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Finally got a few
minutes to blog about our trip to Prague a couple of weeks ago, mostly to visit the Christmas
markets.
Didn’t actually do a lot of Christmas shopping– Julie bullied me into
finishing most of that months ago– but we hadn’t been before and it’s
always come highly recommended. We were staying at the Hotel Josef,
which aside from not having a restaurant (although the bar food was an
adequate alternative) pretty much lived up to its 4-star status.
We arrived on the early evening of Mikuláš
Day, so the Old Town Square (left,
a 5 minute stroll from the hotel) was packed with angels, devils, and
coach parties from Yorkshire waiting on the Christmas tree to be
illuminated. Wary of another tree-collapsing
incident, this year’s was by all accounts a shorter affair, but impressive enough nonetheless.
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We took the plunge on our first full day by doing a six-hour
tour1 of the city, which included a boat trip on the Vltava River (whose name, apparently, is derived from the Celtic words vlt, meaing “wild”, and va, meaning water– we were everywhere in those days), a tram ride up to the castle
(right), and a leisurely walk back down across the Charles
Bridge
and into the city again. Anyone who lasted the full
six hours also got free tickets to their ghost walk later in the
evening (rounded off with a free beer). Needless to say we partook of
that too, before heading back to the hotel via a very satisfying dinner
at Lary Fary. If
we ever go back there, we might be brave enough to try the kebabs,
served as they are on something that looks like it was borrowed
from the Museum
of Medieval Torture up the road.
1 Not actually this one, but pretty
similar.
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Our second full day saw us wandering up to the other main Christmas market on Wenceslas
Square, stopping to reminisce in C&A on the way there (they closed down in the UK a few years ago), and to wonder why we don’t get Tesco
stores this big over here on the way back. Having been thwarted in our
attempt the previous day, this time we managed to visit the obscenely
baroque St Nicholas’ Church on Lesser Town Square, en route back to the hotel to scrub up for dinner.
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Tonight we plumped for the Hotel Černý Slon
(Black Elephant), where we got huge portions for ridiculously little
money, spoiled only slightly by some loud English git on the table next
to us who was apparently a world expert on everything from wine-making
to internal physiology.
(Unfortunately, that’s not him above).
On our last morning we headed up the astronomical clock tower for a bird’s eye view of the Old Town Square, followed by some
obligatory souvenir shopping, more svařene vino
and a pastry from the market. A couple of hot chocolates in a café on
the way back to the hotel, and that was the end of our trip.
Never did quite make it into Caffrey’s
(right) to sample their Irn Bru though…
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