Taylor and I started our trip on a Wednesday making our way over to the Bavarian side of Germany. Thursday morning Taylor had work to do which included a 12 mile ruck so I surprised him by booking a room that night in a small countryside town called Erbendorf. We got to the cute hotel around noon and spent the day relaxing, eating cheese, meats and bread, and roaming the corn fields.
The next day we were greeted by our good friends, Ian and Colleen. From Erbendorf we hopped over the border and drove to Prague - the land of bridges, cathedrals, gold-tipped towers, church domes and beer that flows like water.
Colleen and I found a great Airbnb apartment for the 4 of us that included two bedrooms, a big living room, a full kitchen and even a garage for the car. We didn't arrive till that evening so we stayed in and did a little spaghetti dinner while drinking Festbier - tis' the season for Oktoberfest beverages!
The next morning we walked down to the tram and metro station so we could ride into the city center. Unfortunately, since we had just pulled money out of the ATM, we didn't have many coins and no one at the station would take our large bills. After staring at the machine trying to make whatever coins we had work and watching tram after tram leave us, we decided to walk to the center. We could see the cathedral so we knew we couldn't be that far...
An hour later we finally hit the river! We ran into a flea market on a boat and the Saturday farmer's market providing tons of food, fresh produce and of course beer and wine. We grabbed some drinks for the road and continued our walk to the Charles Bridge.
By the time we made it to the Charles Bridge it was already lunch time. We filled our bellies up with Goulash and sandwiches and continued across the crowded bridge watching people perform and sell their art.
When we crossed over into Old Town we started to make our way up to the Castle and Cathedral. We popped our heads into many souvenir, chocolate and beer stores and passed many street performers including a man with a snake. A very large snake. Of course Taylor didn't pass up this opportunity to hold 35 pounds of limbless scales.
The Gothic Cathedral, St. Vitus, is located at the top of the hill with a gorgeous view overlooking the city. We strolled around for a bit and then continued our Prague adventure!
Last time I was in Prague, we had burritos from a restaurant called Burrito Loco and I was determined to have another rice and bean-guacamole-pico-sour cream-cheese overstuffed burrito wrapped in a thin soft tortilla. This Germany living girl has needs.
After we stuffed our faces we were on the hunt for a metro station to head back to the apartment. Instead, we were sidetracked by porta-potty singing, weddings, and stopped when we hit a road block that had thousands of people in neon colors running a 10k through the cobble stoned streets. We ended the night by dancing with waving inflatable flailing arm man. This is why walking with no plans in a big city is the best!
Day two in Prague was another wandering day with new sites on our list. We started the day off with breakfast at the Bohemian Bagel in Old Town. From there we walked to the Lennon Wall, a wall from the 1980s that not only became a memorial to John Lennon but also a symbol of freedom during the communist era. The wall still remains representing freedom of speech with constant graffiti of John Lennon, Beatles lyrics and messages of love and peace.
After the wall I led the group to some art that I was adamant on showing everyone... giant crawling baby statues. David Cerny has a ton of interesting art in Prague but these are my favorite. The babies were also done during the communist era representing "never reaching adulthood".
Another Cerny sculpture is one called "piss". These men spell out quotes from political leaders with their urine.
If you ever want to know more about sites we visit or pictures I post, I encourage you to look it up! Jen's History Lesson's will only take you so far.
The rest of the day was spent near the river and crossing back over into the city center. We saw the astronomical clock on the hour and watched some live entertainment in the square. We spent a good half hour at a candy shop watching them make hard candy in the window and eventually made our way near the metro for one last Czech dinner!
