Recently we decided to have a little holiday somewhere nice in Europe. Okay it is not that recent anymore as I actually wanted to write about it for three weeks but some computer troubles kept me at bay. At first we wanted to go to Ireland but due to some visa difficulties for my wife we settled for the Czech Republic, or to be more precise for Prague. From Hamburg it takes only a bit over one hour to get to Prague by plane which is rather nice compared to the 8 hour nightmares to China.
Getting from the Prague Airport to the city center is fairly simple as it takes only about 40 min, first by bus and then by metro and it is super cheap with the tickets costing only about 1 Euro something per person. Our hotel was located in the New Town, now don’t get some modern ideas about this so-called New Town as it was founded in 1348! For me as a German who is used that many cities don’t have much historical substance left the city of Prague is just amazing. Everywhere you look in the city center you see historical buildings. I thought that Dresden was already incredible but Prague is on a whole different level. We stayed for three nights in Prague, giving us enough time to discover the city on our own pace. All the locations we visited were within walking distance except the Prague Castle for which we took another 5 min metro ride. For a family such as us this is just perfect as it makes getting around so easy.
Nathan developed right from the start his favorite spots in the city. For one there were those main locations where soap-bubble performers were active and another and most important place was Hamleys. I had no idea about this toy shop chain before as they don’t have any stores in Germany or Finland. Let’s just say the Hamleys store in Prague was a little wonder world (only 6.000 sqm…)for Nathan with a carousel in the middle of the shop, several slides (one going from the second floor down to the first!), many other different activities to offer, staff dressed up in some nice costumes and of course toys and more toys everywhere. I have no doubt Nathan could have spent the entire holiday there.ย When you are in Prague and have kids you need to visit that shop (okay, even without Nathan I would go there).
On our first day we went around the area of our hotel. I was rather happy that our hotel was just a few minutes away from the famous Wenceslas Square yet another tourist site.ย Everywhere in that area are restaurants so it was no problem at all to find a new place to eat for each day. However I must say that it was a bit odd that nearly every second restaurant is either Asian or Italian, justย like Little Italy and China Town combined right there in the middle of the city. Yet I don’t want to complain as it allowed us to give in my wife’s cravings for Asian food every day and then allowing me to choose another restaurant for dinner (I never get to choose usually!). Each day we tried to visit a few main attractions in Prague so we did cover at least the Wenceslas Square, Prague Castle, the Old Town, Charles Bridge any many other place within walking distance from our hotel.
During the entire trip we wondered how this holiday would have been with MIL. For some reason wherever we go and she is with us it is just too much stress. We came to the conclusion that it must be because we do not only have to watch our for Nathan but for her as well. My wife once told me it is like having two children to look out for, with the older being mentally behind the younger one. I know sounds mean but Nathan knows the animals already better than his crazy Chinese grandmother.
All in all I can say that Prague is a wonderful city and I can only recommend going there at least for a couple of days. The city has so much to offer from all the history, over the food and last but not least the beer. For us this was now the last trip we will take in a while due to some reasons to which I will come in some later blog post. I do hope that after 2017 we will be able to travel once again. Oh and sorryย with the following flood of pictures.
Have you been already to Prague or plan to go there at some point?
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How nice to be able to travel to another country in a little over an hour! The disadvantage of living in a large country like the United States is that every other country (except Canada and Mexico) is so far away. And how nice to visit a city with so many historical sites.
I love your photos. The second one really does look like a fairy tale city. Cute photo of Nathan with a cloud on his head.
Europe is really great to visit many different countries without driving/ flying too much. We live here in the north just one hour away from Denmark and three hours away from the Netherlands
How very fortunate! Here in the Pacific Northwest we do enjoy visiting Victoria in Canada, which is only about an hour away by boat. For the most part, though, we enjoy the natural wonders that surround us.
We also prefer staying here around our area. One big thing we still have to visit nearby is the North Sea. Sure we have been there this summer for one hour with my mother-in-law but I would love to take a seal sighting tour or going fishing on an old fishing boat (they offer tours as well, I had been on one when I was in 6th grade together with my class).
It sounds like a peaceful trip without MIL. It did sound like Nathan had the time of his life in Hamsleys. Heh, I hope you did find the toy toys fun too, Timo…
I haven’t been to Prague, but after looking at these photos, why not. It looks like a place where you can walk around all day and still want to walk some more ๐ No more travels for a while
Looking forward to your next blog as always.
Prague is really amazing and everything is so easy to reach. I would say Prague is a must visit destination when going to Europe.
I do hope I will be able to come up with weekly blog posts again, all the hardware issues with my computer should be solved now
Easy to reach is always good. Less time sitting around, more time to wander around.
Hardware issues are the worst, apart from having patchy internet. Hopefully now the computer and you can be friends again ๐
I do hope so as well and I also hope we will get some faster internet connection at some point soon as uploading the pictures take sometimes few hours (and I reduce the picture quality already by half!! In Finland it took just a minute or two to upload)
Oh I want to try that Trololo!
I was already looking forward to read about your Prague trip..looking at these photos made me think how it is to have a trip there with a tiny human as well. The architecture of the old buildings are worth to see. The crowds are big and yet you’ve managed to go to a kid-friendly site.
And those giant bubbles! We saw the same in Trier, it really made all the kids go crazy and flocked around the Bubble man like birds.
It’s great to know that you & your family had a great time together. ๐
In Germany those are called Baumstriezl however I have never seen them prepared freshly in germany.
Prague is really a nice place to visit as a family. There is also a big zoo but we skipped on that this time as we had been to too many this year ๐
The Hamleys there is huge! They recently opened a couple of stores here, and I will admit, they are pretty awesome. Some of them even allow people to have birthday parties in them!
Wish they would open also some stores in Germany but I guess the competition is just too big here. The store in Prague was really amazing as there is pretty much everything a child could dream about when it comes to toys
Oh Prague is such a beautiful city, isn’t it ๐ I have been meaning to go back to Prague forever, but haven’t actually gotten around doing it..
There is a bus that goes to Prague 5 minutes from where I live. But I guess the easier it is to get to places, the less we’re motivated to do it again ๐
Looks like you had a wonderful time. The weather seems to have favored you right..? I visited in spring few years ago and was in love with the city, despite the crowds! Ha ha and I do remember eating sushi! So many Asian eateries ๐ Did you find one of those markets in old town square where they sell interesting snacks like barbecue sticks, potato rolls on a stick etc? I remember eating those.Thanks for the toy store recommendation, my parents and siblings (my brother is 4!) might be visiting next spring and I might take them to Prague!
Pooja @lostinprettyeurope
I know what you mean, we live just one hour away from Denmark but haven’t traveled there yet…
We didn’t try any snacks there such as the potato rolls as they have them also in China with some extra flavor ๐
We had the first two days good weather but then it started with rain and temperatures dropping by ten degrees
I would love to visit Prague and the toy store. Love the photo of Nathan with soap suds on his head; too cute.
Prague is really worth visiting.
We had in the past already similar pictures of Nathan when we even tried how high we could stack the foam on his head, at some point he is not so happy about it though…
Ha ha.
Lovely! Sounds like a fantastic — and low stress — holiday.
An important question from Andy: which country has the best beer in Europe?
Oh that is a tough one as each nation will claim to have the best.
In case Andy would love have more differnt beers than he could chose/ drink Germany would be the best with roughly 1200 breweries and over 5000 beer brands! There would be probably at least one beer he would love. Besides that Czech Republic is known for their beers as well as Belgium ๐
It only takes 8 hours to go to China? It takes me 12 hours to go to/from America ๐
I have so many friends who have been to Prague. Looks like a beautiful place… (and cool you go to see without MIL)
Yeah it is very short to fly to China. From Helsinki to Xi’an (Helsinki offers the fastest routes to Asia from Europe) it takes about 7 hours I think + flying for more than one hour from Hamburg to Helsinki first
We certainly loved Prague a few years ago!!https://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/900-years-of-architectural-legacy-why-prague-is-a-royal-empress/
We just returned from another European trip. We were in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. In addition to France and Barcelona, Spain. There will be posts..
Just read your post about Prague. The city is really amazing and I would love to return there at some point again.
You had a rather busy trip around Europe it seems ๐
Yup, hopefully some future posts will capture some of those sights and experiences.
I am already looking forward to it ๐
Sounds like you had a wonderful time in Prague. I’d love to visit there again – it’s been at least 10-15 years since I’ve been, but I do remember it being very,very beautiful. I know how you feel about MIL being a 2nd child – my father is in town visiting, and I swear it’s just like having 1 more baby in the house, except for one of the them is really, really big and requires even more attention. ๐
And thanks for the tip on the toy store. Will def take the little one there when we visit. She’ll love it!!
Seems that having your own parents around when you have already children doubles the work.
Hope you can go to Prague again in the next years so your girl can enjoy the toy store as much as possible ๐
I went to Prague 10 years ago with my parents! It is indeed a very pretty city, I will need to take C. there some time. Did you see a lot of spiders? I remember there were an awful lot of them hahaha (I also saw a lot of spiders in the villages near Amsterdam!).
I actually didnt see any spiders but then again I would never really notice them/ keep something like that in memory except they are damn huge!! (have still some pictures from spiders I saw in China, did not like them at all…)
Yeah C. should see (what a rhyme ๐ฎ ) Prague as well, it is a wonderful city to discover some middle European history
We have just returned from Prague and had the most wonderful trip. Like you, we discovered Hamleys. For the young and young-at-heart! Great pictures, you capture the city very well in your post!
Thank you for checking out my article. Prague is really a wonderful city and I hope to return there in some years again ๐
How enviously convenient your Prague trip sounds! ๐ And what amazing pics too.
Prague has been on our list for some time… over the last 3 years my partner keeps almost having to fly there for a film shoot my plan to tag along to enjoy the sights and more. Then over and over something falls through and the shoot gets cancelled or moved to a less expensive location. One of these days… ๐
Haha, it will work at some point (hopefully!). Prague is amazing and I wish we had some more days there to see also some other towns and cities around ๐
Hope so too!! In the meantime, I’m trying to conspire to add a few more days to my next Indonesia work trip to escape Jakarta with a girlfriend for a short mini-trip. Would be a shame if I only see the office and hotel! ๐
2nd picture from top with title “Somewhere lost in Prague”:
You’re at the west end of Charles Bridge, facing west through Malostranskรก mosteckรก vฤลพ (Little Quarter Bridge Tower) and into Malรก Strana (Little Quarter).
Na ja, ich kenn’ diese Lieblingsstadt sehr gut aus … ๐
Hamley lego torololo and lot many other fun stuff…prague castle is also breathtaking..looks like a fun city
Prague is really a great city and I can only recommend going there at least once in a lifetime ๐
I have heard Prague in many movies Bollywood is quite find of Prague
Awesome photos! Especially the astronomical clock tower!
Thank you so much. Seems that I get once in a while some decent pictures (considering that I have around 40 more pictures of the clock which are a real mess!)
Haha that’s how I am, I take 20 pictures of the same thing to get one good one
I wish I would have the same good statistics as you! From my China trip in 2013 I took 3000 pictures and only 40 I dare to show to others ๐
Hahahaha!! Don’t worry I know the feeling. It’s the memories that count ๐
Great photos! The architecture looks stunning๐
Thank you ๐
Prague is a really wonderful city and everywhere You can find new interesting places
I would love to go one day! Definitely on my list๐