Pretty Prague

Hola, everyone! We flew to Prague at the end of May to celebrate
our second anniversary. What a beautiful, romantic place to be!
There are so many things to like about this city, but we've whittled it down to four: Architecture,
Pedestrian-friendly, Food, and Beer.

It's also multi-lingual, making travel no problema.
Prague, top to bottom: Czech, French (or English), Spanish (or Italian),
and German. The city felt very international, friendly and old.

A little background: Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. It
sits here on Vtlava River. The Charles Bridge (pictured above) is always bustling
with artists, musicians, and vendors. Thankfully, during the War, the city was spared,
and many of the old buildings from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Romanesque periods
 are still intact. 

 The first full day there we joined this
free walking group (about 8 of us) and walked all
around the city for 3 hours. Our leader was a local and full of information. Great
way to meet people and see the city up-close.

We did take the tram one time, but otherwise we hoofed it everywhere.
We passed on taking the funicular and climbed up the hill to the Petrin Lookout Tower,
 which strongly resembled the Eiffel Tower.
And hiked up to Letna Park, high up above the city, for some terrific views.
We love a city where you can walk everywhere!

Our first night, we hooked up with Prague "local" Brad Godette, a transplant
 from Saratoga Springs. He kindly took us to a nice little Italian restaurant off 
the tourist path and gave us the insider stories of Prague. After dinner, 
we walked up a hill to an outdoor Beer Garden where
the locals sit, drink, and be merry. It was a great introduction to the city.
  Děkuji, Brad!

Prague is the land of meat and potatoes. This made Jim very happy.

As noted by our guide, in Prague "meat is good; vegetables are bad." He told us that all
vegetables are imported. Could this be true? At any rate, Deb found plenty to
keep her happy, like big salads (which they must make for the tourists),
and other ethnic foods (Italian, Asian....).

Jim also found great happiness with the beer. One authoritative person told us that
a Czech averages 60 gallons of beer per year! And the Czech Republic is first
in beer consumption, followed by Ireland and Germany. (He was so proud of this).
There are three "emergency beer centers" in Prague, open 24 hours a day 365 days
per year, should anyone (God forbid) run out of suds.

There was a trademark dispute over the name Budweiser, with
the Czechs claiming it to be their own.

We took a day trip, which should have been an overnight trip. Cesky Krumlov
is an UNESCO World Heritage site about 2.5 hours out of Prague. (We liked the
fact that they were marketing "adrenalin").

This town looked like it came right out of a Hansel and Gretel story.
Truly storybook perfect.

Our only disappointment was that we couldn't have stayed longer. Maybe
next time...?

And here we are again. We had a lovely anniversary dinner
at the Kampa Park Praha on the other side of the Charles Bridge.
 We could have easily stayed in Prague and explored
 the surrounding areas for another week, but it was time to head 
back to Espana. 
Hasta luego, Deb and Jim