Saturday: heading for Czech

In the early morning, 6:00 AM, we started our car trip, eastwards. Because of a slight navigation failure at my side, we drove way wrong in Germany. TomTom, which contained Germany, calculated an alternative route to Dresden via Hannover. It's a bit of a detour if you want to drive from Eindhoven to Prague.

Because TomTom was very cooperative (not!) during the week before our trip, we didn't have East European maps on our navigation system. So we had to manage with a route on paper and a map of Czech. Fortunately, the European highway numbers were on all signs once we left Germany, so it was relatively easy to get to a small place like Téptin. Only in Jesenice we almost drove in the wrong direction, but a couple of friendly people at a gas station pointed us the right directions.

Exactly twelve hours after departure we arrived at our little house in Téptin, a small town 20 kilometers south of Prague. The house was in a quiet area, where inside some trophies (of some wild animals) stared at us. The quietness in the area got somewhat disturbed as soon as we opened the faucet. The pump in the cellar made a terrible loud noise for every few liters of water we needed. Not perfect, but one gets used to it.

Sunday: day of rest

Today we relaxed a little. We explored the local supermarket, which is open on Sundays (actually, it seems most shops are opened on Sundays in Czech). It was a little, dark and kind of messy shop where you can the usual food and non-food. There were also toys and not-so fashionable clothes.

In the afternoon we headed for Prague to see where we can park the car if we would explore the center another day. We drove through Kamenice and Jesenice in order to reach the south of Prague. After some map reading we ended up in Budějovická, commercial district. There was room for parking and a subway station, and the neighborhood looked OK enough to leave our car here.

We made a little walk through the neighborhood, and somewhere between the big modern buildings you can see the true trademarks of East Europe: big gray flats. We walked towards the Pánkrac subway station and then back to the car.

On our way back we did some grocery shopping at a big supermarket near Jesenice. This name of this supermarket caught our attention, because it looked a bit familiar to us. Albert is really similar to Albert Heijn, one of the Dutch supermarkets. It appeared to be an AHOLD company, so this supermarket was really family of 'our' Albert Heijn. There was a large range of products available, but if I had to be a manager there I would have fired half of my staff there. I have never seen cashier looking so angry as the lady who had to process our products. We seemed to disturb her while she was reading a magazine.

In the evening we tried to lit up the barbecue at our house, but unfortunately the wood and coal were too wet to keep the fire alive. So we had to improvise a meal in our one square meter kitchen in order to get some food.

Monday: to Prague

Today we finally could visit the city everyone is talking about all the time. We parked our car at the subway station which we explored yesterday. From there we went to Muzeum by subway.

The first impressions when stepping out of the subway were very good. There was an impressive square with the enormous National Museum behind us. So this was the Wenceslas Square, the biggest square of Europe. For some awkward reason I had to think of the in Amsterdam. But the Damrak is just a busy alley in comparison to this square.

We didn't walk until the end of this square, we turned right half-way, towards a Jewish church at the Jindřišská. Then we walked via the Prašná Braná to the most famous square of Prague: Staroměstské náměstí (Old City Square). At that very moment, rain fell from the sky and we escaped to an Italian restaurant at the entrance of the Týn. It was lunch time anyway.

When the rain stopped we could start to explore the square. There were two impressive looking churches, but the Týn has something sinister around it. Then we observed the Astronomical Clock and the Old Town Hall. We climbed this tower around two o'clock in the afternoon. We looked down and saw hundreds of people gathering in front of the Astronomical Clock, waiting for what is going to happen at two sharp. From above, we couldn't really understand what is so attractive about a clock. The applause at the end of the perception confused us even more, because we could only hear some simple bells.

We also walked at the waterside of the Vtlava, where we saw several tour boats. At the other side of the river we saw Malá Strana, looking really beautiful from a large distance. But we dicided to visit that district another day. In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant at a calm square, and we even sensed some form of friendly service. So it does exist in Czech.

Tuesday: Karlštejn

No Prague today. We went to Karlštejn, a castle where Charles IV lived and where he hid his jewels. This castle is 20 kilometers south of Prague. Thanks to TomTom we couldn't find a quick route to the castle (and our roadmaps didn't have that much details). So we had to drive 20 kilometers towards Prague, entered the highway and drove 20 kilometers southwards, and then about 15 kilometers on a small road through the hills. Beautiful hills, that is.

The village near the castle is quite touristic. And whenever you were in Vianden before, you'll certainly have a déjà vu. If you'd like to visit the castle, you need a strong resistance for street cafes and souvenir shops. Or you need to walk into an anonymous road, disappearing somewhere behind the village, but ends up at the castle as well.

You can only visit the castle with a tour. They are given in several languages, so there's no need to be flooded with Czech in order to know who all those people on the paintings are. Different hallways were shown, there where Charles IV slept, lived and worked. Take the throne room for example: there were windows left and right of the throne. The visitors weren't able to see Charles IV clearly, while Charles IV was able to observe his visitors quite well. It's subtle, but I think it was effective.

The castle itself was a bit on the bare side. There are many paintings of all kinds of people who had to deal with Charles IV in some way. There were some other objects, the most valuable object didn't seem to be so valuable after all. It was a crown with jewels, but a copy. The real crown was in Prague.

For the rest there's not so much to do in the village once you leave the castle (unless you're really fond of souvenirs).

Wednesday: the other side of the Vtlava

Malá Strana looked really great last Monday when we walked along the waterside of the Vtlava. The Old City was impressive already, it can't be that Malá Strana is at least as impressive?

We started our trip at the Malostranská subway station. It's the first station once line A has crossed the river.

We crossed the nearest bridge again (the Mánesův most) and walked along the waterside towards the Charles Bridge. This bridge was crowded with tourists, draftsmen and some lost musicians. Unfortunately there was some construction work going on at the bridge, several parts were covered by scaffolds.

We ended up in the lower part of Malá Strana. After some walking we saw the palace gardens. But in order to climb the hill they asked an entrance fee. We decided to turn back, walk a little further and climb the hill by walking the Staré zámecké schody. From there a beautiful view on the city was to be observed.

We didn't enter the palace itself and headed towards the St. Vitus Cathedral. There was a queue for entering the church, we had to wait about 20 minutes in order to get in. The sad fact is, after visiting the St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican last July, no single church can impress me anymore that much. However, this church wasn't really comparable with the St. Peter, it was a completely different style.

After visiting the St. Vitus Cathedral we walked towards the Petřín lookout tower. It was quite a climb, but it was worth it: again a beautiful view on the complete city. The tower, a miniature of the Eiffel Tower was about 60 meters high. But because it was on top of a hill, it approaches the same height as the real Eiffel Tower.

Today we have climbed many many meters, it was time now to descend. Once we returned to the same level as the Vtlava, we sat down on a square near the Charles Bridge. Then we walked towards the Old City and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. A nice finish on a beautiful day.

Thursday: Kutná Hora

Today we went to a town which was once just as big as Prague: Kutná Hora. This town, 70 kilometers east of Prague, has a rich history because of the silver which was once found there.

At arrival we sat down on a big square and had a drink there. Here the amount of Russian, Ukrainian and Asian people caught our attention. So far away from Prague and still swarms of tourists.

After the drink it was time to explore the town. We walked towards the St. Baraba Church. The style of this church also had something sinister. I never saw such towers in my life. Unfortunately the church was also partly covered by scaffolds, which decreased the specialness on this church a bit.

We did some more walking in the town, where we observed a fountain made of stone and the church of St. John Nepomuk.

Friday: Pilsner!

Today was our last oppertunity to visit something in Czech for this week. We went to Pilsen (or Plzeň), to the brewery. It's the place where the (somewhat bitter) beer Pilsner Urquell is produced.

The terrain looked like that the brewery has quite some history. In the back is the old brewery and somewhat further there's a water tower. The tour started in the visiter's hall. Quite soon we were stashed in a bus to bring us to the other side of the terrain. In a very advanced room you can see how bottles are being cleaned, scanned and refilled with a dazzling speed.

Then we were stashed back in the bus and brought back where we started, at the old brewery. We were shown a video (actually a long commercial) where the brewing process was being explained. Then you can see the old copper bowls, which were still in use until a few years ago. Also we watched the bowls where the beer is being brewed today.

The final stage of the tour was going underground: the cold structures under the brewery where the beer was stored for 40 days to complete the brewing process. These ways aren't used anymore, most of the beer is being stored elsewhere. There are some tons of beer for visitors and brewmasters. We had the oppertunity to taste this beer, and it tasted a lot better than the supermarket edition. And sofar the tour in the brewery.

Saturday: back to the Netherlands

Time's up, time to go back home. Instead of twelve hours we spent ten hours before reaching my front door again. But it's still quite a trip, Germany is bigger than I thought.

Concluding, Czech has blown away my expectations. Despite the somewhat unfriendly people it's a beautiful country to spend some time in. Prague has so much to offer that I probably have to return someday to visit the rest.

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