Prague

After an almost sleepless flight across the Atlantic via Istanbul, Mum finally joined us in Prague and was greeted with lots of big hugs from the kids and me. We retraced quite a few of our adventures from our time in Prague in 2021 during our stay this time around, beginning with a trip to Prague 3 for dinner at one of our favorite local pubs followed by a few beers in Riegrovy Sady to watch the sun set over the city. A visit to Prague also wouldn’t be complete without lunch at Max’s favorite butcher in the Jewish Quarter: he’d been dreaming of another meatloaf at Nase Maso for weeks once he realized we were going to be returning to the Czech capital.

We also rendezvoused with another couple of familiar faces, bumping into Granny Jenni and Steve on our first morning in town as we were all taking a stroll across the pedestrian-only Charles Bridge. Perfect timing to take them to Café Kaficko in the Mala Strana district of Prague 1 for a coffee and a sample of the best honey cake in Prague! They’d also just come off a long flight from Adelaide via the Middle East, and were actually lucky to arrive to Czechia ahead of Middle Eastern airspace closing down as a result of the Iran/Israel/US conflict. Two days after they arrived multiple QANTAS flights were turned around mid-air on their way to Europe! Granny Jenni and Lisa took the kids shopping for the afternoon – Lilia had been waiting for weeks to go shopping with the ladies – while I ventured up into Prague Castle for some photos under the summer sun. Saint Vitus Cathedral really is an awe-inspiring sight towering above the city, such a stunning piece of architecture.

Budapest was very busy when we were there and there was a very noticeable heavy tourist presence, but I was blown away by how many tourists were in Prague during our days in town. When we first visited Saint Vitus Cathedral in 2021 (pic here) there were only a handful of other onlookers sharing the view with us. On Sunday when I was there you can see below the hundreds of other visitors cramming around the building for happy snaps. Majestic Old Town Square was the same: in 2021 (pic here) we strolled through and enjoyed the Astronomical Clock and the House at the White Unicorn almost to ourselves, but this time around the square was absolutely jam packed. I’m sure the tourism industry in all the European hotspots are thankful for a return to normal…

One thing we did not do during our last visit to Prague was enjoy some views of the city from the Vltava River. There were a handful of paddle boat vendors operating off Slovansky Island in the heart of the city, it was a great way to spend an hour one afternoon with a few drinks taking in the Prague architecture from a different viewpoint. The water of the Vltava was actually quite cold, so it was also an excellent way to escape the 30°C/86°F heat of the city concrete, it was surprisingly cool as we launched our boat from the island and out onto the water. So nice to drag our feet off the edge of the boat in the water to cool off…

We had a few thunderstorms encroach on our time in Prague so sought refuge one afternoon in the Czechan National Museum at the tip of Wenceslas Square. It was excellent. The vast array of exhibits were very impressive: everything from coral reefs, military history, evolution, minerals, Czechan history, fossils… You could kill a whole day in there, to be honest, one of the best museums I’ve visited. It even kept Wild Man engaged for over two hours, which is no easy task (although I did see him get reprimanded a couple of times by the quite brusque docents for touching exhibits that were off limits!). Hard to pick a favorite from the museum, although the giant coconut crabs – which can grow up to more than three feet wide – with their ability to climb trees and crush whole coconuts with their claws were pretty memorable.