Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I was posting consistently but like many of you, I’m stuck at home due to COVID-19. I’ve officially been working from the house for 6 weeks now and it looks like we’ll be here a while longer so, why not give the blog another chance. I will be putting up new recipes but I would also like to share some trip reports I never got around to posting. Like many people, we’ve been slowly cancelling all our travel plans. So far this has impacted my girl’s trip to NYC in March, my husbands ski trip to southwest Colorado, a trip to Napa to visit family, and it looks like we’ll be cancelling our 4th of July trip back to Massachusetts. So, why not reminiscence and get excited about when we can see friends and family and travel again! I’m hoping to post a trip a week until things get back to “normal,” whatever that looks like.

The inaugural trip report is from my trip to Prague with my cousin January 2019. She had moved to Berlin the prior fall and I was dying to visit her. My husband didn’t have the vacation time so I thought it wouldn’t happen. Instead, I enjoyed a happy surprise. He pushed me to go without him. In total, the trip was two and a half weeks. I spent five days in east Germany with family friends, five days in Prague, and three days in Berlin. When I landed in Berlin on January 15th, my cousin was still at home in the States visiting family for the Christmas holiday but five days later we met in Prague.

I enjoyed a beautiful drive from the mountains of Erzgebirge in Germany, where I was visiting with family friends, into the Czech Republic and finally into Prague. My cousin took the train from Berlin to Prague and we met at our Airbnb located in Prague 3. It was a quiet street about one mile from Old Town. We spent the first evening getting the lay of the land and finding a pub to enjoy our first dinner and, more importantly, our first beer together.

My cousin and I are seven years a part, so while we spent plenty of time together at our grandparents and family events growing up, we’d never hung out just the two of us. For a long time, we weren’t even in the same age group but she’s now graduated college, is living aboard on her own, and is working a full time job. For the first time, we were the “same age,” both working adults without kids. It was awesome to get to know each other and funny to see all the family traits our dads had passed down to us. We also have a lot in common, we are both the eldest with younger brothers, we both moved thousands of miles from home right after college and we learned we have very similar travel styles involving lots of walking, museums, and of course good food.

Our first full day in the city, we meandered our way through the Old Town, across the Charles Bridge, and into Malá Strana also known as the Little Quarter.

Because we got a bit of a late start, we decided to avoid the crowds at Prague Castle and visit the Loreta instead. It is a beautiful Baroque Church with a replica of the Holy House.

After a late lunch, we headed up to the Strahov Monastery which houses the Theological and the Philosophical Halls, two incredibly gorgeous libraries. After visiting the libraries, we walked through the grounds and were treated to Prague Castle all lite up.

By the time we were done with out long walk back to Old Town, we were cold and hungry and the pastry window at Černá Madona beckoned us in. We each enjoyed a hot pot of tea and a delicious pastry before calling it a day.

The next morning, we were up early to beat the crowds at Prague Castle. We spent the whole day there exploring everything from the Old Royal Palace to St. Vitus Cathedral to Golden Lane to Rosenberg Palace. The temperatures hovered around 35-40°F during the day. Bundled up in a down coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, it wasn’t too bad but it’s a raw cold that eventually cuts you to the bone. None of the old buildings were heated, so we alternated every couple of hours between one of the sites and a cafe or restaurant for a hot cup of coffee, a warm lunch, or afternoon tea.

While doing research before our trip, I discovered Prague has a large tea room culture. While a relatively new phenomenon (the first tea house opened in 1993 in the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution and the end of the communist rule) it has become widespread throughout the city and the country. The Czech Republic now has one of the highest concentrations of tea rooms in the world. As two tea lovers, we decided to check out Dobrá Čajovna or Good Tea Room, the original Prague tea room. It was an incredible experience. You are given an extensive tea menu and a little bell to ring when you are ready to order. It was a relaxing and cozy atmosphere. I just wish we were in Prague longer to enjoy it more than once.

We wrapped our trip with a visit to the Jewish Quarter. We bought our tickets at the Jewish Museum which allowed us to see the Spanish, Maisel, Old-New, and Pinkas Synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Ceremonial Hall. Each site provided a fascinating look at Jewish life in Prague from the 13th century through World War II. It was an incredibly moving day filled with beauty, history, and sobering information.

After a long day of site seeing, we took a different path back to the Airbnb along the river. As we walked by Černá Madona we decided to enjoy one more pot of tea and pastry before leaving Prague.

Prague is January, while cold, was amazing. It is probably one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. I’ve seen pictures of the crowds in the summer, and was happy to avoid that with a winter visit. All of the people we met were friendly, helpful, and spoke English (and German). The prices of food, beer, and lodging were very reasonable. The Airbnb we stayed in was a two bedroom, one bath apartment that was beautifully furnished and had free on street parking. It came out to $70 per night! The most expensive purchases of the trip were a new wool hat, when mine suddenly started unraveling, and a big cozy scarf (cause this Denver girl forgot what real cold feels like!). I was definitely a captive audience but I was so much warmer afterwards!

I can’t wait to be able to travel again because Prague is high on the list and I will definitely be bringing my husband this time.

Happy Wanderings!