Prague Day Two: Castles, Kolaches, and Questionable Tram Tickets

So many cute trams!

The next day we were able to sleep in a little bit after the travel before starting our day. We had breakfast at the hotel and then left to find the tram. Prague has really incredible public transportation that makes it so easy to get around the city. One of the most common modes to
use is their tram – which is similar to our light rail in Denver – but it has many more routes to choose from. Buy your ticket (very cheap), validate when you get on, and off you go! There is also an app you can download which takes out the need for validation, but we didn’t use that. Tram #22 is the option you want to use when headed towards Prague Castle – which was our plan for the day. Travel books will tell you to try and arrive early before the crowds get too busy, which is what we hoped to do.

About a week or two before we left for our trip, some of the castle tram routes were closed for construction, which meant you couldn’t take it straight to the castle grounds. Your options were to get off at the bottom and walk up or start at the top and walk down. When we loaded onto the tram it was PACKED, so there was no hope of buying a ticket or validating it. We also assumed since there were so many people, no one would stop us and check. Nevertheless, we didn’t want to risk a $100 fine, so we took the exit at the bottom of the castle to walk up. And boy do they mean UP. A long set of steep stairs gets you to the castle grounds entrance where you have beautiful sweeping views of the city. It was here that we did another Rick Steves walking touring of the largest castle complex in all of Europe. Yup, you read that right. This complex is HUGE. We spent about two hours wandering around the complex and that didn’t include entry into several of the exhibits. You can walk the complex for free but must have ticketed entry for a few of the other sites. Details that aren’t worth going into here – we had tickets for the sites and then decided to cancel them – but we saw plenty!

To learn more about the castle – check out their website. We were here for about three hours and could have certainly spent more time. You also can zoom through it - just plan accordingly for whatever your preference is!

All of the travel books will then tell you about the Strahov Monastery, which is just a short walk from the castle complex. If you know enough – you also learn that there is a brewery within the monastery as well! This felt like a bit of a no brainer – a brewery at a monastery?! Yes please. It was here that we took a nice break for a pivo and a pretzel. The weather today was also gorgeous – sunshine and a breeze! Couldn’t ask for better patio weather. Around the monastery there are also some great viewpoints of the city which we made sure to stop and take some photos.

Across the street from the monastery is the tram that drops you ‘at the top’ of the castle complex – the other option we had in the morning. So here we chose to take it back down closer to the city. We got our ticket and went on our way. But here, we had issues with the machine, and it said it was $0 – we weren’t sure what we did wrong. So again, we spent the tram ride hoping not to get a ticket – ha!

We had the afternoon to roam the city more, so we stopped not too far along the tram path and used this time to cross the Charles Bridge. This bridge is one of the other famous shots you see all throughout Prague. Guides will tell you to cross this either early in the morning or late at night because it gets so packed – and they aren’t wrong. It just made more sense for us to do it in the middle of the day, unfortunately. This bridge is pedestrian only and has vendors all over – so it is CROWDED. But it does have great shots of the city, castle and Vltava River. Sadly, we never did it a second time – but still beautiful views with great statues all along the length of it.

Kolaches!

From here, we wanted a snack and I was long overdue for my first kolache of the trip. If you aren’t familiar, a kolache is a Czech pastry -usually with fruit filling but some will do savory. It is more common as a breakfast treat in the Czech Republic. My grandma always made them
growing up and I was dying to have one here. We found a place that was recommended to us, Kolacherie, and luckily, they had the only kind that matters (to me) poppyseed! It was so delicious and surreal to have one in that moment.

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After our kolache stop, we weren’t at a weird time of day where we had a few hours before a food tour we planned to take – but didn’t think it made sense to go home. We were already in the area to meet for the tour so just walked the street of Dlouha – known for its shopping. Known, however, for its FANCY shopping. Not realizing it, we were now in a very fancy part of town. Some of the cars we saw, Bryan said were probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, it was fascinating to wander into this little pocket of incredible wealth. We also found some very cool art along the way. One of the coolest things about Prague was the art that would just pop up out of nowhere – you don’t need to go looking for it – it will find you!

About an hour before the tour started, we decided let’s just find a pub and take a break. On our Google map for a suggested stop was a place called Lokal, local food and beer hall. Here we popped in for a few pivos, again a spot where they simply tallied how many drinks you were having. We got to watch hockey with the locals, helped a bachelor party with a scavenger hunt (let’s face it, they knew the American tourists would be down to help them), enjoy the Pilsner and then start our food tour!

Gotta get those tallies!