Exploring the Czech Republic – How We Spent 2 Days in Prague ♡

A couple months back during the Easter Holidays, I went on a much-anticipated trip to the Czech Republic with my family. My mom and my aunt just happened to be visiting me in London, and instead of re-visiting the same old sight-seeing spots in the City, we decided to hop on a short 2-hour flight to Eastern Europe to explore some new territories.

On a sunny Easter weekend, we arrived Prague – the capital of the Czech Republic! Instead of staying in the Old Town area which is extremely popular for tourists, we stayed at the Andel’s by Vienna House hotel right next to the Andel metro station instead – a really convenient location without the crowdedness of the Old Town Centre.

Since Easter was right around the corner, there were Easter markets with wooden huts tied with rainbow ribbons on every corner of the City centre. This is one that we passed by every day on our way out of/ back to our hotel! 🙂

We saw people stopping by for food, picking up Easter decorations (look at those bunnies!), etc. Overall, it made the City extremely festive and everyone seemed to be really enjoying the Holiday 😀

On our first day, we decided to go for a walk along the river instead of taking the metro. A walk from our hotel to the Old Town Centre took around 30 minutes, which was not a bad sight-seeing route to take at all, especially on a sunny day.

We passed by tons of colourful houses lining the outskirts of the New Town Area…

…until we reached the oh-so-famous Charles Bridge connecting one side of the river directly to the Old Town Centre.

To say Charles Bridge was crowded is an understatement :O

The number of tourists on Easter weekend was unbelievable!

The Bridge, however, does offers some pretty spectacular views of the City.

And we spotted those prominent red rooftops for the first time!

Along the Bridge, there are 30 statues that are mounted to the balustrade. Underneath the Statue of John of Nepomuk, you will find a plaque which (in parts) has been polished to a gold shine over the centuries by people touching it continuously. Touching the falling priest on the plaque supposedly brings you good luck 😀

 

There were people queuing to touch the plaque on the day we went, and we did the same. There is nothing like being welcomed to Prague by crowds of people queuing to receive some luck from John of Nepomuk 😛

 

We reached the end of Charles Bridge and officially set foot in the Old Town Centre.

We then followed the crowd while I tried my hardest to not bump into all the other tourists…

…and there it is – the Town Square!

The Old Town Square, paired with the symbolic twin towers of the Tynsky Church and the backdrop of the clear blue sky was gorgeous 🙂

We also passed by the Prague astronomical clock – the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still operating! :O

The Town Square, just like every other part of the City – was filled with Easter markets and huts when we went ♡

After our walk around the Old Town Square, we decided to visit St Nicholas Church for a mid-afternoon Soprano and Organ concert.

We weren’t quite prepared for the beauty of the Church until we stepped in – I was absolutely dumbfounded.

 

While the Church wasn’t very big at all, it was GORGEOUS, and was nothing short of classical Baroque glamour. We enjoyed the organ performances, played on the same organ that Mozart played on in 1787 <3 The choir and soprano performances were also wonderful 🙂 I would definitely recommend getting concert tickets at St Nicholas Church if you want to experience the beauty of the Church and also escape the buzz of the Town Centre for a short while ♡

We decided to have an early dinner that night because we knew how crowded restaurants in the Town Centre can get during the weekends (especially on Easter weekend). As soon as our concert ended at around 6pm, we headed to Restaurace Mincovna, a traditional restaurant which serves Czech cuisine right by the Old Town Square.

We sat down and ordered an array of traditional Czech dishes to try. We ordered some fried cheese (a  Czech speciality), along with Svíčková (beef sirloin in cream sauce), a plate of Weiner schnitzel (a dish I had already tried before in Vienna), pork knuckle and some smoked duck salad.

 

The portion sizes – if you can’t already tell – were HUGE. This was probably our favourite meal in Prague and I really recommend hitting this restaurant up if you are visiting the City!

After dinner, it was getting dark outside so we decided to make our way on foot back to our hotel.

While walking along the river, we had a glimpse of the beauty of Prague at night <3

We also passed by the Dancing House, which stood out among the traditional Baroque buildings that make up the majority of Prague’s structures.

How gorgeous is this view?! ♡

The next day, we woke up extra early and decided to spend the day exploring the Prague Castle. After getting off the metro, we followed the crowds and made our way on foot up the steps of the hill towards the ancient castle.

When we reached the top of the hill, we were welcomed by crowds among crowds of tourists all waiting to get inside the 1000-year-old castle.

After waiting under the sun for approximately an hour, we finally got through security and were officially inside the castle! The first thing that greeted us was the beautiful Saint Vitus Cathedral <3

 

*Some travel tips: You do not need to pay or get a ticket to get into the common areas of the Prague Castle, as well as the foyer and main hall of the Saint Vitus Cathedral. To get a more in-depth tour/ to explore more areas of the Castle, you would need to pay for a ticket. We did not purchase any tickets and we still found plenty of things to do and see just walking around the common areas of the castle (which is huge!)

Also, the Changing of the Guard takes place at noon every day at the entrance of the Prague Castle and it is worth looking out for. Do bear in mind however that the entrance is particularly crowded near the time for the Changing of the Guard so you might want to head over there early to save your spot at the front of the entrance!*

Since it was Eastertime when we went, we saw more colourful Easter huts around the castle and grabbed some quick bites <3

I also spotted plenty of huts selling trdelník – a well-known Slovak/ Czech pastry made from rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick, then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix.

 

I can’t say that trdelník is my favourite pastry ever, but it is well worth a try when you are in Prague. You won’t have any trouble finding this around the city centre and will see plenty of people on the streets with a trdelník or two in their hands.

The Prague Castle also offered some of the most spectacular views of the city of Prague. You could see the beautiful red rooftops, both sides of the Vltava river and its bridges, as well as the old town centre from the castle. We took the opportunity to snap away with our cameras and was so thankful for the beautiful weather we were blessed with that day.

*More travel tips: Another spot which offers beautiful views of the city is the Starbucks right outside the Prague Castle. A lot of the windows of this Starbucks face directly towards the city of Prague and it is the best place to enjoy the view if you want to stay out of the heat on a hot summer day!*

After spending the entire afternoon exploring the Prague Castle, we were craving more Czech food and decided to hit up a restaurant called Restaurant Havlíčkova, which was right opposite the Náměstí Republiky metro station. We were seated at a huge table in the restaurant’s outdoor area and the waiter promptly took our orders. The portion sizes of the food were again huge, and the food was delicious. Even though we probably liked the food at Restaurace Mincovna at the Old Town Square that slightlyyy bit better, we didn’t have anything bad to say about the food and the service at Restaurant Havlíčkova, and left the restaurant feeling really full and satisfied.