We were off to Prague to see one of Mum’s favourite bands, Tool. We were flying from Liverpool, so had a little stop off on the way to the airport and oh my, what an amazing discovery we have made right under our noses in Knutsford, just a few miles away from home. Check out the beautiful Turkish breakfast at Cafe On The Corner. It was absolutely delicious.
Unfortunately our flight was delayed and we didn’t get to our accommodation until after 9pm. Of course, Dad was quite thirsty by now, so we threw our bags into the room and went in search of a beer. It didn’t take long to find a place called Hospůdka Nad Viktorkou. Now I think it’s safe to describe this place as rustic, a spit and sawdust type of establishment. There were a group of Americans jamming away with their guitars, which made for a good atmosphere. With them sat a dog that Mum of course had to stroke every time she walked past. We had 3 pints of Pilsner Urquell, which is brewed in Plzeň, Czech Republic. Did you know it was the world’s first pale lager? Its popularity meant it was much copied and named pils, pilsner or pilsener.
As the smoking ban hadn’t found its way to this bar yet, we decided to move on and went to BeerGeek Bar & Pivotéka and this was definitely our kind of place. They have 32 taps there and say to have the biggest range in the Czech Republic from local and foreign craft brewers. Every day they have 5 to 10 new beers, many of them you will not be able to find anywhere else. They don’t carry beers that you can buy from the supermarket, like the Urquell Pilsner we were just drinking funnily enough. Their bottle shop has more that 500 different bottled beers! A couple more pints and it was time for us to get some shut eye.
The next day we decided to head down to the Old Town, but it was a sunny day and already hot, so we stopped off at Up&Down Bar for a drink. What’s the best thing to drink for breakfast? That’s right, dark beer! For many years, the sole remaining porter of the Baltic style has been the Pardubický Porter, which is brewed at nineteen degrees and finishes with a solid eight percent alcohol. A couple of these each would set us nicely up for the day! We continued on to the Old Town Square and Mum took my photo with Krecik, a popular cartoon character from the Czech Republic. A bit more exploring before we got a bite to eat from the hot food stalls near the square and on the way back stopped off at another small bar called Vinárna Konírna for a couple more beers – we met a couple in there (that were also in Prague for the Tool gig) and shared a few stories whilst we drank.
That night was the gig and you can read all about that in another post, so on to the final day and a quick look at Charles Bridge and then the Dancing House Hotel. Then Mum wanted to visit the Mucha Museum, which was essentially a small gallery dedicated to Czech artist Mucha, featuring his paintings, posters, drawings and lithographs. Mum thought it was absolutely beautiful – there were no photos allowed, but we bought a lot of postcards ❤️🖤
It was coming up to lunchtime and we hadn’t had much in the way of authentic Czech food during our stay. We went to Restaurace U Jindřišské věže (near St. Henry’s Tower) and had a hearty and filling meal of steak and a creamy sauce, served with bread dumplings (houskovy knedlik), all washed down with a few pints of Kozal. The meat melted in your mouth, it was so tender. We had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport, so we looked for somewhere to chill. We found a beautiful fountain with Czech musicians, but there were some very ignorant people sat on it – they saw me taking photos but didn’t move even though there was an empty bench right next to it. But don’t worry, I am quick thinking so masked them from the photos with my amazing Mohawk… I don’t like humans, apart from mine… mine are OK.