We’ve made it to Prague!

August 1, 2024

I had to get up early, again, to get to my flight to Prague! It has been a QUICK three nights of my trip – I have only gotten about 14 hours of sleep since I left Sacramento. But no need to worry, I am still full of energy, probably just hopped up on adrenaline and excitement for this adventure I am on. I am sure it will catch up with me soon!

The hotel had arranged for a car service to come pick me up at 3:15 am so I could be at Heathrow 2 hours before flight time. However, NEXT time I will definitely be checking when bag drop opens, because I spent an extra HOUR waiting at the airport for bad drop to open. That is another hour I could have been sleeping!

After the hour of waiting, I got in a big line to drop my bag, then headed through security. It was nice and quick today so I got to the waiting area with plenty of time to spare. Nothing was really open yet on the secure side so I just filled up my water bottle from the fountain and waited for my gate to be called. Again, my gate was the farthest from the seating area, but this time I remembered my phone!

The gate agents were asking guests (not over the loud speaker, but individually) if they would be willing to check their bags through to their destination because it was going to be a very full flight. I managed to evade the gate agent and hold onto my bag. When I got on the plane most of the overhead bin space was available and I was at the back of the boarding line.

The flight was uneventful and about two hours long. I landed around 915am and headed to passport control. I waited in the line for a stamp, because they are the MOST important thing! I collected my bag at baggage claim and then decided to wait the two hours until PB (Chris) arrived. I thought for sure I would be napping, but instead I just journaled from the day before and did LOTS of people watching.

Two hours later, there he was and off we went! I thought we were going to get a taxi, but he mentioned Uber – so he pulled it up on his phone and as we walked to the exit we saw the Uber Airport terminal and cars. It seems as though Uber is trying something new here. They have kiosks that you can call a car from and a special “Uber Airport” car will pick you up and take you to your destination. The Uber Airport cars are all newer and larger – but this option is more expensive than just a regular Uber. So PB called an Uber on his app and we saved about 25% with this choice. The driver was there already so we hopped in and off we went to out hotel.

I was last in Prague in August of 2019. I had stayed at the Hilton then because there was massive influx of people into Prague while I was there due to a huge Metalica concert. This time when I went to book a hotel for us, there was an additional Hilton option – the Hilton Old Town. And since Old Town is where the happening places are, I opted for this hotel. This hotel is pretty new and shiny still.

When we arrived we were told that our room would be ready in 15 minutes and we could go up to the lounge and relax. We went up and got a drink while we waited. After about 20 minutes we went back downstairs and they said that our room still wasnt ready. So this time we decided to walk to the river (we never made it to the river). We walked into the Old Town square where the old town hall and astronomical clock are. We walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel. They said the room still wasnt ready (like just tell us the room wont be ready until 3pm instead of telling us 15, 30, 45 minutes). We went to the little grocery store across the street and then went for some tea and cake.

It was finally 3pm and we could check in. They had told us we were getting an upgrade to a king suite. Im not sure that the room we got was a king suite, but it is nice nonetheless. PB got to shower and I unpacked – then we sat there and tried to figure out what we wanted to do this evening. We talked about a dinner cruise, but opted instead to do the Old Town hall tour and climb to the top of the astronimical clock tower. We then planned to go to dinner at the rooftop restaurant I had seen on Instagram.

There was an english guided tour that went at 530, so we did the tower climb first as we had about 45 minutes until the tour would start. You could opt to take the lift, but of course we chose to climb – because where there are stairs, we will always climb! We climbed two flights of stairs to get to the tower portion of the building, then instead of stairs it was just a ramp up to the top of the tower, with a circular lift in the middle. It was actually a really easy climb! The tower may only be 4-5 stories tall in reality.

After the climb we sat in the lobby waiting for the tour to start. Our guides name was Elen and she was a gem. She had a thick accent, but was clear enough in her descriptions that one could understand her. She was very knowledgeable and able to answer any question thrown at her. It was a bit over an hour tour that included the 4 buildings of the Old Town hall and the underground portion below.

We learned that the Old Town hall had actually been even bigger, but during the WWII bombing over a quarter of the building had been demolished. And of course it was the part of the building that housed the archives. Nothing could be saved – hundreds of years of historical pieces and knowledge was wiped out. The area that was bombed is now a little park.

Part of the tour was in the underground portion. This was super interesting. Prague had started to flood during certain parts of the year so it was decided that the town would raise street level. Essentially making every ground level floor the basement and every first level floor the street level. Prague was raised up anywhere from 5 meters to 11 meters depending on the area of town. We were now standing underneath the buildings, but at one point we would have been standing on the actual street! The raising of the street level allowed for the towns people to collect water in cisterns instead of relying on the dirty water from their individual wells (she said each house had their own well).

I had never known we could go into the tower or take a tour of the Old Town hall – or even that there was an underground portion of the city! It just goes to show even after visiting a city more than a few times, there is still so much to learn and take in.

After the tour we headed over to the restaurant to eat. However, we learned that you need to make a reservation (of course nothing I read on it said this was a thing). We made a reservation for Monday evening and headed back to the square to find something to eat. It is well known that in touristy spots you pay more, but we ended up with the best table the Italian restaurant had to offer. It was the corner table closest to the astronomical clock – with the perfect timing of the new hour bell ringing.

We shared a fruit and cheese plate and then a four cheese pizza (one can never get enough cheese). PB also got a limoncello spritzer – it was VERY refreshing and much more appealing than an Aperol spritzer. The food was very good and after we paid (the manager said he preferred cash, which dont we all, but of course who has cash these days) we headed to get some gelato for our walk back to the hotel.

We stopped at another grocery to get some more snacks for our train ride tomorrow to Bratislava. We got back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We turned on the Olympics and JUST missed Simon Biles complete here floor exercise. They showed some replays before the swimming started. We crashed shortly after getting into bed.