January 21, 2011
Prague: A day around the Old Town
Day two and it was time to do some walking around the Old Town. With a late start to the day, our first stop was the Old Town Square to get some lunch. The square had plenty of vendors selling all sorts of interesting food – massive hams being cooked over an open fire, a chunk of which would be carved off and served with ketchup, mustard, and a piece of brown bread; an enormous pan (the largest I’ve EVER seen) over an open fire, cooking lots and lots of little roast potatoes to be served with a wurst of some sort; a stall making fresh Trdelnik (a strip of dough wrapped around a wooden stick, rolled in sugar, nuts, etc and then cooked over a flame); and of course plenty of czech beer available to wash it all down with -YUM!
Once we’d filled our stomachs, we headed over to the Powder Gate. A climb to the top of the tower provides fantastic views over Staroměstská (Old Town). I love the architecture of the tower too – there are a few buildings in Prague that were built in this style (such as the towers of Charles Bridge, and the matching brother tower to the Powder Gate, the Jindřišská Tower – more about that one later!), with similar stone and they’re very distinctive. The view towards Prague Castle is stunning, with the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn getting in the picture too:
Prague - View From Powder Tower to Prague Castle
We had heard of the other tower in the Old Town, the Jindřišská Tower so we headed over to have a look. Imagine the guys’ delight when they found that this tower not only houses a great view, but also a Whiskeria! Well of course we had to stop for a while, so that they could sample the fine whiskies on offer 
I’m definitely not a fan, so I contented myself with a nice coffee.
From there it was onwards, ever onwards (er..). We explored a bit more of the Old Town, mainly just taking in the funny little streets and shops that we found.
For dinner, we decided it was time to complete something else on our to-do list – go to an “official” Pilsner Urquell brewery restaurant. We chose U Vejvodů, which was not far from where we were staying. While one would mainly go there for the atmosphere and the er, thrill of going to a Pilsner Urquell restaurant (guess which beer they serve there), we had a lot of fun. The food was great – I had the loveliest steak I’d had for ages, and hubby got stuck into a pork knuckle which came on a specially-designed board complete with condiments. If you’re rather partial to cooking pork knuckles at home, you can even purchase one of those special boards to take home! At 3150kr (about 210AUD) it was more than we were willing to part with. Mind you, it does make for a spectacular looking meal…
Prague U Vejvodů
