Viking Cruise Recap #5 - Prague: a city that is so beautiful and historic it deserves a week worth of posts on it's own

The morning after Dresden we had to say goodbye to most of our beloved crew and our lovely boat and move on to Prague.

We spent the rest of that day with our Viking comrades. We did a leisurely city tour, checked into our hotel and then got one more "hey, sorry about the water levels" concession: a "traditional czech dinner with folk songs and dancing". Is it something we would have done on our own? OH heck no. Was it super authentic? Probably not. Was it free, including beer and wine? Yes. Did we go? Yeah. It was pretty cheesy, but I got a cool gift for one of my friends and we didn't get pulled up to dance.

The next morning, most everyone left for home. Quinn and I had decided to stay a couple of extra days (thanks to Quinn's Hilton Rewards points!) in Prague so we switched to another hotel (Hilton Prague Old Town, great location, nice hotel, super art decor gorgeous lobby) and then met Tereza.

When we were planning this trip we knew that there was a lot of stuff we wanted to see and Prague and not a lot of time to see it. Quinn suggested we get a private tour guide for one of the days and I said I'd look into it. I eventually landed on Caput Regni Tours. All the guides are native Czech ladies, so I thought it was awesome to support a locally and female owned business. This was such a great choice. We booked a 6 hour tour that was crafted especially to see what we wanted to see, led by Tereza. We were a little nervous because 6 hours is a long time to be with a guide. We had no need to be nervous. Tereza was knowledgeable, personable and super smart. We walked at least 8 kilometers that day (some of it up a monster hill to get to a library in a monastery that I wanted so badly to see). We lunched together at Lokal, a restaurant filled with delicious Czech comfort food, and a delicious hazelnut dessert that I will have dreams about for the rest of my life I think. (I first heard about this place from Jamie, here! Thanks dear Jamie!) We saw great public art (some moving, some confusing, one at least pretty scary). Tereza took us down windy, cobblestone, ridiculously narrow streets and alleys that were completely void of other tourists.

The astronomical clock was Quinn's jam. It's not hard to see why, it's pretty beautamus!

In the Strahov Monastery on top of a hill in Prague there are 2 incredibly beautiful libraries. I saw them for the first time in the a beloved, but admittedly awful, favorite movie of mine "League of Extraordinary Gentleman." I thought they were set pieces. I found out later they were real. I thought "If I ever go to Prague I have to see those". And I did. On the top of the hill were also insane views looking down over Prague that also made it worth the hike. (Though I'd much rather have taken the tram!)

I'm not joking you guys, it was a big ass hill. But the views, oh, the views...

The little byways that Tereza took us down had no shortage of pretty doors for Quinn to shoot.

Do you guys recall me talking about the book "HHHH" all the time and the fact that it's based on the real life events of Operation Anthropoid? This is Sts Cyril and Methodius Cathedral where those terrible events actually took place. Tereza took us here (at my request) and recounted the whole story for Quinn, but we could only see the church from the outside because the crypt was closed. I of course still wanted to see the crypt, and Quinn was moved by the story too. So the next day we found our way back to the cathedral and entered the crypt. It's a solemn and important place. If you have any interest in WWII at all, this is a story that you need to be familiar with.

We climbed the tower that holds Quinn's clock and got great views of the downtown

Don't mind the flyaways, the bane of my hair existence!

I think Our Lady Before Tyn is just so striking

The crowd waiting for the clock show!

In short, Prague was amazing and beautiful and all kinds of other wonderful superlatives. I can't stress enough that if you have any inkling to see it that you should. Quinn and I have so many pictures that if I even put a quarter of them up here this page would never load. And all of them are great, because Prague is such a great subject.

We will have one last wrap up post and then all hands on deck for All Lady July!