Flew from East Midlands Airport via Easyjet, no problem, shuttle to our hotel, the Archibald at the Charles Bridge (U karlovu mostu). We were in room 11 and had a great view of the river and the bridge. The hotel was lovely, the location superb (obvious to us after our first day and commented upon by the shuttle driver who took us there and the 2 guides we hired).
We fell in love with Prague our first morning there. We are a couple in our mid-60s and although there are a lot of people who have travelled more than we have, we%26#39;ve seen a fair bit of the world and Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities we%26#39;ve ever seen. It%26#39;s very fortunate in that it suffered very little war damage and after the war was too poor for the reconstruction and renovation that damaged so many European cities, so most of the old buildings remain and haven%26#39;t been replaced by new ones, and the only really tall buildings are far from the city center.
We hired 2 guides. Our main guide was Eva Trkalova, whose web site is at www.trkalova.guide-prague.cz, and as she couldn%26#39;t do our first day (we were there 3 nights) she arranged another guide, Dana Chaloupkova, for the first day. Both were excellent and we would use them again. One of the most interesting things about using a private guide is the chance to talk to them about their own experiences and knowledge, and both had lived through the Velvet revolution and had some fascinating insights into late 20th century Prague history.
Food is always one of my priorities, and we managed to eat at some lovely places. Sadly, the 2 best have names I can%26#39;t recall. One was on a corner near the Jewish Quarter and Dana introduced us to marinated beef with a cream sauce made of celeriac and parsnips which was delicious, the other specialised in game, especially venison and deer, with a menu that Eva had to translate for us as there was no English menu. Eva also helped get us a reservation at the extremely crowded recently reopened legendary sweet shop (cakes, ice cream, etc) U Cukrárna Myšák - which originally opened in 1910 and whose Art Deco interior supposedly cost well over a million dollars to restore. We also had a great hot chocolate at Cafe Louvre, and an inexpensive supper at Cafe Indigo. Thumbs down, I%26#39;m afraid for the Bakehouse Praha.
But how about the buildings, etc? All I can say is that they were all marvelous, some kitsch like the wax baby Jesus but still worth seeing. We hardly scratched the surface and definitely want to go back again.
Doug %26amp; Helen
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Good report. Thanks for taking the time to post. Hopefully will be getting to Praque later in 2009.
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I love the Louvre hot chocolate, too.
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it%26#39;s lovely to read other people%26#39;s experiences!
we visited prague for the first time at the beginning of december %26amp; agree that the buildings were absolutely stunning %26amp; city steeped in history!
even with construction work %26amp; scaffolding, the charles bridge still oozed romance.
%26amp; it snowed! very pretty indeed.
however we were really disappointed with the xmas market.. such a washout! we were hoping for some unusual quality items, but alas nasty overpriced tack %26amp; far too many souvenir shops.
if i visited again, i don%26#39;t think i%26#39;d step into a single shop!
a couple of other things i will mention would be the airport transfer which was efficient %26amp; great value.
we organised via internet.
it included a couple of free walking tours which we didn%26#39;t take advantage of, but even so worth a mention.
sight seeing in the jewish area of the city is at a price which means you can%26#39;t visit one attraction without paying for all the others..
paying to go into a cemetary!? sheesh!
on our last day with tired feet %26amp; having exhausted all the sights, we jumped on a tram %26amp; did a loop to the outskirts of the city.
it was snowing %26amp; cosy on the tram..
we got a great deal by organising flight through click4sky %26amp; hotel.com
if we ever returned it would be for the buildings %26amp; beer!
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