Arriving in Prague is sort of overwhelming. The whole city is crazy pretty. Almost too pretty. It feels sort of like Epcot in Disney World - not quite real and incredibly crowded.
We decided to walk the 1.5 miles from the train station to our apartment, which was fun at first (so much to look at!). But then we crossed the Charles Bridge and carrying that huge backpack while being engulfed by tourists left me drained.
Luckily, our airbnb came with wine and juice and tons of light, so after an hour or so of recovery time, we decided to explore the city.
After eating more meat than I ever thought possible in an "authentic" restaurant (the whole city is awash in "authentic" cuisine), we bought trullios for the kids. Another "authentic" Prague creation, which is basically an ice cream cone in a pastry shell. They're on every corner, adding to the city's Disney-esque feel.
The next morning, we woke up to our gorgeous light-filled apartment and, feeling invigorated, decided to explore.
This photo pretty much sums up Prague for me.
The art museum on Prague's main square was hosting a retrospective on Gerhard Richter - total score as he's one of my faves. I was super happy and could have stayed for hours, but F didn't feel well, so after walking around for a little longer we decided to spend a lazy afternoon back at the apartment.
Of course peacocks roam free in Prague's parks. Of course.
Prague graffiti.
Downtime (poor sick F).
We discovered an Escape Room close to our apartment and after debating whether we really came all the way to Europe for an Escape Room, the kids convinced us that we needed to do this. And it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip - the concept involved alchemy at the castle and was based (loosely) on one of Prague's old kings, which made it much more fun to tour Prague's castle the next day.
It poured our second day in Prague, but luckily we were prepared and managed to hike through town to the castle on top.
T had a blast trying to make the guards laugh. And we all enjoyed the medieval street with old weapons, but standing in the rain became sort of old after awhile.
In the afternoon we decided to check out the Film Special Effects Museum (otherwise known as the Karel Zeman Museum), which, while small, was interactive and super cool.
Once the rain stopped, we walked for awhile outside the main tourist areas (i.e. we avoided the clock tour and the Charles Bridge) and found some gorgeous spots by the river full of swans.
And in the morning, we caught and early train for Munich.
Truthfully, out of al1 10 cities we visited, Prague was our least successful. Maybe we were all tired after Berlin (and F didn't feel that well), but we just couldn't quite embrace it - sort of like a party you leave early, even though everyone else is having a really good time.
Since returning to the US, the kids keep telling everyone they hated Prague, which isn't quite fair as we only spent 2.5 days there and didn't see most of the city. But so it goes. Every vacation needs a "ugh" and this was our's.
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