We decided to spend this years Christmas and NY in Prague (Czech Republic), Poland and Berlin. Enjoying yet another white Christmas. Well we may not have had all the snow but we definitely had the cold! It was -15 deg C when we landed in Prague and apparently one of the coldest winters they had had in Prague in years. Fantastic!
We ended up staying in two different places in Prague, a cheap as chips apartment for 4 days and then a much nicer place over Christmas. Turned out we were lucky that we switched places because our first apartment had no hot water! Not pleasant in freezing temperatures that's for sure.
I have to admit is was really nice having a bit longer in one place so we could actually relax and have a bit of a holiday rather than being on the go the entire time. On our first full day we visited the Castle. The castle is beautiful, up on a hill overlooking one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. It is very obvious why it's called the city of spires. It was such a gorgeous day too, we were so lucky to get perfect views over the city.
There were guards everywhere and although they looked frozen I couldn't help but want to throw a snowball at them and see if they'd crack a smile. I thought better of that tho. The castle is quiet different to ones in England. It is centered around the Cathedral with a maze of other buildings, courtyards and lanes. Very cool. The cathedral was gorgeous, apparently Baroque style, I didn't really know what that is but it's incredibly
opulent.
We had a nice walk through the Mala Strana district stopping off for some Gluwein and a Christmas specialty - Tredlenik, a bread rolled in sugar, cinammon, almond & fire roasted. So declicious! I ate a
lot over the week!
We walked over the Charles bridge, the famous one in Prague. Cool statues yes but the tourists, street sellers and construction really killed any beauty it might have had. The late afternoon was spent in the old town at the Christmas markets. With the trees and the stalls all lit up it was beautiful (it gets dark at 4pm).
Wondering the markets was the perfect way to end a day. The smells were amazing, Tredlenik, crepes, Gluwein, grog, some crazy pizza croissant things, caramel waffles, chestnuts, sweets, seriously a foodies heaven! One of the best parts was watching them make it all. Tredlenik is fascinating to watch as they roll it out on skewers and fire roast it. Really cool.
On the second day we walked up the big hill near the castle. It's a garden area with lots of paths and tracks to the top. There is also a funicular railway (basically a cable car) but we decided to walk. It was wonderful all covered in snow and there were great views back over Prague. The climb wasn't easy, it was pretty steep in parts and being dressed up like Eskimos didn't help. At the top was an Eiffel tower like replica which we climbed for the best views over the whole city.
On the third day we took the train out to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary (or the bone church). I was amazing. A church full of human bones made into chandeliers, wall hangings, a coat of arms and pyramid piles. The history of it all was fascinating.
The big chandelier had to be the most impressive, using every bone in the human body and surrounded by scull candelabras which marked the entrance to the crypt. I liked the coat of arms too with a human head with its eye being picked out by a bird. Nick was most impressed by the warrior skulls in a glass case showing various head wounds. I think about 40,000 humans' bones had been used. An amazing experience.
We walked into the Kutna Hora town (which is actually quite far away) and had lunch in the old town. Kutna Hora only really had one other good attraction - it's beautiful cathedral, unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. The outside was pretty though and it was up on a hill so had nice views back over the town.
Prague is an amazing place to spend the lead up to Christmas. With all of the Christmas markets, lights everywhere and of course the snow it was a magical place to spend Christmas.
A big tradition in the Czech Republic is to have Carp at Christmas so everywhere you go in Prague you'll find Carp sellers on the street and you look at all the fish in their big tubs, pick the one you want, then they take them out, donk them on the head and either give to you whole or fillet for you on the spot. Apparently a lot of people also buy the Carp alive and have it in their bath tub for a couple of days before killing it fresh to eat on Christmas Eve. Quite fascinating.
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