Report on Prague restaurants, hotel, sights

Four Season Hotel:
Less than a five-minute walk to the Old Town side of the Charles Bridge, this modern hotel is set into several seamlessly connected old buildings.
This is certainly the best hotel I have ever stayed in, and I can't imagine that even someone used to luxury all the time would be finding fault. The desk staff greeted us by name upon arrival. All of the staff, including waiters and even the chambermaids, spoke English. Our particular arrangement included continental breakfast every morning, but a full range of (pricey) cooked breakfast items are available, prepared in the excellent hotel's restaurant Allegro's kitchen.
"Free" amenities included choice of newspaper delivered to the room each day, nightly turn down and bathroom re-cleaning service, shoes shined overnight (even the soles were cleaned, and each shoe wrapped neatly in folded tissue paper sealed with a hotel sticker). Room service was prompt and efficient, and the food again excellent. The staff are all clearly well-trained graduates of "Four Seasons University" and their greetings,remembering of our names and what we'd had for breakfast the previous morning, their apologies when they'd done nothing wrong, indicated an almost embarrassing level of courtesy.

The hotel also has a fitness center and a business center with of course internet access for a fee.

They can provide their own pick up or drop off service for airport runs, or for transport within Prague.

My very large room was considered "deluxe" as it had a king sized bed, and view of the river and of Prague Castle up on its hill.
My bathroom had a tub and shower stall, thick towels and robes, slippers, and a bar equipped with glassware and even an ice bucket that was somehow always full of fresh ice. I felt as if I were in a Cinderella dream, and now that I'm home and back to scooping cat litter and doing my own vacuuming, I love remembering that I had this luxurious experience.

Daytrip to Terezin, former site of a concentration camp and of a fortress: About 30 miles north of Prague, not far from the German border.
See http://www.rudyfoto.com/hol/campphotos.html

http://user.intop.net/~jhollis/terezin.htm

http://www.zipple.com/history/holocaust/concentrationcamps.shtml#terezin

We arranged for an escorted tour, with guide and van with driver, through Wittman tours www.wittmann-tours.com. They specialize in Jewish heritage tours within Prague, and subcontract for tours to Terezin. Our guide Martina was very well informed and she spoke excellent English.

Anything I say about the experience of this visit will be inadequate and ridiculous. We spent about 6 hours at Terezin, but Martina asked us along the way what we wanted to see and what we might be more or less interested in. The fact that the day of our visit was quite cold and mostly cloudy seemed appropriate somehow. The cold day, though we were wrapped in warm clothes, made us constantly remember how prisoners must have suffered from the elements as well as the treatment by their captors.

The original fortresses and army barracks were constructed by the Habsburgs in the late 1700's in order to defend the road to Prague from possible attack. It never had to be used as a defense facility.

In October 1941 The Nazis evacuated the town?s 3500 inhabitants and crammed up to 70,000 Jews from all over the region into the buildings here. Conveniently, they were quickly able to turn the former army barracks into overcrowded dormitories, and some of the other army facilities into warehouses for prisoners? confiscated personal belongings or into factories employing slave labor.

The town was eventually liberated by the Russian Red Army on May 8th 1945 (the American army could have done it sooner but by the terms of the Yalta agreement they couldn?t go in), by which time of the 140,000 people who had been filtered through here on their way to the gas chamber camps, only several thousand remained to be liberated. any were in such poor condition that they died after the liberation.
The only Jewish prisoners who fared somewhat better were the Danish Jews, who because of an agreement with the Danish royal family, were housed in a separate area and under somewhat better conditions.

The current permanent inhabitants of the town are few (why they would live there is a mystery to me) and there are no shops or cafes for tourists (at least not in the winter) , so make sure that you bring whatever supplies you might want. There are w.c?s in a few locations, and a book shop in the museum building.

The main part of the camp is named the Large Fortress (Hlavní Pevnost). Many buildings have been preserved as they were last used. Just off the main square lies the Museum of the Ghetto, which chronicles in great detail the rise of Nazism and life in the camp. There are exhibits, films, educational materials. You can walk among the streets and buildings, and visit the cemeteries and memorials.

The Small Fortress is about a 15-minute walk from the Large Fortress over the river. Just in front of the fortress's main entrance is the National Cemetery (Národní hrbitov), where the bodies exhumed from the mass graves were buried. As you enter the main gate, you will see the sign ?Arbeit Macht Frei? ("Work Makes You Free", just one of the great lies).

The small fortress was always used as a prison for ?political prisoners?, from its original construction, so the years of suffering and cruelty there were many. There you can walk through the prison barracks, workshops, and isolation cells. During the Nazi era, the political prisoners included uncooperative ghetto prisoners, resistance fighters, etc.

I noticed that I misspelled
Four Seasons above, so I'm including the name in this post to make sure searches will work

Here's an awkward segue

shopping
the following stores are names I originally got from various sources, but I've added my own comments

Artel: Vinohradska 164. New Town. Closed weekends. www.artelglass.com
selection of blown and etched glassware.

Arzenal, Valentinska 11, Old Town. www.arzenal.cz Large, modern glass pieces. For more info see
http://www.think.cz/shops%20a%20joints/arzenalUK.html

Blue, several locations, one is Male Namesti 14, Old Town. large, modern design pieces in bowls and other items, also knick knacks even tee shirts and souvenirs.

Cristallino Celetna 12 Old Town near Tyn church. Largest collection of crystal, porcelain, jewelry. Traditional and modern designs. www.cristallino.cz

Crystalex one location is in Old Town directly across the street from the Rott building, near the Astrological Clock and Old Town Square. Prices did seem to be the best I saw, and they took care of the VAT refund paperwork.
www,crystalcz.com

Erpet: Staromìstské námìstí 27 Old Town, www.erpet.cz Open 7 days, and open late. I didn?t think much of the selection.

Granat Turnov, Dlouha 30/28, Stare Mesto (Old Town). Said to be the place to visit if you are serious about shopping for garnets. This is a factory showroom. Closed Sun. This is a quality shop, with jewelry set into either gold or silver. Quite a range in price, something for everyone, but not for souvenir shoppers.

Moser: Na Prikkope 12, Old Town. Moser items are highly prized. Mostly traditional designs. Open 7 days. www.moser-glass.com

Vernissage U Clementina, Karlova 22, Old Town. Open daily to 10pm. This is in the heart of tourist land. I can?t say that their prices are the lowest, but they carried several designs that I didn?t see anywhere else. They offered a discount for cash payments, but lots of places do.
I like what I bought there.

Sightseeing--just a few highlights

One Prague citizen who was kind enough to email me some suggestions, has the idea for an orientation of using the river Vlatava as a natural boundary. On the ?right bank? of the river are
Old Town (Stare Mesto), Jewiish Quarter (Josefov), and New Town (Nove Mesto) which takes you to Wenceslas Square.

On the left bank of the river are: Castle Area (Hradcany). For a detailed look at the Castle area, allow 2-4 hours (plus Gardens). Little/Lesser Quarter (Mala Strana is below the Castle, many restaurants, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, churches (especially St Nicholas) and the Loretto Shrine, Charles Bridge (connects Lesser Quarter with Old Town).

So, one route could be: start with the Castle, walk through Mala Strana (Lesser or LIttle Quarter) toward the Charles Bridge, go to Old Town, then to Wenceslas Square, then the Jewish Quarter.

Old Town
Old Town Square: Astrological Clock, Jan Hus memorial, Tyn Church (though we tried several times to go in, we always found it closed)

"Jewish Town" has several synagogues, a remarkable cemetery, and a museum.
I highly recommend a guided walking tour so you can understand the history and tell one building from another. We used
www.wittmann-tours.com

Church of St Nicholas. There are two in Prague. One is at Old Town Square, but the one not to miss is in the Little Quarter on the main street going up the hill to the Castle. Baroque magnificence, in a city full of Baroque splendors.

Thanks Elaine - a lot of helpful info once again.

Museums
www.prague-museums.com

There are many, but my personal favorite was the
Mucha Museum Open daily I believe. Works by Alfons Mucha, the most famous of the art nouveau artists and a national treasure in this country. Posters (including for Sarah Bernhardt), pastels, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and a film shown often during the day.
This is a small, easy, museum. Good gift shop.
www.mucha.cz

Prague Castle
We found the audio guide to be almost worthless, it was expensive, boring and scant on information. Next time I?d try to take a guided tour. We also could have skipped ?Golden Lane?, an area that one pays extra to see. It is a series of charming small buildings, but many are now souvenir shops and such. There is at least a public w.c.
in Golden Lane.

Elaine thank you so much for this information. We are going to Prague, Budapest and Berlin in September. We were debating whether or not to vist the model work camp outside Berlin but since I only want to go to one we will go to Terezin. Have you been to either Budapest or Berlin and do you have any of this wonderful information on these areas.

Thanx for your report, elaine.

Hi
Budapest is still on my "to do" list.
I have friends who went to Berlin last year and they fell in love with it, they liked it better than Prague.

additional notes
from Vienna to Prague, we flew Austrian Airlines, flying time about 45 minutes.
It was a prop plane and we flew in a snowstorm, what fun!

From Prague to JFK I flew Czech Airlines, a Delta partner. It was an Airbus, which now seems to mean to me that in coach the leg room and the seat pitch is pretty good. Average airline food, though the added extra of a small individual bottle of water in every seat pocket.

Great report and glad you seem to like Prague as much as I do and also glad that someone besides myself appreciates the amenities one gets in a "CHAIN" hotel...I guess "charm" truly is in the eye of the beholder.

and another thing!

In additon to using Wittmann tours for Jewish heritage tours, we used the
walking guide services of Dana Chaloupková dachal@quick.cz

Dana speaks excellent English and is very well informed on Prague's history.
She has set itineraries, or she can customize a tour to include a van, or not. The day of our tour was unfortunately bitter cold and with steady snowfall, so we ended up cutting our tour a bit short, but that wasn't Dana's fault. As long as you have an interest in Prague's history, I join those who have recommended her services.

Elaine

Just curious but how do you find the time to write such a masterpiece??

I keep a travel journal, I'm a pretty fast typist (not 100% accurate clealy, but fast). I type the notes into a Word document (hence, the strange punctuation quirks shown above)at my leisure, and then cut and paste here quite quickly.

Thanks for the information. My wife and I are flying Czech Airlines roundtrip from JFK to Prague and I was wondering how decent an airline it is. Now I know.

I knew you would love it. The hotel
is incredible and the city is the best.
I love it.!!!!! your report is excellent. thanks.

I wanted to add a restatement of the obvious: in Prague as in many old cities, flat comfortable shoes are important. I didn't see a lot of businesswomen in Prague (at least I don't think I did), perhaps because we were at tourist sites most of the time.
But if they are able to wear high heels on those cobblestoned streets, I simply don't know how they do it. Aside from comfort, I could see it being downright perilous. Comfy shoes are recommended for most cities where you plan to do a lot of walking, but in Prague they are absolutely essential imo.

Thanks for your excellent report. I am leaving for Prague on Apri 19. How many days were you in Prague? I have some of the shops and restaurants noted that you also listed. I hope it is warmer in April. Thanks so much. Johanna

Hi
we were only there four 4 days, and did a daytrip one day to Terezin
We ran out of time, and I can't wait to go back

Thank you for your report. My wife and I leave for Prague in May via Czech Air and we were wondering what the airline was like. Why did you use tour guides in Prague rather than using a tourguide book to review as you walked around Prague.

When I travel with family (including 2 teens on this last trip), and sometimes even by myself, I find that a general orientation walking tour in a new place can be very helpful for setting the stage, giving us a brief history of notable places, and introducing us to some local viewpoints that a book will not have. We are all history buffs, so we love detail, and the tour sometimes sparks our interest to go back with a book and investigate something further on our own.

ttt

bookmarking

It is an absolute tragedy that Elaine no longer posts here. She was chased away by evil.

Thin

Czech Air: We flew from Amsterdam to Prague on Czech Air in November. Couldn't believe how tightly packed in we were. Tightest seating I've ever encountered on a commercial flight. The prepackaged sandwiches they handed out were dreadful.

But it was a short flight and the cabin crew members were nice, so it was no big deal.

Oh, well, I guess my prior message is a bit late for that 2004 trip1