Anniversary Weekend in Prague

Dan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on September 7th. Yay! It seems like just yesterday we were kissing in front of the Krispy Kreme donut shop on our first date (scandalous!), and then again on our wedding day. What a ride it's been.

September 7, 2008

To celebrate our anniversary, we took a weekend trip to the Czech Republic. We spent two days in Prague and took a day trip outside the city for another day. We absolutely loved Cesky Krumlov, and would highly recommend it to anyone. I'll talk more about it in another post though.

Since we knew we only had two days in Prague, we hit the ground running. We scheduled a free walking tour of the Old Town for the afternoon of the first day, and saw the castle and the Jewish Quarter on our last day.

View of Prague Castle

View of Charles Bridge

We saw the St. Nicholas Cathedral, a gorgeous space with some interesting statues. 

Forced baptism

Of course we wasted no time in trying a Prague pastry. It's called a trdelnik, and it's dough wrapped around a stick and roasted on an open fire. It's served warm with cinnamon or powdered sugar. I enjoyed it, but I like my pastries with a little more oomph...this was a little too light for me.

Traditional trdelnik

Old Town is absolutely gorgeous. We saw the famous astronomical clock, but we weren't around when it started its hourly show. I've seen it before though and it's actually a bit of a let down. The clock itself is gorgeous though!

Old Town, Prague

Our tour guide was fantastic. He was really entertaining, but also informative. My favorite tidbit from him is that the Czech national anthem is called "Where is My Home." It refers to the fact that the country has been occupied by so many different powers during its history. However, many locals think the real meaning of the anthem has less to do with history and more to do with beer. Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other nationality. At the end of each night they might be asking themselves, "where is my home." Ha!

To fit in with the local culture, Dan and I decided to do a beer tour with the same guide from our afternoon tour. We went to a few places, including the Prague Beer Museum Pub which has 30 beers on tap! We did a sampler and I was surprised to find that I loved the grapefruit beer. So refreshing! I learned that the darker the Czech beer, the sweeter it is. I also learned the many rules for beer drinking in Prague (e.g. maintain eye contact while clinking glasses; don't spill your beer; use a coaster, etc.).

Beer sampler at Prague Beer Museum

We managed to squeeze the castle and the Jewish Quarter into our last day. The castle is actually made of up several buildings, including St Vitus Cathedral, and is the biggest castle in the world.

Prague Castle

St Vitus Cathedral

I was really impressed by the cathedral. It is absolutely enormous and the stained glass is gorgeous. Even the ceiling was special.

St Vitus Cathedral

The afternoon in the Jewish Quarter was very moving. Jews have been living in Prague since at least the 10th century. While it's fantastic that the synagogues and cemetery are so well-preserved, the reason behind it is pretty disturbing. Hitler planned to retire in Prague once he won WWII. He left the Jewish Quarter intact in order to create "an exotic museum of an extinct race."

15th century Jewish cemetery

Spanish Synagogue

Spanish synagogue

Franz Kafka statue

Since I can't leave you on that depressing note, here's something to lift your spirits. If you happen to keep kosher and find yourself in Prague, don't worry. You can still drink the absinthe!