Passport? Czech, Wallet? Czech, Baby? Czech - Prague here we come!

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The last 6 months have been a bit of a blur with our little new addition and a few days away was the perfect way to slow down and relax. Neither of us had been to Prague before so seemed like a pretty good place to go - especially as it was to be Heidi's first overseas trip!

We managed to make the most of the UK bank holiday extravaganza with Easter and the Royal Wedding meaning 3 days of annual leave turned into an 11 day break!

After a lovely family lunch on Easter Sunday we headed to Luton Airport early Monday morning to catch our flight to Prague. Wizz Air was our chosen budget airline (not that cheap when you add a bag in the hold and Heidi - I thought Babies went for free?) and we were actually quite impressed! No need to buy speedy boarding as those with infants go to the front and we even had three seats which was bonus. The best thing was the envious eyes of everyone that had rushed to get to the gate first!

Heidi was an absolute star throughout the flight, no fussing at all and she slept happily on my lap after take off. On the way back I made the mistake of leaving her bottle of milk in between my legs and as the cabin pressurised it leaked all over my lap - I was wearing jeans so it looked as though I had wet myself - and smelt a bit funny too!

We were met at Prague airport by a nice taxi driver who had a child seat (pre booked by Sally) and were in our hotel by 1100hrs - about 4 hours door to door!

The hotel was pretty smart by our standards and our room was very spacious even with the cot. We also had a pet goldfish for the duration of our stay - a bit quirky but good fun and Heidi liked looking at it for about 3 seconds!

Maximilian Hotel

The location was good for the old town and the breakfast fantastic - just about everything you could ever have for breakfast all at the same time and included in the price of the room which meant we ate far too much! I think Sally had about 5 courses one morning!

So what did we get up to then?

We walked, walked some more, and when we were done walking we walked a little bit further!

Along our various routes we took in the old town square which was decked out for their Easter celebrations with little stalls selling trinkets (junk) and a few food stalls selling local delicacies which to tell you the truth looked a lot better than they tasted. We managed to watch the famous clock doing its thing at the same time as everyone else in Prague and had a good view of a wedding service just finishing at the same time.

We used the Lonely Planet self guided walking tours which took us pretty much everywhere throughout the city and out into the residential neighbourhoods as well. We walked past lovely terraced villas, the TV tower was quite fun with the babies crawling up its sides, churches and parks. One park was completely empty but the sign on entering might explain why - they had pretty much banned all activities within the park except for breathing, the views were quite nice across the town and up to the castle but the sign obviously puts most off before going in!

We found an interesting "cubist" lamp post, saw various memorials to student martyrs and even had to wrestle Heidi back from an old lady who insisted on holding her and making her laugh. Heidi didn't seem to mind so we didn't worry too much.

We managed a visit to the castle and had to carry Heidi's pram all the way up the steps, we took in the toy museum and the miniature museum in the same day, the latter didn't take too long. We hiked our way up to the city viewpoint, thinking a shortcut through the woods would be fun but having to scale a wall with the pram proved it wasn't. At the top we took the cable car back down and encountered the communism memorial again.

We pretty much covered most of the traditional areas and some of the more unusual/lesser visited too.

The funniest thing with walking around (not for Heidi) was the fact that ever street and pavement was cobbled. Heidi's little head bobbed up and down the entire time we were on the move. You could see approaching people giggling as they watched her head bob up and down. I am not surprised she slept so well she must have been exhausted trynig to keep her head straight! If you go with a baby take a pram with decent wheels!!!!

In the evenings we thought we would be limited to the hotel and room service but did venture out for meals despite Heidi who slept in the pram while we ate. Local food is an acquired taste but the other restaurants we went to were good - pizza and mussels! We didn't venture to any of the famous underground bars as that would have been pushing our luck with a sleeping baby I think.

The final day comprised a lazy start and a boat ride. The weather was the best we had had and the distinct lack of walking made it quite a relaxing time. The boat trip was ok, it basically went from the mooring to the Charles Bridge and back (very slowly to justify the ticket) but it was nice to see the city from a different perspective.

We had a final beer in the sun and headed back to the airport for the return journey.

A great little break, beautiful city, smart hotel (and breakfast), and fun to spend time together away.

Until next time..................

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Photos

Pad Locks
Signifying Eternal Love or something silly like that!

Comments

[StuandRach]

Looks like a cool city, we hope to go there later this year. Will probably be using your blog to help us plan!

[D MJ Binkley]

As always another great blog.
Loved the John Lennon wall. Looks like Heidi selected a good itinerary.....very cute photo.