Six months later, and I just have two installments left in my recap of my trip to the Czech Republic this past summer! Phew. It’s been a slow process but it’s allowed me to put a lot of time and thought into each post. I so enjoy returning to these posts as time passes, and reliving the memories of our trips.
When I last left you, I had recapped a morning spent traveling up and across Prague’s Petrin Hill. After a splendid lunch on a hotel terrace overlooking the city of Prague, we ventured into Hradčany, which is Prague’s Castle District. We followed a modified version of the Hradčany walking tour featured in our guidebook, which first led us to the medieval Strahov Monastery, which dates back to the 12th century.
Much of the monastery is not accessible to visitors, but the Strahov Library is an exception.
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Two large, elaborate Baroque halls make up the library.
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We also viewed the monks’ collections and artifact exhibits at the monastery.
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Next, our strolls led us to Loreta, a 17th century church and cloister.
I was kind of confused about this place when we entered and debated whether or not to pay the entrance fee and see what it was all about. In the end, I’m glad we paid the fee and visited Loreta because it was pretty, peaceful, and non-crowded.
I was, however, annoyed that in addition to the entrance fee, I also had to pay extra if I wanted to take photographs during my visit. But in the end, I did. In the scope of life, I’d rather have these pictures than my $10, I guess.
Hope you enjoy these pricy shots. I kid.
We explored the beautiful chapels around the cloister.
The Baroque interiors were incredible.
This diamond monstrance from 1699 holds over 6000 diamonds. It was pretty crazy in real life. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything as sparkly.
After our explorations of the cloister and church at Loreta, we simply strolled around the quaint and quiet Castle District of the city,
It was a little eerie strolling through the streets. We were often the only people in sight!
My guidebook informs us that, “The lack of good public transportation here makes it impractical as a residential area. Instead, it’s populated by embassies, institutes, and ministries.”
Things were a bit more bumpin’ back on the popular street of Nerudova.
We explored a few shops and store windows before stopping into a pub for a beer.
We found a great people-watching spot to while away the remainder of the afternoon.
After a couple, er, well, let’s be honest, a few beers (at two different pubs… we moved on from the first place eventually, in search of Pilsner Urquell, my preferred Czech beer.
We had been waiting all afternoon for a specific restaurant to open, for dinner at 8:00 PM. Sadly, when we went, the restaurant was closed! Like… for good. No longer in business. Our guidebook (which is copyright 2011.. basically the source of the fail) had promised “steaks that cut like butter,” and I’d worked up quite the appetite. Super sad.
Instead, we took a suggestion from both our guidebook and Taste of Prague tour guides and visited Café Savoy for dinner instead.
The café was beautiful inside.
For dinner, I had more beer to drown my sorrows, and a huge plate of meat and carbs. I ordered:
“Plate Savoy: Prague ham, delicate frankfurter, merquezi, cabbage, buttered potato and our mustard.”
If you’re in Prague and you like mustard, do yourself a favor and come to Café Savor to try the mustard because it’s the best I’ve ever had.
Since Café Savoy has an in-house bakery, it only seemed natural that we stroll over to the dessert case, in our Pilsner Urquell-induced hazes (I kid… kind of) and pick out some pastries for dessert.
I went for the “malinový dort.” The way it worked was that we went over to the dessert case to pick what we wanted, headed back to our seats to wait for our server to return so we could tell her what we wanted, and our server seemed mildly surprised that I remembered the Czech name for raspberry cake. For the win.
The huz went for a more chocolate-y dort (cake), with this pretty piece featuring the Café Savoy logo.
After dinner, we had a long walk home from the Mala Strana area to our hotel. We took in the sunset views of the Prague Castle across the Vlatava River.
Since this was our final full day in Prague, I really tried to take it all in. The day after this was spent in another city in the Czech Republic, which I’ll tell you about soon.
I have wonderful memories of our time in Prague for our five year wedding anniversary.
See ya soon!
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Other Posts from this Trip:
- Europe 2013: Day 1-Arriving in Prague
- Europe 2013: Day 2-First Full Day in Prague, Part I
- Europe 2013: Day 2, Part II–Taste of Prague Tour
- Europe 2013: Day 3-Dresden, Germany
- Europe 2013: Day 3-Dinner at Café Imperial
- Europe 2013: Day 4, Part I-Prague’s Old Town Square
- Europe 2013: Day 4, Part II-Prague: Mala Strana
- Europe 2013: Day 5, Part I-Vyšehrad
- Europe 2013: Day 5, Part II-Kutná Hora
- Europe 2013: Day 6, Part I-Prague Castle
- Europe 2013: Prague Day 6, Part II: Jewish Quarter
- Europe 2013: Prague Day 7–Part I: Petrin Hill
