The Spires
Today was an early morning departure from Brussels. We took an Uber to Brussels Midi train station where we took a twenty-minute train to Brussels Airport (BRU). When we arrived the airport was super crowded which was likely due to almost half of the flights this morning being cancelled due to snow. It wasn’t a ton of snow, but apparently, it was enough. We were lucky, though, because we boarded our plane without issue and took off only a few minutes late. We watched an episode of Stranger Things on the hour and a half flight and before we knew it had landed in Prague!
We decided to take an Uber into the city because, having been to Prague before, I knew it was going to be quite the hassle to take the city bus into town on such little sleep. It’s definitely doable, but just not today. The ride took about thirty minutes and our nice driver from Bulgaria dropped us off at our hotel for this stop, Miss Sophie’s! The charming boutique hotel is located in the heart of Prague and we were greeted so warmly upon our arrival. Thank you so much to Miss Sophie’s for sponsoring this night of my trip! My stay was absolutely fantastic. Upon check-in, our room was not quite ready yet so we sat in the restaurant to plan out our day before heading out for our first stop - lunch!
We ate at a cute hamburger spot in the heart of Old Town Prague called Fat Cat Brewery. I was starving and had a super filling chilli cheeseburger, along with some nachos and fries to share. Like I said, I was starving. It was a nice break before setting out and seeing the city for the rest of the day. First up was to walk through the famed Old Town Square and see the Prague Astronomical Clock. The clock is cool (but nothing to get too excited about) and the square was especially great because the Christmas Market was going on! We had a great time walking through all of the stalls and seeing tons of mouth-watering trdelnik everywhere. We were so full, though, so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow!
After walking through the stalls and letting my mom stop and take tons of pictures of the square we went inside of St. Nicholas' Church which sits on the north-west corner of the square. It was beautiful yet very compact so it was a very quick stop. From there we then walked to get a closer view of the iconic Church of Our Lady before Týn before walking to The Powder Tower. The Powder Tower is really cool because it is one of the original city gates and you can climb up to the very top for an awesome view out over the whole city! My mom tried to get out of it at first, but she was definitely glad she did it - the views were amazing and so worth it! Also, as far as climbing towers in Europe goes, I have climbed much higher and steeper - it was not bad at all.
Our next stop was to walk to the Spanish Synagogue. I had attempted to visit on my last trip to Prague but it was randomly closed. This time it was thankfully open! It was a beautiful synagogue and definitely one of the most interesting spots in town, especially when coupled with the entire Jewish Museum ticket (the best option for seeing the Spanish Synagogue). After visiting the beautiful structure and reading the exhibits inside we then headed towards synagogue number two before making our way to the Jewish Cemetery. It was a unique layout for a cemetery; the graves were almost stacked one on top of the other as were the tombstones. It was a very interesting visit and I really enjoyed learning so much about Judaism in the Czech Republic. The last two stops of the museum were another synagogue and a museum on funerals. It was a great part of the day and I’m glad I was finally able to do it all!
After finishing our visit to the Jewish Museum we then walked to Rudolfinum, a beautiful building that serves as a music hall. Our last stop of the day was to look out over at the Charles Bridge which we will be visiting tomorrow. We then took the tram back to Miss Sophie’s where we snacked on the lovely welcome basket (chocolate, champagne, nuts, bruschetta) and finished season two of Stranger Things before calling it our first really early night of this trip. It was a super early morning but a fantastic day. We have a few more hours in Prague tomorrow before heading to Budapest!
