ON TOUR: Prague - A champion city

For some Prague will be known in the future as the location where Manchester City Football Club beat Inter Milan 1-0 to take their place in the history of soccer (for a British club) winning the three domestic major trophies in a single season. 

Prior to the June European Cup Final Travel News Update Editor Sharon Ross and daughter Abigail (10) took a short break to the capital of the Czech Republic.  She joined up with her brother Paul, resident for a short period.



“Prague is consistently on the lists of the world's most beautiful cities and I would recommend to anyone.

We took an easyJet flight from Luton (LTN). The service is currently once a day, with prices ranging from £29 to £138 each way, depending on the season, plus extras.  Our small backpacks fitted under the seat without an additional charge.  We went by train to Luton Parkway station and made the seamless change to the new Luton Dart, a short covered way linking direct to the terminal. (See TNU April 2023.)  Previously the journey was taken by bus, but with the new cable-driven railway travelling by train to Luton is much easier. I had tried the service previously, with King Charles.

At the other end, Vaclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) is half an hour's drive from the city centre. 

We chose an Airbnb, and as with any other capital city there was a huge range available at various price points. The same can be said of hotels.  

There was much to do in Prague, and every minute of our trip was filled. Prague is highly touristy – it often seemed we saw more tourists than locals walking around – but that did not detract from the city's original charm.

Before the trip, we booked a Vltava River cruise online, which meant that as soon as we had dropped our bags off at the apartment, we could go straight away to the first activity. Numerous companies offer 50-minute or two-hour cruises and some include dinner.  We chose a 50-minute cruise by Prague Boats. The views from Vltava River are simply stunning. We passed sites including the famous Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. The captain stopped the boat to tell us about the attractions as we went by, which I much preferred to an audio guide that some offer. The cruise covered only a small part of the River, but gave us a first taste of the city.

The following day we went on a two-and-a-half-hour walking tour of the Old Town and Jewish Quarter. Again, we booked in the UK, which was very easy to do. The tour was tip-based, meaning that you paid afterwards based on your experience. The tour did not require a level of fitness because of frequent stops where the various sites were explained to us.

My ten-year-old was engaged throughout. Highlights of the tour included the old town square with the church of Tyn and St Nicholas, the famous astronomical clock, and the outside of the Jewish cemetery and “new synagogue” (from the 11th century).  The guide timed the tour perfectly so that we passed the astronomical clock on the hour when it struck, and the procession of the 12 apostles figurines rotated on the clock. It was quite a spectacle. Over the tour, we heard a good introduction to Czech history, including defenestration – an act of throwing someone out of a window to their death used in Praguian revolts. 

The tour completed near the Jewish Quarter, so we decided to visit the Jewish Museum. It is not a museum per se but seven sites of Jewish interest, including synagogues with various exhibitions and the old cemetery. The ticket is flexible, so you have seven days to visit all the sites.

Particularly moving was the memorial to the victims of the holocaust from Czech lands, which was hosted in the Pincas synagogue. In several rooms, the walls were full of lists of people who had perished, with their birth date and date of being deported. The atmosphere in each room was intensely quiet, and I came out feeling quite overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. It was useful to have completed the walking tour before entering the museum because it gave us an insight into the community. Audio guides were also an option.

Afterwards, we also treated ourselves to a Trdelník – a sweet cone-shaped pastry, with a filling of your choice (eg apple, Nutella) and topped with whipped cream or ice cream. In this restaurant, which happened to be kosher, they made the trdelnik from scratch in full view of customers, which was a delight to see. They are particularly sweet but certainly worth a try.

In the evening, we rented a pedalo. For us, this was the best part of the trip! The weather was good, and it was relaxing to spend an hour ambling along the River without a care in the world. It cost around £10.

The next morning we took the tram to Prague Castle. Many people also take a walking tour of the castle, and this would have given us a better insight, but we decided that a ten-year-old could only tolerate one walking tour over the trip! As I walked through the narrow picturesque pathway leading up to the courtyard, I wondered what all the bother was about. The view from the top of the hilltop was magnificent but I didn't know what to expect. However, once I entered the courtyard and saw the magnificent St Vitus Cathedral, I was not disappointed. Its grandeur was breathtaking. The Castle site has eight different exhibitions, and the ticket options depend on how many of them you want to see. It is better to buy the ticket beforehand as we spent quite a long time finding the ticket booth. My favourite exhibition was the upper floor of Golden Lane, where there was a collection of armour throughout the ages. 

We had nearly finished our short trip but before we got on the flight back, we went to the Illusion Art Museum, which was fantastic.

The gallery hosted interactive exhibits in which the visitor was asked to stand in a particular spot to view the illusion of the image in front of them. The picture here is of my brother and I. If you look very closely, he is standing far away on a large chair seat. I am standing nearer to the view with just the leg parts of the chair, and thus, an illusion is created that I am very tall and my brother very small.

In reality we are not very different in size. All the exhibits had different types of illusions, and it was a very entertaining end to our trip.  I really enjoyed my visit (and so did Abagail) and would definitely recommend Prague. It has something for everyone and for all ages.

www.prague.eu

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