That Time We Accidentally Ended Up In Germany

Prague is known for its historic and colourful architecture, but you can get more out of a ticket to the city. Take our trip for example, we booked a 3 day trip, and ended up spending one of those in Germany! 

Our journey to Prague started in panic. We both came separately straight from work and Siraj had to convince the nice people at British Airways to keep the check-in counter open. Fortunately, they did, although that was partially because the flight was delayed. Siraj kept frantically texting me every two minutes to ask where I was and telling me to hurry up. When I finally got there, I ran into the airport and the guy behind the check-in desk appeared to have no clue why I was so flustered!

By the time we arrived in Prague, it was quite late, so we just dumped our suitcase in our hotel (Cloister Inn Hotel) room and dashed off to see the surrounding area to find a place to eat. We actually got quite lucky. We spent a long time searching for a decent price for our trip and eventually ended up on BA's website and found a package deal that was cheaper than anything we could find ourselves. And the bonus? It was right in the centre of town, with everything just a few minutes walk away.

Sadly we didn't write down where we ate that night, but I guess it wasn't that memorable!

When we're on holiday – especially if it's a weekend – we don't really like to rush ourselves to wake up super early (by we, I mean me, Fatima) and so we started off our day with breakfast in the hotel at about 9:45am. We won't bore you with the details, it was pretty average.

Naturally, the first place we wanted to go to was Prague Castle. To get there we took a tram over the Vltava River up to the closest stop to Prague Castle. There were quite a few people walking in one direction so we just followed them assuming they would lead us to the entrance of the castle. 

Once we got inside the main castle grounds, we realised that the queues to purchase tickets were pretty long and luckily managed to find a desk based inside one of the archways that somehow barely anyone had spotted. Having had a quick look at the sites to see in the grounds, we chose the 'Prague Castle - Circuit B' ticket option which came to roughly £8 each. This circuit allowed us to visit the St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower. 

The Cathedral was probably the most memorable, the high vaulted ceilings and intricate stained glass was incredible. It's style is a combination of Gothic and Renaissance and you can clearly see the meld of the two. 

Walking through the Golden Lane was actually pretty interesting. It used to be the residential quarters of the servants and the Goldsmiths (hence the name) until WWII and the majority of the tiny homes have been maintained so you can see how they used to live. There are also a few souvenir shops that you can get some quirky items from! But what was probably the most strange part was the upper corridor all the way across the homes which now houses an armoury. Each armour is totally unique, you can see all sorts of odd shapes and designs and to be honest, some of them looked like they could have been pieces from the Lord of the Rings films.

By the time we finished exploring the castle grounds (about 3 hours later), we were pretty hungry and when we passed by a restaurant on the walk down, we decided that we could treat ourselves to lunch with a view. And when I say view, I mean view! We literally had lunch along a cliffside just outside of the castle looking over the whole of Prague and all its red rooftops. 

After a little stroll at the bottom, Siraj needed some coffee (typical). Once caffeinated, we got the tram from Mala Strana to Ujezd, at the bottom of Petrin Hill. We'd heard Prague's 'Eiffel Tower' was at the top of the ginormous hill, but first we had to figure out how on earth we were going to get there. There are two ways: you can either walk, or you cheat, and take a funicular train.

The train is pretty regular (it comes every 10-15 minutes) and is fairly cheap (less than £2 each), so we took the easy route. Once at the top, we were greeted by beautiful views of the city below us, before starting to walk around the gardens. We weren't in any rush and took our time to get around. We were pretty let down once we eventually got to the Petrin Tower. Although it does have its similarities, it's nothing like its inspiration, in Paris.

But all wasn't lost and we found time to enjoy a house of mirrors that's randomly at the top of the hill. To be honest, it was actually quite fun. As it started to get late, we headed back down the hill and towards the iconic Charles Bridge. It was getting close to sunset at this point and it's a good time to visit the bridge if you want to see another side of it, when it's fairly quiet. We also walked through onto Karlova, one of the main high streets near the bridge, and found a nice little place to enjoy a pizza to round off our day.

We started the next day early, having booked a hiking tour through the German National Park. This was probably the highlight of our trip and we would definitely recommend it. We were driven to Dresden and got to explore the incredible sandstone formations as well as walk across the Bastei Bridge. We also had the opportunity to see the remains of the medieval keep which had stunning views of all the sandstone formations and if we looked hard enough, we could spot a few daring climbers trying to master those peaks. 

After about a hundred photos, we were taken to a local Czech restaurant and had a pretty mediocre meal (limited vegetarian options). Once fed, we began the next portion of the tour which included a 45 minute hike down to the Gorges of Kamenice. From there we finally got to relax for about 20 minutes on a tiny boat that took us through the valley. But once we got to the other side, the realisation hit us. We had to climb back up! This time it was a slightly different route, which meant we got to explore more of the nature in the National Park. And that's especially nice since we're so deprived of it in London (yes that's right, I introduced Siraj to the world of trees!). 

When we finally got back to our hotel, we had a short rest and went to explore the astronomical clock in the old town. Fortunately, there's a great Mexican restaurant, Las Adelitas (thanks to Taste of Prague for the recommendation), right nearby. 

Our final day was pretty relaxed, we walked across Charles Bridge in the early hustle and bustle and finally enjoyed a typical Czech specialty - a Czech Trdelnik. A sweet pastry cone filled with ice cream. If anything, you have to get one just to seeing them being made! 

Having looked at a few blogs ourselves, we learned that the outer boroughs of Prague could be pretty interesting, so we headed out to the 'hipster' areas in Vinohrady & Žižkov by tram. It was immediately clear that genuine locals lived around here, especially when compared with the historic old town in the centre of Prague.

There are a bunch of cafes and quirky shops to explore and if you're looking for a little bit of a traditional Czech footwear, head over to Botas in Prague 3. It's a brand that first became popular in the sixties, and has now re-emerged as a favourite for locals. The designs are great and we thought we might buy a pair as a souvenir – but they're incredibly uncomfortable. We ended our trip in style with a bit of ice cream while watching the torrential rain pour outside for the first time during our trip. It was definitely a sign we were meant to go back to London!

Tips:

• Our trip to Prague was in the last week of May and the weather was gorgeous. It was sunny and hot the whole time (except for our final few hours!).

• We found a little spot to pray in the courtyard behind the cathedral at Prague Castle. There weren't really any grassy spots and it was pretty public, but it worked for us.

• You should be able to get your tickets for the Petrin funicular from a little kiosk inside. When we were there, we ended up waiting behind a big queue. Initially we thought that was the queue to buy a ticket, but actually that was just to get into the station!

• We used Northern Hikes for our trip to the national park. We had a great time with them, and it was well organised (it was just a shame about the lunch!)

• Don't forget to take your passport to the national park. We didn't get asked for it, but you might do as you do technically cross into Germany.