Little Princesses

View of Prague Castle from afar

Entrance to castle grounds

If you have young girls, they are, have, or will be into princesses.  What could be more princess-y (made up my own word there maybe) than a trip to Prague Castle?  We decided to walk there because it looked way closer than it actually is.  Um.....I don't recommend that with or without kids.  We were EXHAUSTED!  Upside you will pass a lot of cool shops and artists selling their work along the streets.  We also discovered a park filled with peacocks just roaming around.  Also on the hike up to the castle there was a vendor selling waffles on a stick.  Genius!  Once we made it back to Old Town Square we decided on a nice carriage ride to top off the night :)  Now that is what I call a day fit for a princess!

St. Vitus

Royal Guard?  I may have made that up but they look official

St. Charles Bridge

Pastries cooking on a wheel outside

Walking about the city was so much fun with kids.  The old cobbled streets lined with modern shops was a cool contrast.  I loved being able to stop at a corner and buy hot chocolate (the GOOD stuff) and hot spiced wine.  Most days we would walk over the St. Charles bridge.  There was always a really cool jazz band playing and lots of artists and vendors selling their wares.  Once over the bridge was a pastry shop just to the right.  We would smell the delicious smell of the pastries wafting up the bridge before we even crossed over.  The ladies were right outside cooking.  Of course we stopped and had some.  It would be rude not to, right?  After stuffing ourselves with pastries we went just under the bridge to the wonderful park.  Mommy and Daddy got a nice rest on a bench while the kids burned off some energy!

New Orleans style jazz band that played on the bridge.

The girls getting their groove on.

AWESOME view from the park bench.

The Astronomical Clock and Clock Tower

The Astronomical Clock- 1410

 

 

 

 

Bugler from the top of the clock tower

View looking down from the clock tower

Looking out from tower

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a must see attraction!  Not only do you get a show from the outside, but you can climb up to the top of the clock tower and look over.  There was also a docent there who had literature with a TON of information about the history of the clock.  I loved the significance of each detail.  Have I ever mentioned I am TERRIFIED of heights?  Luckily there was an elevator which helped getting up and down a bit easier.

Prague Zoo

While abroad with our kids, we always check out the local zoo.  Prague Zoo is a fantastic zoo and a ton of fun.  The best part for our girls was getting up close to the lemurs as they can come right up to you.

They also has a little baby gorilla at the gorilla exhibit.  The gorillas are behind a glass enclosure obviously, but you can really get a good view of them interacting with one another......as well as one of the zoo keepers.  A large gorilla kept knocking on the window trying to get her attention while she was working.  Kids LOVED seeing this!

Going to the zoo is definitely worth the effort of getting there.  We researched online the best routes for the bus and train to get there.  I believe it took about 45 minutes.  Make sure you keep your train/bus/tram tickets on you because randomly someone will get on at a stop to check.

Pivo...Ano, Prosim (Beer, yes please)

You cannot go to the Czech Republic and not try some of the best beer in the world.  The best part.....the beer was actually cheaper than WATER!!!!  I'm not exaggerating.  My large mug of beer was about $1.50us while the bottled water for my kids was closer to $2.00us.

You also cannot drink a delicious Czech beer and not partake in delicious Czech goulash with potato and bread dumplings.  So YUMMY!!!

Every restaurant we went to seemed very accommodating to our children.  Our very favorite place was called Local.  The service was great!  As soon as the kids sat down, the server would place crayons and coloring pages for the kids.  The food and beer were fantastic too.  We went back several times.

Blogging about Prague...AKA Praguing

I am probably the worst blogger in the history of blogging......I am retroactively blogging about Prague since we are already starting to plan our next trip.  That being said Prague ROCKS!!

First of all let me tell you how awesome it is to finally take a trip that does not involve hauling car seats through the airport and into a taxi.  The service we used to book our apartment provided car seats for us in the shuttle they picked us up from the airport in.  Whoohoo!!!  Everywhere else we went we took local public transportation.

The agency we booked our apartment through was www.prague-stay.com.  They were so wonderful to work with that I had to give them a shout out.  We stayed at Residence U Kapra.  We could not have picked a more beautiful place to stay in Prague.  We were in a high foot traffic area, but you could not hear a sound from the apartment.  As you came around the corner, besides smelling the amazing pastries, meats, and hot wine, here was our view:

Let me tell you that we did NOT get tired of seeing this everyday.  This was the Old Town Square.  I loved walking around here.  The best part was every hour on the hour the Astronomical Clock from 1410 would chime.  Chime does not do this justice.  It was like a full on performance.  Things were moving, ringing, crowing, and spinning.  Did I mention a live bugler peeks over the top of the tower to play a tune.  Very cool!  We took a tour of the inside of the tower and would highly recommend it with kids.  More of that to come :)