New Year in Prague

RESTAURANTS: PEKLO: It means hell. This restaurant is located near the Strahov Monastery, behind the castle. The setting is particular, an underground cellar with vaulted ceilings, a little infernal, the lights are dim. The typical Czech cuisine is excellent. Good the Mephisto chicken with cherry sauce….The skilful waiters grill the fillets in front of the guests with very flambé effects….. KLASTERNI PIVOVAR STRAHOV: Brewery of the Strahov Monastery where you can enjoy good beer and eat substantial meat dishes at a good price. KLUB ARKITEKTU': Restaurant housed in an old cellar restored by famous architects, with exposed pipes. The cuisine is typical, varied and very good. Excellent their typical dessert made with gnocchi dough and filled with jam. KOLKOVNA: It remains in the Jewish quarter. A reservation is necessary for dinner, not for lunch.

The restaurant is owned by the Pilsner brewery. An unforgettable memory is the mushroom and potato soup served inside a bread loaf….what a delight! Not to mention the Wurstel in a pan cooked in beer…. DON'T GET RIPPED OFF: -Taxi: don't stop at the first price, they always try to rip you off. The biggest battle was over the transfer from the airport to the hotel. 480-500 koruna are more than enough to go to a hotel like ours which is outside the centre and therefore further away.

They try to insist that the price shown above can only be applied for a transfer "without haste"; if instead you don't have the patience to wait (for who knows what) and want to leave at once, they hit you with 700 koruna….but we had the whole night at our disposal….we wore them down!!!! -Exchange: beware of misleading signs outside the exchange offices, they promise a favourable rate and in reality change the money at another rate…there is always a sign inside written in tiny letters with the real rate they apply! Unfortunately we learned it the hard way…..anyway nice the song we dedicated to the exchange clerk…but it can't be repeated here….!!!! HOTEL: We stayed at the hotel Bonn. Nice, with spacious and welcoming rooms (apart from those on the 5th floor which, to be a little fussy, are smaller and less well kept, but nothing alarming). The lobby is very pretty.

The breakfast varied and abundant. To reach the centre you have to take tram No. 18.

It is 30/12/07 and we are ready to leave: destination Prague, where we will spend New Year and stay to visit the city until 04/01/08. There are 6 of us friends; I (Annalisa), my husband Robby, Marcella and Marco, Marina and Pier. The departure is from Bologna (for 4 of us) with arrival in Prague late in the evening with Czech Airlines.

We booked everything with Expedia, flight and hotel at € 425 each….(for the first to book, the second 500 and the third 600)….so GET MOVING!!!!The plane is small, a 60-seater with the 2 propellers at the front and very noisy…The journey nevertheless turned out to be very calm despite Marci's initial misgivings; she cursed me from the moment she knew the responsibility for the booking was mine… We dedicate 31/12/07 to visiting the Castle, which however big they say it is, is never big enough! We did not manage to visit St Vitus Cathedral because of the human crush. There are anyway an infinity of things and museums to see such as the display of weapons, armour, instruments of torture, crown jewels, etc. etc. Very characteristic is the Golden Lane. It is a narrow little alley onto which face colourful little houses that seem to have come out of a fairy-tale book.

Inside these little houses there are craft shops, once the dwellings of the sharpshooters. Not to be missed is the changing of the guard at the main entrance of the Castle, which takes place every hour, although the finest is the one at 12, accompanied by a brass band playing from the windows overlooking the first courtyard. The main entrance is that of Hradcany Square. On the gate there are the 2 Baroque statues of the battling titans. For the evening of 31/12/07 we organised a dinner on a boat on the Vltava (booked online with Prague Experience at € 118 each, dinner included).Duration 5 hours, from 20.00 to 1.00. The boat sailed the whole time showing us the marvellous Prague by night.The dinner was a buffet, a varied menu of meat, fish, vegetables.

Before the new year struck the boat approached Charles Bridge and at midnight the fireworks began, reflected on the water and lighting up the fine buildings of Prague overlooking the Vltava! It was the best way to spend New Year here.On the first of January Robby and I got up before the others and took the chance to visit Vysehrad, the ancient fortress. It is a small district positioned higher than Prague. Worth seeing is the church of Saints Peter and Paul, very beautiful, with several Art Nouveau frescoes inside. In the district there is a cemetery where great Czech personalities are buried, including the painter Mucha. At the entrance you can notice the inscription: AC ZEMERELI JESTE MLUVI, even dead they still speak….a bit eerie!!! The rotunda of St Martin is instead the oldest building in all of Prague, used as a powder magazine.

All around there is a fine park and the view of Prague from up here is stupendous. We descend and continue our walk along the bank of the Vltava towards the Dancing House, built in '96. The name derives from the shape of this house, which recalls a pair of dancers embracing. Very particular. We also passed by the island in the middle of the Vltava, called the Venice of Prague; nice but nothing special. We arrive at Charles Bridge where we have the appointment with our friends. Walking on the Bridge is apparently the favourite activity of tourists…they are all here! The bridge is 500 m long and along the edges are lined up as many as 30 Baroque statues.

Don't forget to rub the bronze of the statue of St John of Nepomuk…legend says that whoever rubs it will return to Prague! How to find it? Look where there is the queue! We continued our tour towards the astronomical clock, in the old town square. This beautiful clock has 4 statues at the sides representing: greed, vanity, death and the Turk (from the pagan invasions). When the hour strikes, death rings the bell and turns the hourglass, the Turk shakes his head, the greedy man looks at his bag of money and vanity looks at the mirror. At the top 2 windows open and the 12 apostles file past the crowd below. At the end the crowing of a cock is heard and then the chimes. The surrounding square is invaded (in this period) by stalls of local crafts offering advantageous prices.

Towards 18.00 we were surprised by the fireworks that could be seen from the fantastic Pariszka street (where the exclusive shops are), all lit up! Truly a pleasant surprise…. The following day we dedicated to visiting the shops but we found nothing really worth buying. The prices are comparable to Italian ones. On 03/01/08 we visited the Jewish quarter of Josefov, made up of 6 monuments that form the Jewish Museum of Prague (Spanish Synagogue, Klaus, Maisel, Pinkas, Jewish cemetery and the ceremonial hall).We ended the day and thus also our holiday with the climb up the tower of the Astronomical clock. What a view, guys, from up here, you can't imagine! Truly enchanting, don't miss it for any reason!