Prague, Czech Republic (Part 1)

After a day in Dresden and Bastei, we made our way to Prague for the first night of our road trip.

 (Our rental car is the white one pictured above)

This guesthouse had quite a lot of beautiful character and such a friendly host.

(Guesthouse breakfast the next morning featuring the cheesiest eggs I've ever had! The cheese strung like it does in pizza - it was a bit crazy!)

After taking a few minutes to settle in, we left the guesthouse in search of dinner with hope of walking through the city to enjoy Prague's night lights. 

Right at the beginning of our walk, we happened upon some smashed cherries on the sidewalk 

"ah! how sad - someone must have been grocery shopping and dropped their cherries!" 

Moments later, we realized that we were walking under cherry trees! Tyler and Isaac jumped to reach cherries still handing in the branches above and we had a tasty snack of authentic Czech Republic cherries! 

Ike found a place on yelp that sounded perfect for dinner and was within walking distance of the guesthouse. We followed a small pathway which seemed a bit unsafe at first - not knowing what or who was around the corner. After a short distance, the pathway opened up into a CHERRY orchard!

We turned left after the orchard, walked past a house or two, and found ourselves entering a monastery courtyard. 

I loved these roses, still young bushes, climbing along the courtyard wall. 

Klasterni Senk ("Monastery Taven") was in the courtyard

 (on the far left behind the trees in the photo above)

http://www.klasternisenk.cz/en/ 

Thus began one of the most memorable meals of our trip. For Isaac, it remains THE best meal. I had never seen him so visibly thrilled for the entire duration of a meal before. :) 

The meal began with warm rye bread and an assortment of different savory and sweet spreads.

Ike's main course - pork knee/knuckle! It was served with a variety of mustards, pickled cabbages, and a sweet cherry sauce.  We all agreed it was SO good!

My main dish was a pork & potato gnoochi - "Helsey." 

After leaving the tavern, we walked to the metro for a ride into downtown Prague. On our way, we were passing a small park area and noticed a baby HEDGEHOG! At first, we thought maybe someone's little pet escaped, but later realized that hedgehogs can be found in  the wild in Europe. He was a cute little guy.

Waiting for the train at the metro station 

Walking around Prague's new town downtown area:

 

Welceslas Square - the king Welceslas in the children's song "Good King Welceslas." Isaac's students sang this song this year & talked about this statue of him in class.

 

One of the first things we noticed  as we drove into the Czech Republic were the crazy long tunnels. They were MILES long! In addition, the subways were deep below ground - the escalator ride down to the metro was extremely steep. 

Part two of our time in Prague coming soon. :)