This part of the trip is with G Adventures. We’re a group of 13 this time with Achilles as our guide. So far it’s a fantastic group of travellers who all get along great! This post is about Prague and we’ve just spent 3 days in Krakow. Read about that here: Krakow. A European gem!

We left the hotel shortly after 8 am and were dropped off at the bus station. The bus took us to Ostrava where we switched to a train that took us to Prague. Once there, we checked into the Miss Sophie’s downtown, dropped off our bags and followed Achilles around the town to get ourselves oriented. First impressions? WOW!!

Achiles showed us around the city a bit so we could get our bearings and we ended the day with a nice dinner at The Little Blue Duck where I had, of course, duck. It was delicious!

Saturday April 23, 2022

It was a gorgeous day. Crisp and cool but the sun shone all day long so at some points I even took off a layer or 2 of clothing. We started with a Sandeman’s walking tour of the old city and the Jewish quarter and ended near the river so we continued on our own to visit the castle. That’s all uphill. Because castles are always built on hills, right? We just wandered around up there and enjoyed the view for a while and treated ourselves to a chimney pastry filled with ice cream and strawberries. YUM!

Back down the hill we took a river tour. Sometimes it pays to go last minute as they give discounts. Bonus!

By then we were pretty tired and headed back to the hotel to enjoy a beer in the breakfast room. Keith and Achiles joined us and we caught up.

After a stop in our room we headed out for dinner and tried Fernanda’s. It was good, simple Czech food and we even got vegetables. It was cabbage but what else do you expect in Czechia??

Sunday

Shelly, Sue and I decided to try to visit the Charles bridge when it wasn’t so busy by going early (ish)in the morning. Hahaha! Today was Othodox Easter and the streets near the bridge were PACKED with church goers carrying Easter baskets. Many of them were on the bridge too, taking pictures and just visiting. Oh well. Watching the crowds was fun too.

We got to the Old New Synagogue and purchased combined tickets for all the major attractions in the Jewish quarter then spent the next few hours exploring them. Meanwhile it started to rain. We tried to wait it out in a cafe over a hot chocolate but it wasn’t stopping so we put our hats on and took off. We found the Lucerne passage and the Statue of King Wenceslas Riding an Upside-Down Dead Horse then tried to find the art gallery David told us about. After ending up at the National museum we decided we were museums out, wet, cold and ready to chill out at the hotel. After changing to dry things we enjoyed an aperitif and snacks there.

The weather cleared so I went for a walk looking for nice puddles for reflection photos then met Keith, David, Sue and Shelly for dinner. Then 4 of us set off to find the weird statues of ugly babies by David Cerny. We found a few others while we were searching. Prague’s an interesting city!

Twas another 30,000 step day and I’m hoping my shoes dry by the morning.

Monday

Shortly after 9 am we were on a bus headed for Cesky Krumlov and checked into the Familia Pension and then set off exploring. For lunch I thoroughly enjoyed a bowl of cabbage soup with a strong taste of sauerkraut. Yum!

Our walking tour took us all over the small, compact town that follows the Moldavian river. The town is one of few in Europe that came out of WW2 unscathed so it’s charm remains and there are so many beautiful views.  Český Krumlov also boasts the second largest castle in Europe (after Prague) and maybe the world?

After much wandering we enjoyed cheesecake (YUM!) and coffee at the Drunken coffee. Shelly had a drink called “dark and stormy” that was really good. I want to try making that one. It’s not the regular one as it has espresso in it.

Then we went for dinner. Life is short. Eat dessert first. Dinner was a specialty of the area which is a mushroom soup with potatoes and dill and some dumplings with plumbs and cheese. Delicious!!!