Day 23 - A Prague Tour Guide

A Tour with Andrea Reznickova

Our tour wasn't scheduled until 1:30p so we spent the morning in our room blogging and getting our photos in order. We had never hired a tour guide before and Andrea came to us via Jana who is listed in Rick Steves' book. What a wonderful experience and everyone should consider hiring a guide when arriving to a new city.

We only booked 2 hours since we didn't think we could walk and talk for 4 as she had originally suggested. After the fact, could have easily done 4 with her. As we walked down the stairs to meet her outside of our hostel, she called after us from the reception where she had just arrived. Very personable, excellent English, and a great organizer. We went to a cafe just around the corner and she ordered a cranberry lemonade for us explaining that if you order a pitcher instead of glasses, it is cheaper. That was the first of many great suggestions on saving money in Prague that she offered. Here are a few other tips:

1-Keep your bag close, away from the street side when sitting, zipped up at all times, and close to your body when walking. Crime is not a problem in Prague except for pickpockets who are everywhere. (With that, she checked the table behind her every time someone got up or sat down and moved the empty chair beside her with her purse closer to our table.)

2-The taxi to the airport should run about 600 kr.  Call AAA Taxi to schedule and get the price on the phone so you know what to expect. AAA is the least taxi to try to overcharge. But if you get a taxi on the street, as a tourist, they will try to charge you 2000 kr for a 200 kr ride.  Ask the rate before getting into the taxi.  Be aggressive and just say "I had this ride for 200 kr last time." and they usually back down and charge the 200 kr.

3-There is a zero tolerance for drinking and driving. If you have even 1 drink, you should walk or take public transport.

4-Czechs deal with large bills of 1000 kr and 2000 kr and an average dinner for two will run 800 kr. The coins are basically useless except for the 50 kr coin which is approximately $2.

5-Tipping is not necessary but a 20 kr coin would be appropriate if you just got a drink and didn't sit at the table very long. You can get two beers for a 50 kr coin. If you sit at a table for a long period of time, a larger tip may be appropriate.  Otherwise, a 10% tip is just fine for a meal.

6-In Europe, it is impolite of the waiters to bring you your bill before you ask for it. So don't get huffy waiting for a bill that doesn't arrive (like I did in Gdansk). The table is yours until you decide to leave with no pressure to hurry up and go for another guest.

And here we received a brief overview of the history of the Czech Republic. In 800-1600AD, Czechoslovakia ruled its with kings until a marriage alliance with the Austrian Hapsburgs who took over rule of the country until after World War I when it became the Czech Republic with a President in 1918. The economy turned around and was on the rise during these 20 years of a President who was married to an American. Then, in 1938, the Munich Agreement took place with Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and Daladier but no representative from Czechoslovakia. This agreement allowed Germany to annex lands on their border where German speakers already lived and they called it "Sudetenland". Britain and France agreed to this in order to avoid war and the Czechs were forced to agree or fight Germany alone. Germany took over the rest of Czechoslovakia the following year and invaded Poland. After World War II, Russia gained control over the Eastern Bloc nations including Czechoslovakia and Poland. In 1989, with Russia relaxing its control, each of the nations began their own uprisings and were able to expel Russian leaders and take control of their countries to make them democratic. The Poles and Czechs also credit Ronald Reagan who said in his speech, "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down that wall!" The Czech Republic now enjoys a low unemployment rate of 6% and a good economy.

Andrea planned our walk into the Old Town Main Square via streets we hadn't explored and constantly orienting us to our hostel as we went which made the streets easier to understand and not get SO lost. The Ungelt Square was built when foreigners began bringing their wares to Prague via the Vlatava River. The locals back in Medieval days didn't want the competition in the Main Square where they sold their goods so the "foreigners" were relegated to this square. It's a cute little square with some wonderful shops of Czech glass and children's wooden toys for which they are famous.

Prior to street addresses with numbers, the houses were labeled with pictures.  For example, the house of the golden ring or the house of the unicorn.

The Unicorn House

The Golden Ring House

The keyholes in the building over the gate into the main square were for the soldiers to defend the city with their crossbows and later guns.

Walking through this gate, we were in the Main Square with its street performers but we needed to hurry to the clock to get a good location and not miss the presentation which is very short.

The skeleton, Death, starts the 15 second presentation by ringing his bell and turning his hourglass. To the left of the clock, Vanity and Greed shake their heads NO to Death since they are too pretty and too wealthy to die. The Turkish man next to the skeleton depicts the easy, fun life and also is not ready to "go".

The two blue doors above the topmost clock open during this event and the 12 Apostles rotate by showing their faces in these doorways.

The Tyn (pronounced teen) Church in the background on the Old Town Main Square.

She found us the perfect spot away from the crowd for the Astronomical Clock to chime at 3:00p and watched the crowd for pickpockets as we stood transfixed on the clock. It only plays for 15 seconds so you must be ready with your camera if you expect to catch the action. We agreed that Melodie would get the still shots while I did a video. It was marvelous to see a 15th century clock still going strong.  Of course, it ignores daylight savings time and keeps its own hour with the world in the center and Prague the center of the world!  ;-)  Too bad blogspot doesn't let me do video insertions.

From here she took us to New Town. The Czechs don't differentiate between Old and New Towns since they were built just 100 years apart, don't look much different from each other, and run with no breaks into each other. In the past, there were walls and moats which divided them but no more. A Czech will look at you funny if you ask if you are in old or new town since they don't see much of a difference between the two. "Stare Mesto" on street signs designate "Old Town" in case you have a great need to know this locator.

We passed a display of bricks for 150 kr ($6) that you could paint and add to the wall. This is a fundraiser conducted annually to raise money for the employment of handicapped people to live a fulfilling life.

We walked down Wenceslas Square which is an important location for all Czechs. It is here that Russian tanks took up residence in 1968 in front of King Wenceslas' statue and 200,000 soldiers resided for over 20 years to maintain Soviet authority in the region.  It was also this square where Prague students began an uprising in November 1989 for democracy and this resulted in the departure of all Soviet forces.

Na Prikope street used to be a moat which surrounded the city and ran past the Powder Gate where a drawbridge allowed entry.

To this day, the locals refer to this street as the Shops on the Moat. Hari Krishna were doing their "thing" with amplification on the corner.

Andrea took us to one of her favorite Czech restaurants which happened to have a craft fair going on on the street outside.

We sat and ordered and Andrea made a list of places we wanted to know about like the garnet factory and other restaurants with good local food.  She had spent more than the 2 hours for which we had hired her so we paid her more and gave her a tip. She was worth every krona.

Andrea had suggested a few good dishes so Melodie and I each ordered a different dish. In ordering mine, I asked about the sauerkraut that came with the pork knee and the waitress asked if I wanted it hot. I said yes. Little did I know at the time that we were having a lack of communication.  That is, until my meal was served and I had an EXTRA order of hot sauerkraut on the side. Take a look since there was no way I needed EXTRA ANYTHING!

Before. The round white bowl of beetroot and sauerkraut was the mistake add-on to my meal! Served with veggies, sauerkraut, mustard, and horseradish. Melodie's goulash with potato pancake and white dumplings is in the background.

After. Still lots to eat but I was done!

Melodie's goulash didn't resemble any goulash I had eaten in the past but at least her meal looked manageable.

We really wanted dessert but, again, it wasn't going to happen on this day. We needed to sit a while and digest our food and then walk the market where we bought more gifts to bring home. The walk back to the hostel was good exercise and we got back around 6:30p.  We stopped at the reception desk to inquire about a fan to borrow (no such luck) and to pick up earplugs.  The girl said we should get rain so the streets may be quieter tonight.  Shower and bedtime was on my agenda and EARPLUGS.