Prague1st Week of an Untours Sampler

September/October 2006Simone and Tony Baker

Untours, a travel agency, hosted this trip. Basically, Untours rents you an apartment and provides local travel atyour destination. What you do is your choice. They also meet you at the airport and transport you to the apartment.We made our own air travel reservations.

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1-mini Eiffel Tower 8-Cechuv Bridge 15-Natural History Museum2-Prague Castle 9-Intercontinental Hotel 16-Museum of Agriculture3-Communism Monument 10-Our Untours Apartment 17-Comtempory Art Museum4-Kampa Hotel 11- Jewish Quarter 18-Prague City Museum5-Charles Bridge 12-Old Town Square 19-TV Antenna Tower6-Organ Concert 13-Mall7-Metronome 14-McDonalds Map from Google Earth

uesday (9/26) We departed Denver at 8:15 pm and arrived London at noon on Wednesday. Weeparted for Prague at 3:00 and arrived around 5:30 pm. We were quickly processed throughmmigration, but there was a bit of wait for our luggage. We passed through customs withouteing stopped and out into the public part of the airport. Elaina, the UnTour representative wasaiting for us. We quickly got some Korunys (Chez money) from the ATM and then Elaina puts in a hired car, which drove us to our Untour apartment.

---------------------------------------Our apartment house was classicEuropean with businesses on theground floor and apartments on theupper floors. It is the building on theright and our apartment was located onthe second floor. One of the visiblesecond story windows in this photo wasin our living room. The building on theleft and in the back is theIntercontinental Hotel, which was thebuild during the USSR days.

The Intercontinental Hotel backs up tothe Vltava River. In the photo, it is thebuilding across the river and on the left.Our apartment is just on the other sideof the Hotel. We often walked crossedthe Cechuv Bridge in the image to getto one of the tram stops we used.---------------------------------------

It was deep twilight when we arrived atthe apartment. A young lady, who Ibelieve was the daughter of theapartment owner, met us at the doorand escorted us in. There was a key tothe front door of the apartment houseand a second key for our apartment,which was on the second floor.

Inside the apartment the three of us sataround the kitchen table as she gave usthe cook’s tour. She gave each of us auniversal pass to the subways, trams(electric trolleys), and buses and told ushow to use it. She told us there was anUntours orientation meeting the nextmorning at 9:00 at the Kampa Hoteland we needed to use the trolley to getthere.

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She showed us the living room and TV with DVD player. Unfortunately, the TV could onlyreceived three locals stations, which were not in English. We had brought movies on DVDsfrom the US that we had checked outfrom the library, but they wouldn’t playon this Czech DVD player. I sincehave learned that the European DVDsare formatted differently than the USones. Fortunately, we had the laptop sowe watched the movies on it in thesubsequent evenings. I did discover aclassical music station on the radio thatwas excellent.

After the young lady left, we steppedout to find some supper. We walkedseveral blocks and found a pub wherewe had an excellent meal of duck, ham-hocks, sauerkraut, and dumplings (flourand potato). We didn’t care for the potatodidn’t like as well as the sauerkraut we getorder meals similar to this one because it sVienna. The sauerkraut remained sweet w

By 3:30 Thursday morning (9/28) I could time change. So, I got up and went for a wwould use later in the morning to go to ouron my running gear, and went for a run. Bnext door to the Intercontinental Hotel for connectivity. I had already learned that thprovided wireless connectivity at the Hotecup of coffee, which turned out to be on th

Even though it was several hoursbefore our orientation meeting, wedecided to get on the tram and start inthe direction of the meeting. We gotoff the tram at the Charles Bridge andwalked out on the bridge to check itout. It was built in 1400s to replace anearlier bridge that had washed away ina flood. After WWII it was made apedestrian bridge. Today, it is thebiggest tourist attraction in Prague. Ifwe had been there in midday, thisimage would display wall-to-wallpeople.

dumplings. Also, the sauerkraut was sweet, which we in the states. As the days passed we occasionallyeemed to be a traditional dish in both Prague andherever we ate it.

no longer sleep. My body had not caught up with thealk across the Cechuv Bridge to find the tram stop we orientation meeting. I returned to the apartment, puty 6:30, Simone was also out of bed, so we walkeda cup of coffee and to check out the Internetere was no connectivity in the apartment. T-Mobilel for $8 per hour. We didn’t use it. We did drink ae house.

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We returned to the tram and traveledtwo more stops and got off. We walkedseveral blocks and arrived at the KampaHotel (Best Western). Since it was stillan hour until the meeting started andthe Hotel’s breakfast buffet lookedfabulous, we decided to eat breakfastthere. This breakfast turned out to bethe best we had the entire trip and thesausage links were the price winner.

Elaina who had met us at the airport conduvisit and how to get there. She also offereevening, which would be paid for by Untowe said we would go because it was an ideBrno. We had tweaked Untours itinerary sarranged and paid for ourselves.

We left the meeting, crossed a bridgenear the Hotel, and started walkingtoward the apartment and looking at thearchitecture.

At the apartment we had a sandwichand drank a beer, both of which hadbeen provided by Untours. After ashort nap, we decided to go to theModern Art Museum. We againwalked across the Cechuv Bridge andcaught the tram. This time we travelwest a number of stops and arrived atthe Veletrzni Palac, which gave one theimpression of a stark white warehouse. Howere four floors and we enjoyed them all.

That evening we ate at a restaurant, whichapartment. The ambiance was better that thad chicken and mushrooms and I had rab

cted the meeting. She told us about many places tod us a chance to attend an organ concert the nexturs. I really didn’t think I would enjoy the concert, butal opportunity for Elaina to give us our train tickets too we could spend a day and night in Brno, which we

wever, it was full of wonderful modern art. There Unfortunately, we apparently made no photographs.

was also within easy walking distance from thehe previous night’s pub but the food was not. Simonebit. Simone watched a DVD movie and I went to bed.

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Friday (9/29, 6:00 am) I went running the same route as Thursday morning, down the east bankof Vltava River crossing at Charles Bridge and returning up the west bank. However, thismorning I made a wrong turn andbecame lost. I knew basically where Iwas, which was in a large park on thehill north of the Cechuv Bridge, but Ididn’t know the direction back to theCechuv Bridge. I finally had to ask aperson in the park who gave me thedirections.

After I showered, Simone and Iventured out to locate the church wherethe evening’s organ concert would beheld. Ironically, I had ran by it earlierthat morning since it was located at theeast entrance of the Charles Bridge.From the church we turned east andwalked the narrow streets away fromCharles Bridge and soon foundourselves in the Old Town Square. Itwas early in the day so it was still quiet.The UPrince Hotel was serving abreakfast buffet similar to the KampaHotel of the previous morning, so wedecided to eat. As we sat down by awindow that looked out on the Square,the waiter informed us it would be $20per person. We thought this was a bitsteep, but decided to remain. Thebreakfast was average and the sausagewas definitely a cut below the Kampa.

We walked east from the square and foundboulevard about half a mile long with all pHigh end eating places to McDonalds weretourists, were everywhere. We walked to located. Again, no photographs of the MuThe exhibits on the inside were dated, probwoolly mammoth, hanging on a wall, withreally was a sight. I wished I had paid thethis beast’s photo.

We rode the subway back to the apartmentthen walked back to the mall and went to Mconnection for $2 an hour. Besides readin

the tourist area we named the mall. It was a hugeossible forms of shopping from souvenirs to groceries. intermixed with the shops and the people, mostly

the far west end where the National Museum wasseum, which was a beautiful building on the outside.ably older than I was. I made note of the head of a

long braids of shag dangling down around him. He camera fee at the ticket counter so I could have taken

, ate a sandwich and drank a beer, and took a nap. WecDonalds because they offered wireless Internet

g our emails we tried to get Skype (Internet telephone) to

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work so we could call home. We were unsuccessful with Skype. On the way back to theapartment we stopped at a supermarket and bought some crackers, mayonnaise, lunchmeat,cheese, and beer.

Walked next door to theIntercontinental and this fellow wassitting on the beach in front of theHotel. We primarily went there to seeif we could get Skype to work on theirexpensive wireless service. We sat inthe bar and ordered a couple glasses ofwine and I fiddled with the Internet. Ifinally determined I had to put anadvance of 10 Euros in my Skypeaccount before it would allow me tomake calls to land line phones. Aftermaking the deposit we talked to ourkids and Simone’s mother. (We continuedto use Skype almost daily for the rest of the tripand manage to consume only 0.26 Euros of 10.00 i

Around 6:00 pm we left the apartment to fconcert. About midway between the apartcafé. The two of us ate for a total of $17 imorning in the Old Town Square. We botand Simone had a good tasting, thin steak.

We met Elaina (Untours) outside thechurch where the organ concert was tobe held. She gave us the train ticketsfor our travel to Brno and on to Viennaat the end of the week in Prague. Whilewe were waiting for the concert tobegin, we had a chance to visit withsome of the other Untours travelerssince we all sat together. They gave usthe impression that our apartment wasthe “pick of the litter.” Theperformance evolved three performers;an organist, violist, and a soprano.They performed Mozart music togetherand individually. I am ashamed toadmit that it put me to sleep and I wasthankful it was only an hour.

n my account.)

ind supper and then attend the Untours hosted organment and Charles Bridge we found an inexpensiven comparison to the $40 we paid for breakfast thath had a drink and salad. I had thin porkchops and fries

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Saturday (9/30) I finished writing my poem for class that was already two days overdue. Simonewoke at 7:00 and by 7:30 I was on my way to McDonalds to get on the Internet and post mypoem and read my email. I returned by 8:30 and the two of us walked two blocks towards theSquare and had breakfast at a place that catered to the America tourist. We ordered “ham andeggs” which consisted of two eggs fried on top of several slices of lunchmeat, potatoes and toast.It cost us about $10 total.

We walked back passed the apartment and across the Cechuv Bridge and up the hill immediatelyto the north of the Bridge. We were planning on visiting the Museum of Technology. However,we discovered it was closed forrenovations and would not reopen until2008. So, we went next door to theMuseum of Agricultural and checked itout. It had a permanent exhibit ofmostly old tractors and equipment.Their temporary exhibit was about thehistory of growing grapes in the CzechRepublic. Back outside the Museum, Inoticed for the first time the Soviet’sinfluence on the many buildings in thisarea of town. When one gets awayfrom the downtown tourist area, it stopslooking like France or London andstarts looking like the cities I have seen in

On the way back to the apartment wediscovered, from our elevated positionabove the river, a tower in the middleof the city. It was the tallest thing onthe horizon and looked like a rocketship that was ready to launch. We satdown and got out the map and guidebook and decided it must be the city’sTV tower (Televizni Vysilac). It wasalso suppose to be art, so we decided tovisit it later in the day.

Russia and Kazakhstan.

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We separated at this point and Simoneheaded back to the apartment. I wantedto get a closer look at the structure onthe strategically high point, directlyabove the Cechuv Bridge. From thestreet in front of our apartment itlooked like a large crane on the highestpoint of the hill. As I approached it, Isaw bunches of kids on skateboards androllerblades utilizing the over excessiveamount of concrete surfaces thatsurround it. There also was graffiti onmany of the vertical surfaces. Thecrane turned out to be a long pole thatmoved back and forth like a metronome drgave of appearance of not having run for m This place seemed such a contradictionto everything else we had seen inPrague that it inspired me to write thefollowing poem.

Prague

From around the globe business suits, muffintops with peaking tats, and unending tours ofcameras come to wander your face. A facade ofcrystal and chocolate shops on cobbled streetswith sidewalk tables and Internet cafes appliedtoo thick.

A full-length mirror reflects a different image.Decaying monuments with polychrome graffititestify to your younger communistic years. Isthis neglect intentional? Or does it have thesame explanation as your mosaic walls withmissing tiles?

Now, now, don't cry. Old is not ugly like atoothless lady who pees herself on the streetcorner, but a fact. Your true beauty is your longand glorious life that spans from Erectus to9/11 and beyond.

iven by an electric motor. However, the metronomeany years.

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I discovered in my guide books, severalmonths after returning home, that themetronome location was indeed specialand that my poem had more meaningthan I could have ever guess. To mysurprise, the metronome was built aslate as 1991. Prior to the metronome,the largest statue of Stalin in the worldstood there from 1955 to 1962. It wasdestroyed with explosives on ordersgiven by Nikita Khrushchev. I foundthis image, of the monument before itwas destroyed, on the Internet.(http://www.radio.cz/en/article/66095)

After lunch and nap, Simone and I set out TV tower (Televizni Vysilac) we had seenthe day from the Metronome hill. Convencould use the same subway line that we hausing. There were no transfers required.

One of the things that had caught our eye tmorning about the TV tower was the writeguidebook. “Prague’s tallest landmark, andepending on your tastes, either its ugliestfuturistic – is the 216m-tall Televizni vysilbetween 1985 and 1992.” So we were curwhat made this tower so controversial. As approach the tower on foot, we began to seNot only did it look like a launching of theshutter in the middle of a residential neighthere were babies wandering about on the the tubes. There were ten of them and theyslots for faces.

to see the earlier iniently, wed been

hat-up in ourd – or its mostac, erectedious aboutwee why. spaceborhood,sides of had coin

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We rode the elevator up to the observation deck ofthe tower and then spend time trying to locate thevarious landmarks with which we were familiar.Surprisingly, this was quite difficult. The firstlandmark we ultimately found was the Metronomeand from there the rest were easier. We then rode toelevator to the restaurant level and had a beer andwatched the city.

We returned to the subway and started back to theapartment. Along the way, we stopped and did somegrocery shopping in the mall area. The subway stopnearest our apartment was the Staromestska and thewalk from there to the apartment caused us to walkby the Museum of Decorative Arts (Umelecko-Prumyslove). Each time we had previously walked bythe place, Simone had said she wanted to go in therebefore we left. Well, this afternoon, we decided tocheck it out. As I suspected it was full of glasswareand linens. But, to my surprise there were alsoclocks and watches. I saw the most beautiful pocketwatches I had ever seen. They were nicer than any Ihad seen in the books. So this placed turned out to be a

We returned to apartment and walkedover to the Intercontinental Hotel for aglass of wine and to call home to thefamily on Skype. For supper, wewalked a half of a block to a seafoodplace. I had mediterranean seafoodpaella and Simone had shrimp cookedin a coconut batter. This meal wasabout $25 for the two of us. Wereturned to the hotel and watch a DVDand went to bed.

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gem for me.

Sunday (10/1) I went running before Simone and I went to breakfast at a café in the Old TownSquare. The only egg on the menu was an omelet, so I had some bratwurst sausages with fries.Simone had a chicken sandwich thatlooked similar to a Subway sandwich.This meal cost around $22.

Next we headed for the Prague CityMuseum. There was some archaeologythere and I learned Homo erectus wasin the Prague River Valley. I shouldhave known this because he was alsoover at Brno. There was a large-scalemodel of City of Prague during the1850s, which held our attention for awhile as we again tried to locate thefew landmarks we had discovered.

In the afternoon, Simone returned to theOld Town Square to visit the Cathedral(1st picture on page 5), and also do someshopping.

I chose to walk up the Petri Hill and seethe miniature Eiffel Tower, both ofwhich are located in a gorgeous parkthat required a tram ride from theapartment. When I got off the tram atthe edge of the park, encountered thislife size monument to the people whosuffered during the years ofCommunism influence. The nearbydedication plaque was also in Englishand read as follows:

THE MEMORIAL TO THE VICTIMS OFCOMMUNISM IS DEDICATED TO ALLVICTIMS, NOT ONLY THOSE WHO WEREJAILED OR EXECUTED BUT ALSO THOSEWHOSE LIVES WERE RUINED BYTOTALITARIAN DESPOTISM

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There was a cable-car that ran from thebottom near this Memorial to the top ofthe hill for people who chose not towalk up the hill. For me, I could notimagine why anyone would not want towalk to the top in this beautiful park.

The walking trails wandered back andforth across the face of the hill as theygo up. On the south side of thewandering one encounters a stone wallthat runs from bottom to top anddivides the park. My tour book saysthis wall (The Hunger Wall) was built bythe poor in exchange for food in 1362.The workmanship in the wall isamazing.

This minuture Effel Tower was at the top oHill. I paid the fee and then climbed to thetower. Back at ground level, I drank a beeslowly walked back down the hill. Caughtand returned to the apartment.

f Petri top of ther and then the tram

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Simone was at the apartment and she wanted double “A” batteries. I wanted to return to theJewish Quarter where I had noticed some cheap Russian pocket watches for sale in a curio store.So we headed off in that direction, which was only two blocks away. We found the batteries andlooked at some small, decorated brandy glasses she was wanting to purchase, but she foundnothing that interested her. My foray into the pocket watches ended up with me making anagreement to purchase a used wristwatch for 100 Euros that came out of the salesman’s pocket.It was not part of the inventory of the store. Since, I had no Euros, we agreed on Korunys at thecurrent exchange rate. I still didn’t have that many Korunys so we left to find an ATM machine.

We found a ATM a few blocks awayand got the Korunys. For some reasonwe remained there for a few minutestalking. A stranger who had used theATM machine after us said somethingto the effect that “it was good to hearAmerican English.” We visited withhim a couple of minutes and the threeof us decided to go have a beer. I hurryback to my under-the-counter watchsalesman and got my watch. I then metSimone and our new found friend at theoutdoor bar and we ended up drinkingtwo beers and having this picture takenby one of the bar attendents. Then we parChinese food restaurant. After supper, we

Monday (10/2) I did my usual running andsame place twice. This morning we brokeate two eggs fried on some lunchmeat.This morning we had ham and cheeseomelets and they were not very good.

We took the tram to the Prague Castleand arrived just as it was opening to thepublic. We immediately took thisphoto of the church, which is void ofpeople. The tourists were spewing inso rapidly that 15 minutes later thisphoto would have been impossible.Simone purchased a ticket to see aportion of the Cathedral and some otherstuff.

ted. Simone and I walked a couple blocks and found a came home and went to bed.

internet chores. We have a rule to never eat at the the rule and returned to the same restaurant where we

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The Cathedral was the main attractionat the Castle and, since I usually don’tdo churches or cathedrals, I chose toleave and spend my time walkingthrough the Castle garden and then theparks on my way back to the apartment.The garden was extremely peaceful.The flowers were mostly gone becauseof the time of year, but the junipers andother trees were lovely. I had to remindmyself that I was on another continentand the vegetation I was seeing, mostlikely, didn’t grow at home. Yet, itlooked very familiar to me. From thegarden I walked to metronome park,down the hill, and across the bridge.

At suppertime, we walked to an Irishpub located on the Old Town Square. Ihad bangers and mash, and Simone hada hamburger. Simone usually enjoysthe foreign cuisine, but ironically, shesaid her hamburger was the best mealof the trip.

We returned to the apartment, packedour bags in preparation for our move toBrno and then on to Vienna.

Tuesday (10/3) We awoke at 5:00am inspite of the fact we were packed and theUntours driver was not due until 6:30.Our personalities prevent us fromwaiting until the last minute, so we arealways the first to a party, the airport,or any event that has a firm startingtime. The driver showed up at 6:15 anddrove us to the train station in 15minutes. Then, we had a two-hour waitbefore we boarded the train to Brno.What can I say?

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We had tweaked the Untours travel schedule so we could leave Prague a day earlier than normaland spend a day and night in Brno.Brno, the second largest in CzechRepublic, is a business and industrialcity. Population is about 500,000people. We wanted to stay a day thereto visit the newly completed PaleolithicMuseum. We had made reservationsseveral months before this trip to stay atthe Grand Hotel. We did this on theinternet and got a five-star Hotel for athree-star price. It was also locatedimmediately across the street from thetrain station, so we didn’t have tohassle with a taxi.

We arrived Brno around 10:30am andcheck into the Hotel. We then caughtthe tram out to the Museum and atelunch in the Museum’s snack shop.Here we had our first hot dogs thatwere stuffed in a hole in the end of thebun instead of the bun being sliced. Themuseum took me an hour at best to seeit. It was devoted exclusively toPaleolithic archaeology from thesurrounding region. There were noEnglish translations of any of thewritten material, but fortunately I knewenough about the subject that I was ableto appreciate most of the exhibits. Ipurchased three casts of paleolithicportable art from the area, which werea man’s head, a mammoth and a bear.

We returned to our Hotel, which waslocated in the downtown shopping andtourist district. After a nap, we wentwalking and soon separated.

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I wanted to locate an internet café since the Hotelwireless charges were way too expensive. Afterfinding a café and checking the emails, I set out tofind a watchband for the used watch I purchased inthe Jewish Quarter at Prague. Simone found her wayto the Petro Cathedral and went inside. She said thestain glass windows were its claim to fame.

For supper we found a lovely Czech restaurant withreal table cloths. We had fried goose livers for anhors d’oeuvre. My main course was duck breast withred and white cabbage. Simone didn’t write downwhat she had and can’t remember. We returned tothe Hotel and went to bed.

Wednesday (10/4) I woke before daybreak and didmy usual running and then over to the internet café.We had breakfast at the Hotel since our room chargeincluded a continental breakfast, which in Europeincludes eggs and meat. We then walked ourbreakfast off and went back to the room to pack. At noocaught the train to Vienna. This was the same train thattravelers from Prague to Vienna. We arrived Vienna aro

The week in Vienna is detailed in the Vienna pdf file.

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n we walked over to the train station and was transporting the other Untoursund 2:00.