prague

i spent 6 wonderful years in prague. i guided often visitors and can recommend these basics about prague:
i am sure you will enjoy your stay in prague.
Prague is a city where you can find architecture of the last 10
centuries. its a city where light is very important. so be at the
right place at the right (sunlight) time...
sunrise is great from vitkov mountain, where a huge monument is and a mausoleum for the kommunist leaders. (thats off the tourist paths)
sundowning is great form petrin hill from where you have a wonderfull view over the city in golden sunlight...
prague at night is always beautiful: i recommend old town square, lesser town square and of course the charles bridge. do you have the spirallo tour guide? its cheap and has very good information about prague.
prague has 3 opera houses: the national theatre, the estates theatre and the states opera. all of them are quite famous and even if you are not into opera they are worth going there just for the beautiful interieur. you can buy tickets at the national theatre ticket shop for all of them its at narodni street the tramstation is called narodni divadlo (narodni divadlo means national theatre)

of course coffeehouses are very improtant, too. famous is the louvre (at norodni) where you get a nice breakfast and also cafe savoy. is really nice and has good cakes. just cross the bridge from the national theater :-)
opposite the national theatre is cafe slavia, where all the famous
writers used to meet. rilke, kafka, brod, werfel and so on..

i recommend this trip:
breakfast at louvre, then take the tram over the bridge just one stop,
there is a funicular up petrin hill. get of the first stop and have a breathtaking view. walk up the hill and follow the signs to "strahov klaster" strahov monastery, where you should visit the library. its really one of the most beautiful ones in europe. from there you can walk to the castle. see the golden lane and either walk down the stairs, or the gardens. take the tram one stop and cross charles bridge on foot. from
there just follow the corwds in karlova street, that street will bring you to oldtown square. from there explore either the jewish quater, the pariska street or got to tynsky dvur which is from oldtownsquare a small street between the house with the stonebell and the amazing
church. there have a look in botanikus soap shop.
well i guess thats enough for the first day....

the second day take the tram 22 or 23 to the castle and walk down
nedrudova street and explore the lesser town. cross the bridge again an walk around old town, follow celetna street, see the powder tower and the obecni dum (municipal house)
what else to see:
passage lucerna with the oldest still running cinema in europe
vysherad, where prague was founded with the cementary of all the
famous musicians, kafka´s grave, the tv tower, (near that is a very good restaurant mozaika, in nitranska street, i also recommend aromi in manesova street)
prague has a nice zoo and 2 bontanic gardens a lot of muzeums (kafka smetana dvorak)
several synagogues in jewish quater "josefov"

if you are interested in blacklightheatre see laterna magica. its nice to see the technic but the shows are not my taste.

what to buy in prague: marionettes, art kalendars, books, glass, have
good czech beer everyhwere, try the orignial budweiser which is form
czech republic not form america, a nice restaurant woth czech food:
pivovarsky dum with own brewed beer (tram 22/23 stop stepanska). try
also novomeste pivovar in vodickova street.

outside prague:
plzen visit the brewery, the cellars under the city and one of the biggest synagogues in europe.
terezin concentration cam.
kutna hora: see the gothic kathedral, the silver mining, the bonehouse (ossuary)
all three cities are about one hour from prague.