Prague – Sunday to Monday

And so we made our way to the somewhat exotic Czech Republic.  How nice it would be to arrive at a more reasonable hour and relax a bit.  I had heard a lot about Prague and had wanted to visit it for a long time, so I was looking forward to our time there.  I ended up seeing a lot more of it than I really wanted, and the same three-mile area at least half a dozen times. 

Booking a city centre hotel always seems like a great idea when you want to explore the city centre, but not so much when you have to get to it by car.  Words cannot do justice to the range of emotions i felt over the TWO HOURS it took us to access the hotel once we had arrived in the centre of Prague.  SatNav is great until it’s not, and when it’s not it likes to take you down one way streets, through teeny tiny archways and suggests roads that don’t actually exist.  We were within 500 meters of our hotel so many times with no clear way of how to avoid the dead ends and pedestrianised area that surrounded it.  This wasn’t fair!  I wasn’t looking forward to the camping but the hotel part was supposed to be easy! 

The hotel wasn’t answering the phone to give us any help so we kept trying to no avail.  Eventually, we decided that it must not be accessible by car and the booking site was wrong about it having its own parking.  Perhaps we could find somewhere to park and walk.  But as everyone knows, parking in a busy city centre is not an easy thing.  In a last, desperate attempt, i called the hotel again and got through to the concierge.  Yes, I was informed, it was accessible by car and they did indeed have parking under the hotel.  So, please could you give us directions?  Not really, madam, as with all the pedestrian areas it’s very messy and difficult to direct you...  

At the end of our tether we decided to just find an alternative hotel but this wasn’t an option either.  Our booking was non-refundable and there was completely secure underground parking, madam, and it was a wonderful, ideally situated hotel and wouldn’t be such a shame if we had to pay without taking advantage of it...  Perhaps, I was told, we could find a taxi to lead us there because it really wasn’t that hard to find.  OK.  We could try that.  But taxis required money, so we then had to find an ATM, which was as much of a challenge as it was in Berlin.  Finally, we had a small handful of Czech krone and we headed back into the city centre.  No taxi ranks were forthcoming.  So Carlo got us as close as we could manage and I got out to track down the hotel on foot.  We really should have thought of that a lot sooner.  In about 10 minutes, I had found the "wonderful, ideal" location and then proceeded to direct Carlo to it on a not entirely legal route involving at least one no entry.  I really didn’t care by that point!  The concierge opened the gate to the completely secure underground parking and we were in!  How I managed not to cry with either frustration or relief, I have no idea! 

We then had to check in, which was the longest such process I've ever known, with the poor girls slumped, fed up, on the convenient sofa.  All in all, by the time we got into our room, three hours had passed since we first drove into Prague city centre.  I say room, but it was actually a very long, narrow space, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchenette with a sofa – but no table, now i think of it.  The bedrooms were serviceable enough but one bathroom smelt disgustingly of the sewers and the ‘balcony’ (inverted commas were never more appropriate) was a concrete square with two broken chairs, surrounded by the walls of the nearby buildings and with a small drop to one side that was overflowing with dumped rubbish.  When my youngest said, this balcony is trash! I told her off for being rude until I realised she was speaking literally...  

We dumped our stuff and summoned up our last vestiges of energy to walk to the traditional restaurant our friendly concierge had recommended.  In this, at least, we were not disappointed.  It was situated at the end of a small arcade, whose shops sold interesting things like men’s neon underwear – Hub was strangely not tempted.  The restaurant itself was rustic and gorgeous and we were able to get a seat on the covered terrace that was filled with long wooden tables and benches covered in patterned cushions.  The staff were friendly and thankfully spoke English, although I did ask one waiter to teach me how to say thank you in Czech.  Don’t ask me, because I couldn’t pronounce it then, let alone now.  We opted for a sharing platter to start that was brimming with cold meats and cheeses and sweet peppers.  For our main course, the girls both had chicken kebabs marinated in honey and sage, Hub had a tasty dish of mixed meats and sausage, and I had some delicious beef goulash with fresh horseradish and a selection of dumplings.  It was seriously yum!  We were sadly too full and tired to sample any dessert but we left very satisfied and much happier about our visit to the city. 

Walking back to the hotel we took our time looking at the beautiful architecture and the sights and sounds of a busy city.  There were a couple of street performers doing interesting things with balls – glass balls, that is – and swallowing fire.  On the way to the restaurant we had passed a store the girls could not resist, Captain Candy (very Czech...).  It was full to the brim with barrels and baskets of pic’n’mix sweeties and unsurprisingly, was very popular.  It was awesome!  I was very disappointed that they didn’t let you take photos inside but I did sneak one or two through the windows.  The girls came away with a small but tooth-ache-inducing selection of sweets and I may have picked up one or two chocolate nuts and raisins to share with Hub (read, stuff in my face after he'd fallen asleep).

The wonderful situation of our hotel actually put it two doors up from a branch of Hooters, which he and I found very entertaining and which I had to explain to the children after my 8 year old asked why it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to be in our photo of it...  All in all, we finished our evening in a lot better spirits than we started it.