The Golden City

Between Ben’s long hours and my incessant work schedule over the past few months, all we’ve wanted to do on the weekends is be in our neighborhood (and I have mostly refused to go anywhere if it requires taking the tube!). Finally though with spring hanging somewhere in the air, we dashed out of the city for a new one over the long Easter weekend. Our destination: Prague, a place that had been on my list for ages for its gothic architecture, ode to classical music, and ties to the Czech Republic through my maternal grandmother.

Praha is magical. We spent the weekend walking through the cobblestone streets, subsisted on klobasas, and listened to classical music at every chance we had. The city put on its Easter best, with festive osterbaums greeting us in little pockets of the city. Sunday was spent in Old Town Square, walking along the cobblestone streets, visiting with newborn lambs (really) and drinking underneath the Astronomical Clock. For dinner, we went to a sweet little restaurant called The Blue Duckling, which we started to laugh at because it seemed EVERYONE in our hotel had gone or was going, but it turned out to be a lovely time. Last year we spent Easter in Florence with my parents and I’ve decided it’s one of my very favorite times to travel in Europe. The cities are always in celebration mode for not only the religious holiday but also the signs of spring after the harsh winters.

Other highlights: dashing out of the rain into a cathedral for an evening quartet playing Vivaldi on our first afternoon and staying in a 14th century monastery-turned-Mandarin Oriental — though our room was “authentic” with wooden beams that we hit our heads on, twice. We went to the theatre for an evening ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet, visited Prague Castle and spent an afternoon at the Jewish Quarter. I mean, what a whirlwind. Aside from a slight bump on the head we couldn’t have had a better time. 

It’s been awhile since we’d taken a selfie – us at the foot of the Charles River Bridge.

Ps – After seeing what felt like hundreds of people on the streets eating what looked like the most deluxe ice cream cone we’d ever laid eyes on, we hopped in line at Good Food Bakery near the Charles Bridge. We opted for the Chimney Blizzard: the iconic Czech trdelnik with bits of chocolate and served with a lemony-vanilla soft serve. Only afterwards when I was trying to remember the name of the traditional pastry did we learn it had already taken the internet by storm! x