"the city of a thousand towers"

Prague - also known as "the city of a thousand towers" or "the city of spires"...

It was late in the afternoon already when we arrived to Prague. About 150 to 200 kilometers away from Hradec Kralove. It was snowing so hard and cold, we look for a place to stay, then we ended up in a tourist information office asking where we can find a nice hotel to stay for two nights. They arranged everything for us and told us how to get there, and we are lucky to find the hotel easily. After checking in and bringing our things in our room, we went to the city. The hotel is bit expensive ( 80 Euro per night ) but includes our breakfast.

We took the tram for about half an hour and then we are in the city center of Prague. It was wonderful to be in this city, everywhere you look it's beautiful. Michael my husband said, there's a famous beer brewery in Prague called U Fleku, and they have also of course good CZ food. We decided to eat there (late lunch) and also Michael can get his Pilsener beer. It was full of tourists as we enter the historical brewery restaurant. Some are totally drunk already and making trouble so the "big guys" came and took them out of the place. It was not cheap there but still the food is good and Michael was so happy to get his beer after driving a long time and happy because he don't need to drive that day. Not so far from U Fleku we walked to the Moldau River with those beautiful buildings from 19th Century.

Then suddenly, we had been in Karl's Bridge, came another strong snow storm and we hurried back to our hotel with the tram. After relaxing, we went to an Italian restaurant near the hotel. The pizza was surprisingly good. Then we are so "kaputt" (tired) we watched tv and then fall asleep. Next day is another action day... means, a lot of walking around the city.

to be continued...

Olomouc CZ

Note: this entry is lifted from my old blog in friendster, also entitled flip-flops and backpack, a continuation of our trip to Czech Republic, March 2008.

(continuation from Kromeriz)



Next day we had been lucky this time with the weather. It was cold but at least sunny. Soon we are in OLOMOUC. We first visited the cathedral and monastery. The cathedral is called Wenzelsdom. In the city center on the main square is the Town Hall with Astronomical Clock. Also there is Pestsäule or world heritage monument. They built this monument to comemorate the victims of Plague in medieval ages in Europe.




a monument to remember the victims of plague from medieval age



the town hall with Astronomical clock









So we hit the road again after Olomouc, to reach HRADECH KRALOVE. We found at the again beautiful main square a Italian Hotel to stay for a night. As we look around the city center, it was dawn already and the sky was really colorful behind the towers of the town. Of course we took the chance to take pictures. And our dinner we had in another good Czech restaurant, with Knödel of course finished that good day.

Czech Republic March 2008

This entry is from my old blog also titled flip-flops and backpack in Friendster. All photos are taken by me and my husband Michael. Texts are all written by me.



We planned to go to Czech Republic around Easter, and we thought it's just beginning of Spring so we could go Camping. But just a day before we started, the Winter came with a lot of snow and temperature below zero. The whole season of winter was warm, so we had not been so lucky with the weather and so the whole trip become more expensive because we had to stay in Hotels. Anyway we enjoyed the whole trip, although it's not our "way of travelling" (staying in Pension Houses or Hotels) but we didn't have other choice because it's so cold




Up along river Elbe we drove direction to Czech Republic. But first we tried to see some landscape in Elbsandsteingebirge with a flat table mountains with spectacular views and rocks. But there was too much snow so small roads had been unpassable. Still nice for taking pictures. Crossing into the Czech Republic you hardly noticed because it's EU member now. Although they are EU member, they still don't have the Euro, so we change some euro into Kroner (Crowns). The river Elbe in German is called Labe in Czech, the spring is in this country. Through small towns villages, over hills our first place to stay and see was Kutna Hora.

Kutna Hora is situated above a deep river valley. We found near the main square a nice hotel named U Vlasskeho dvora. Like this hotel and others later we found out that staying in a hotel CZ is not so cheap anymore like it used to be. Still food is very good and inexpensive. In Kutna Hora, we walked around in the old town with historical houses and illuminated churches and palaces. There's a very original pub in town called Pivnice Dacicky, where they serve their homemade beer and typical CZ's food. In CZ they have the best beer in the world ( according to hubby ;). Not only Plzner and Budweiser are very good - also the locally brewed beers are even better. They don't have only good beer but also their famous homemade dumplings or Knödel. Mmmhh lecker! masarap! but you need a lot of sauce with it. Then with a full stomach we went back to our place and on our way there's strong snow storm









Next day we looked around the city again took pictures of St. Barbara Church it was built 1388-1565, almost 200 yrs. to finish this huge church, also the medieval fountains and buildings. Kutna Hora is a nice small town to visit. Hardly anybody goes there.





Next place we planned to visit on that day is Jihlava. We thought we can make it quickly because it was not so far away. We choose the high-way Praha-Brno. After only a few kilometers we got stucked in a traffic jam. That was not only a traffic jam as we found out, it was because of the worst accident that ever happened in CZ. We saw totally wrecked cars, buses and trucks being towed away by the rescue teams, ambulances and firebrigades came to help the victims. As we heared later fortunately nobody died. The whole day we spent on this high way and to get some food and drinks i had to walk in the middle of the high way in deep snow through the standing three lanes cars and trucks from all over Europe to a 2 km away rest area. Only late in the evening we arrived in Jihlava. We found this 4 star Grand Hotel in the center. And near by we ate in a very good CZ- restaurant another typical meal with Garlic Soup, Goulasch and Knödel and of course for Michael, local beer. Although we didn't do much on that day, we felt so kaputt so we sleep well in our "luxury hotel".

Next day we looked around in the center of Jihlava. The big main square with historical buildings is really nice. So is the cathedral and the only remaining city gate. It's ok to looked around there but on that main square there is this ugly building of a supermarket from socialist times and a bus station. So better we went over snowed- in small roads to the beautiful small town of TELC. From the parking to our left a lake with ducks, to our right an old castle with museum now we entered the town to a big medieval city gate.

a few meters we reached this great center square with all these beautiful historical pediment buildings of which each has a different shape of facade. Because of another snow storm we walked safely under the arcades to reach the fountain and cathedral. Telc is really worth to visit if somebody who will come to CZ. Because of bad weather we did'nt go to Brno, but on small streets then to KROMERIZ.