track, she’s touching the rubberneck. Don’t know what luck will come from that… 😉

On our way back to the city center, we passed two more points of interest, I would like to share with you:

1.) My favourite shop in Prague: Manufaktura!

Here you find cute Czech folk craft and traditional wooden toys and (even more interesting! ;-)) cosmetics inspired by balneology and Czech natural ingredients. I LOVE their soaps, shampoos, body lotions, creams… 😀

I got two body lotions and a shampoo for kids…

2) Marionette shops: You’ll find a lot of marionette theaters in Prague. Many of them are performing Don Giovanni (and they are doing it quite well, I can tell you ;-)).

But even better: You can buy a marionette as a souvenir, too. You’ll find a lot of cheap puppets in many of the souvenir shops, but there are also a few professional marionette makers, too. They sell high quality puppets and they are absolutely worth their price.

When I left Prague after living there for 7 months, I wanted to buy myself a souvenir that’s worth my good memories of this city. So I went to some of the marionette shops and chose a little wooden replica of Mozart. I still love it.

We had again an awesome time in Prague. This city is simply something very, very special. It was great being in Prague in winter when there is heaps of snow. But I am also looking forward to coming back one day soon in summer, when you can sit in the parks, climb one of the hills and enjoy the view from there. Good bye Prague, see you soon again!

More information about:

Museum Kampa

Manufaktura

The post Prague – the “Golden City” (part II) appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

I’ve lived in Prague for 6 months in 2005 and again for 4 months in 2008, to do an internship and to write my thesis. And somehow, this magical city became very important to me and I HAVE TO come back again and again and again.

It takes six hours to travel from Stuttgart to Prague. You can take the train to Nürnberg and switch into a bus there. Very convenient! We arrived last Saturday in the early afternoon and found the “Golden City”… all white! Covered all in snow! Very beautiful, I have never seen the city like this.

We walked from the train station to our hotel, the “Grandhotel Bohemia”, close to the Municipal House (Obecní dům) and the Powder Tower.

A fantastic hotel. Don’t miss the huge breakfast buffet!!

We quickly put our luggage into our room and off we were, enjoying this beautiful city. We went to the Old Town Square  (Staroměstské náměstí) first. Here you find the Old Town City Hall with its famous Astronomical Clock,…

… the Church of Our Lady before Týn (in the background)…

…and the Jan Hus Memorial:

We left the historic Old Town Square and went to the modern Wenceslas Square (Václavské námestí).

Here you find a lot of shops and restaurants, but also the old Museum.

We went into some shops and soon it got dark and were hungry. So it was time for some typical Czech cuisine, so we went to the “Novomestsky Pivovar Restaurant & Brewery”, close to Wenceslas Square.

It’s easy to miss the entrance to the restaurant as it doesn’t look like much from the outside.

But the interior is really something special:

In the main room you find big brew kettles, when you follow the labyrinth of corridors and stairways to the other rooms, you can admire all the wall paintings along the way…

As all the tables in the main room were already full, we followed our waiter to one of the rooms downstairs.

What I like a lot about this place is a) the waiters are very friendly and b) they have menus in many different languages. Moritz and I ordered a Czech beer first. Even though I am not at all a beer drinker, I don’t mind the Czech beer very much. It tastes lighter than German beer and I managed to finish half of my glass (Moritz volunteered to drink the rest, he’s such a gentleman :-))

We shared a garlic soup which came with breadcrumbs and a piece of Camembert cheese…?! Very tasty though!

As the main course, Moritz chose the Bohemian Platter…

…which consists of roast pork, pork neck, sausage, two kinds of dumplings and sauerkraut.

I went for one of my most favourite Czech dishes: Svíčková!

Marinated sirloin with dumplings, cranberries, cream, brown sauce and – very important – a piece of lemon – what a dream!

After this rich dinner, we had to have a Becherovka of course, a cordial from Karlsbad.

We definitely needed an after-dinner walk! As it was already dark when we left the restaurant, we decided to go to Charles Bridge and take some night pictures.

On the way back to our hotel, we passed the Old Town Square again and found some stands where they sold mulled wine and Trdelnik, which consists of grilled dough, wrapped around a stick and topped with walnuts and sugar. “That makes a perfect dessert for our traditional Czech dinner” we thought and had some. Mmmmmhhhh! 🙂

That was our first day in Prague. “Czech” out my next post about what we did on our second day! 🙂

More information about:

Prague

Grandhotel Bohemia

Novomestsky Pivovar Restaurant & Brewery

The post Weekend getaway to Prague – the “Golden City” (part I) appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.