Being in a city that my daughter said was her favorite in all of Europe encouraged us to visit, so you can imagine how every sight, every person, every building inspired our interest. Prague, if you get the chance, is a must see city!
We decided to take a six hour tour of Prague. Part of it was a walking tour, part of it was by tram and part of it was on a boat with lunch included. Because we knew we would be walking a lot, we decided to park our car where we started the tour In Wencelaus Square. We were fortunate that it was a terrific day. Sunny but not too warm!
Imagine our surprise when a colorful brigade of vintage American cars in pristine condition paraded into the square. Apparently, they were used to take visitors on tours of the city. That’s what we should have done.
But, finding where the tour started and how to buy the tickets was a challenge. The pamphlet said to look for the person with the yellow umbrella in Wencelas Square. Pretty vague if you ask me. Especially since there were quite a few of those yellow umbrellas poking up above the different crowds of people.
The tour was an overview of the city and would serve us well so that we could decide where we wanted to spend our second day in a little more depth. We looked and found a lady with a yellow umbrella, and she directed us to a place across the boulevard to buy the tickets. We had time since the tour didn’t start until 10:30 and it was only a little after 10. After buying our tickets we walked back across the street to the center of the boulevard. While waiting, we talked with a mother and daughter who were visiting Prague.
Our tour guide, Nina, was fantastic. She not only spoke excellent English, she had a terrific sense of humor and was very knowledgeable about her city. She told us the story of King Wencelas who is the Patron Saint of the Czech people. We know King Wencelas from our beloved Christmas Carol, Good King Wencelas.
What was interesting was that the Czech people had never heard of one of our beloved Christmas Carols! The words were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853. The music originated in Finland 300 years earlier. The Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity.
King Wenceslas was the king of Bohemia in the 10th century. He was a devout Catholic and was assassinated by his brother Boleslaw and his supporters. Wenceslas was raised as a Christian by his paternal grandmother while Boleslaw was raised as a pagan by his mother. Wencelas’ Saint’s Day is September 28th. St. Stephen’s feast day was celebrated on the 26th of December which is probably why the song is sung as a Christmas carol.
The day went from bad to worse because we assumed (wrongly, of course) that we’d spend one third of the time on each activity listed in the pamphlet. The boat ride lasted about a half hour, and lunch an hour (which was fun). The tram lasted about twenty minutes. The rest of the time we were on foot. By the time we got to the castle we could barely walk. We were not prepared to walk as much as we did.
So, if you travel to any European city, wear the most comfortable walking shoes you have so as not to aggravate your feet on those marathon tours. Opt for the hop-on, hop-off bus tours if the city has them. We used them in many European cities and would use them again because we found it easier to get around. Unfortunately, at the time we lived in Germany, Prague did not have them… but they do now.
In the end, we had to take a tram back to the starting point because, unknown to us, the tour ended at the castle. We had to find our way back on our own which was a shock, and another lesson learned.
Thankfully, there was a person on the tram who spoke Italian and directed us to which trams we had to take to get back to our car in Wenceslas Square.
By the time we got back to our hotel, our feet had taken a beating. Not even Advil helped. All in all, while our feet hurt, we were grateful to have visited Prague.
And we learned a valuable lesson: don’t take a walking tour or any kind of tour without asking specific questions!
Would we go back again? In a heartbeat… only the next time we’ll use different transportation and ask more questions.
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