Our journey from Dresden and through northern Czechia down to Prague with České dráhy (CD) had been relaxing, with us getting to enjoy some beautiful scenery as we followed the Elbe valley. Arriving at Praha Hlavní Nádraži (Prague Main Station) just before 1130 meant it was time to do some exploring with us having around seven hours in the Czech capital before our train back to Dresden. With our arrival into Prague coming just before lunch, we decided first to find some food and so headed to somewhere less than 10 minutes’ walk from the station that I’ve always wanted to visit.
Located on Wenceslas Square just down from the Czech National Museum, Výtopna is a restaurant where you food and drink is delivered by miniature trains, with a network of tracks covering the bar, kitchen and every seating area. Specialising in “Meat & Beer on rails”, there is a good range of food from burgers and fries to traditional central European dishes like goulash and Svíčková na smetaně (roast beef with dumplings and cranberries). There’s also a wide range of beers available, and if you want to try a few of those on draft there’s the Beer Train which delivers a tasting set of four beers. I’d certainly recommend a visit to Výtopna if you’re in Prague (or Vienna for that matter as they have a second branch) as it has great food and drink and there’s the added bonus of trains!
Full of food, we wandered back to the station and headed up to the Fant building (the old station building) where the grandeur of the early 20th century is still present for all to see, with a large rotunda sitting above a mezzanine floor where you can sit and enjoy a drink at the café. The Fant building is also where you access the northbound side of Prague’s main road and from where various buses, including the airport bus and tour buses, depart from and it was for the latter that we were here. Both City Sightseeing and Big Bus Tours operate within Prague and with a similar price and offering, we essentially decided to go with whichever operator turned up first. This ended up being the slightly ironic minibus of the Big Bus Tour’s ‘Green Tour’ which would take us around the old town.
Heading into the old town, we passed the Fountain of Czech Musicians, a fountain which depicts four large sculptures of blindfolded musicians playing instruments, and the late gothic Jindřišská věž (or Henry’s Tower) constructed in the 1570s, which at 65.7m is the highest free standing bell tower in Prague. As we continued, passing the Main Post Office which is open 24 hours a day (we barely get 0900-1600 in the UK), we got overtaken by a historic tram which, like in Rotterdam, does a hop on hop off tour of the city’s main sights. With the very centre of the city pedestrianised, our tour took us back out of the old town via the Prašná brána powder tower and former Franciscan monastery that is now the Obecní dům Municipal House arts venue, and towards the river.
After heading around the edge of the old town along the south bank of the Vltava river, we made our way back into the winding narrow streets to the Old Town Square, where we jumped off to have a wander around for a bit. Prague’s Old Town Square truly is the heart of the city as a meeting place for locals and a tourist hotspot, surrounded by beautiful buildings and some of Prague’s most popular sights. We had arrived in the Old Town Square around 1445 and so had time to have a wander around before heading over to the Astronomical Clock ready for 1500. As well as some wizardry in telling the position of the sun and the moon, the clock has an hourly display called “The Walk of the Apostles” where figures of the Apostles and other sculptures move and strike the time.
Heading back to the bus stop in time for the next bus, we continued the tour which took us across the river which gave us a great view of the Wallestein Palace, which is now the home of the Czech Senate, and the former transformer station that is now the private art museum Kuntshalle Praha. From the riverside we headed into the ‘Lesser Town’, passing the main square and the church of St. Nicholas, before continuing along below Petrin Hill crossing back to the right bank of the river near the ‘Dancing House’. This building of ‘deconstructivist’ design is the offices of an insurance company, however despite the boring nature of the owners, it really is quite striking, although not really my cup of tea!
Shortly after the Dancing House we passed the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the principal church of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church and location of the last stand of Czech paratroopers during World War 2. Following their successful assassination of high-ranking SS official Reinhard Heydrich, the agents took refuge in the church and, following a fierce gun battle they took their own lives to avoid capture by the Nazi regime. After passing the church, we seemed to do two laps of Wenceslas Square, location of the Výtopna train restaurant, which seemed like a bit of a tease, and then made our way back to the Central Station by way of the National Museum.
With one bus tour out of the way, and the weather starting to take a bit of a turn, we decided to make the most of our tickets and do the other Big Bus Tours route, the red ‘outer city’ tour. Rather than the minibus that took us on the green tour, this was a full-size bus that took us out to or passed some of the sights further from the old town, including the TV tower which sits high above the city skyline; the Hilton Hotel, where we learnt about the 2002 Central European Floods and Gaston the Seal; and of course Prague Castle which sits above the city on the left bank of the Vltava.
Whilst there were some good sights to see on the red tour, including some that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen or learnt about (such as the Strahov stadium that is large enough to fit nine full size football pitches and hold 250,000 spectators within its stands), there are also long sections between these sights which can be quite boring, especially if like us you get stuck in traffic. Supposedly the red tour takes about an hour, however we waited at the Hilton (the tour starting point) for a while and then got stuck in bad traffic on the way back into town from the Strahov stadium. All in all it was about and hour and 40 minutes for us to do the full circuit.
With the delays on the tour, by the time we arrived back at Prague Central Station we unfortunately didn’t really have time to do anything else before our train back to Dresden. We did however have time to sit and have a delicious cup of real hot chocolate at Fantova Kavárna in the rotunda of the old station building before heading to our platform. Our visit to Prague really on scraped the surface of what is a wonderful city, and I certainly want to revisit and spend a decent amount of time in the Czech capital.
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