Czech This Out!

August 26-30, 2007

After sailing in Croatia our plan was to head to Greece. We found one of the cheapest ways of getting to Greece from Croatia was via another place we were keen to visit, Prague and the Czech Republic.

We were in the Czech Republic for 4 days and we could easily have stayed longer, it was stunning. And the beer was brilliant. The Czechs are the biggest beer drinkers in the world per capita (156.9L per person per year) and we can see why. Their beer is brilliant, Pilsner Urquell, Budwar, yummy. You could buy beer from a little cart in the park and sit in a public place and drink it. And it was cheap! We joined the them in their tradition of having a beer in the morning before work... except for the work bit.

In Prague we wondered around their castle, the largest ancient castle in the world. It's not like the castles we were used to seeing in England though. It was more like a village. The architecture was brilliant and the changing of the guards ceremony as fun to watch.

We battled the crowds of tourists, artists, beggars and pick-pocketers on the famous Charles Bridge and then returned one morning before dawn to get some amazing photos. We pretty much had the whole bridge to ourselves and it as definitely worth it. Don't think we'll do it again though... we got up bloody early!




We also had a guided tour of the Jewish quarter, saw the oldest active synagogue in the world and a cemetary in which over 12,000 Jews have been buried over the centuries. The cemetery is 12 layers deep and is raised abouve the street level. One of the most memorable things we saw on the tour was an exhibition of artwork done by children at a concentration camp near Prague during WWII.

Our highlight in Prague as one afternoon seeking out a roof top terrace restaurant that overlooked the city square. We sat up there for over an hour drinking massive cocktails, chewing on a cheese platter and enjoying the sunshine and the view of the City of Spires. It was very cool. For anyone going to Prague it was called Hotel U Prince. Do it.

We escaped the city on two occasions, we are of course country people and can only handle even beautiful cities like Prague in small doses! The first trip we did was 3 hours south of Prague to the town of Cesky Krumlov. Fi kept calling it Crusty Krumlov but it definitely wasn't crusty. It has been one of our faviourite places that we've visited together on our travels so far.

They had a great hostel called Krumlov House, very cruisy and home like and great travellers tips. We only stayed for one night but desperately wanted to stay longer. You just have to look at some of the pictures to see how beautiful the town is. The Vltava River winds around through the town and you can ride on a bike tube (which Davo did) and stop for a mojito at a pirate bar. The castle is brilliant, very colourful and unique. They also have bears in the mote! We found some of the best traditional Czech food here too including a massive mixed grill, a Bohemian feast and fried cheese, SO GOOD! And it only cost on average about 4 pound each for a main meal and a beer and sometimes outside Prague about 2 pound each!

Our other trip from Prague was to Kutna Hora, 1 hour bus trip east of the city. Our reason for going to this old silver mining town was to vist the Sedlec Ossuary. It is a church that has been decorated with the bones of 40,000 people.

The gothic style catholic church was built around the year 1400, and was built with two levels. The lower level chapel was used to house the bones that were dug up from the popular burial ground which the church was built on. After this time, they started exhuming human skeletons and storing their bones in the church. In 1870 a woodcarver called Frantisek Rint was employed to put the bones in order, which he did in a very unique and imaginitive way! The show piece is a chandelier which contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

It's an eery place but breath-taking as well. We were allowed to take photos but couldn't bring ourselves to smile in any of them. It just seemed the right thing to do. On reflection and from flicking back through the photos, it's actually quite funny!

Next stop... Greece!