Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is always up for a short vacation. Cheap beer and hearty food, disreputable jokes and old prejudices. Some of them are still true, others have never been so. Chris’ family emigrated from Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1960s to find a better life in Germany. For Chris, the Czech Republic was always a country, somewhere in the east, that consisted mainly of the images and stories of his family. A country like something out of a movie – full of dangers and lawlessness. There were certainly one or two things – prostitution and human trafficking after the fall of communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But when you look at the Czech Republic today, you see a fully Europeanized country with rules and strict laws. The Czech Republic has found its way into the modern age. This makes a trip to the country on the Vltava very pleasant, even if it cannot always impress with superlatives.
Where else should a trip to the Czech Republic begin if not in Prague? As in Paris or Hungary, everything points towards the capital: the streets, the trains, the people. And indeed, Prague is the place in the Czech Republic, if not one of the places in Europe, that you definitely have to see.
The Charles Bridge spans the Vltava. An icy wind is blowing, but the bridge is as full as ever. With fingers red from the cold, a jazz band plays their vintage instruments. A teenager gets himself drawn as a cartoon character. Pigeons fly over a stall selling historical views of Prague. The souvenirs have fallen out of time, they invite you to linger, look and enjoy.
Touching the dog figurine below the statue of St. Nepomuk promises good luck. We push on – between groups of pensioners, party-seeking young people and families – to the other bank, the Lesser Town.
A crowd of people in front of the Matthiastor. Soldiers in ceremonial uniform divide the crowd and disappear into a side entrance. The changing of the guard does without the pomp of Buckingham Palace. Next to the country’s flag, the Ukrainian flag waves in the cold winter wind. From up here you can see the city. The panorama in front of us is monotonous. No skyline, no glass facades. Only a television tower, typically 80s futuristic, rises provocatively above everything else.
Long queues have formed in front of all the entrances to Prague Castle. Our feet are getting cold. We can warm up for a moment in the cathedral. Gothic devotion. Suffering on the cross, mortal remains and absolution. We are not admirers of Christian churches and their heavenly architecture. Back outside, we follow the stream of people into the Golden Lane. People spill out of all the openings in the houses, clogging up the paths and rooms. So we get out again as quickly as we can – we need room to breathe.
The John Lennon Wall is the prototype of the Instagram feed. “Give peace a chance” and John Lennon’s portrait were painted on the immaculate wall after the artist was shot dead in New York. A bold statement in a repressive, communist state. Others followed: pictures, quotes, hopes for a better life, wishes. Complaints about the government. Then the clash between protesters and security forces. The fall of Czechoslovakia. Freedom of speech. Tourists who came to admire the Wall. But they also came to immortalize themselves. Ultimately, the Wall has become a surface for projection. Between John Lennon and meaningfulness, meaningless slogans and banalities flourish: “I was here in 2015”.
Posters of the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 hang in the Jewish quarter. There are thousands of candles and flowers in front of the university’s Faculty of Philosophy. Shortly before we arrived, there had been a shooting rampage here. Life, joy and the future are fragile.
Prague residents and tourists enjoy the time between Christmas and New Year at the Christmas market by the town hall. Every hour on the hour, a crowd forms in front of the astronomical clock on the town hall tower to watch the dancing figures and the bell ringing. The Grim Reaper appears at the last count. He is the end.
Out of Prague, into northern Bohemia. Teplice belonged to Austria, Czechoslovakia, the German Reich and finally to the Czech Republic after the Second World War. The architecture speaks for itself – as it does throughout western Bohemia.
The outskirts of the city are gray and dreary. You can recognize the settlements of the proletariat of the time. Today, some of the small residential buildings have been renovated, while gray plaster is crumbling from others. Only the town center is beautiful. Commemorative plaques remind us that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Ludwig van Beethoven once came here for a health cure.
Lunch in a cellar restaurant. No tourists, just locals. The menu includes savory meat dishes and greasy baked cheese. A group of young adults sits in front of a collection of empty beer mugs. The news are on the muted televisions. Families and retired couples come and go. They give each other friendly glances and murmur words of greeting. Nothing special – just a normal small town.
A beautiful, almost cloudless day before New Year’s Eve. Where the River Eger has carved a loop in the rock over thousands of years, Loket Castle is surrounded by a small village. A picturesque backdrop from the town hall square to the castle tower. The corridors of the fortress are winding, the view expansive. Deep inside are the dungeons and torture rooms. Horrific screams from the tape recorder. There is no line that humans do not dare to cross. So it’s better to get back out into the fresh air: hot drinks and snacks are sold in the castle courtyard. More German than Czech visitors. Airplanes draw their contrails across the ice-blue winter sky. Breath forms clouds in the air.
Now it’s here, New Year’s Eve. We have found accommodation in a small apartment in Karlovy Vary. The pedestrian zone stretches along the River Eger. A Christmas market, a stall selling wafers. Spa mugs are on sale everywhere. Hot water gushes out of the rock on which the town is built. Dozens of springs that are said to have healing properties. And so spa guests and visitors to the town make a pilgrimage from drinking fountain to drinking fountain to draw the revitalizing and curative waters. Warm steam, the air impregnated with sulphite.
We leave the pedestrian zone. Young people hang out in a snack bar. Families stroll through the suburbs. Karlovy Vary has fallen out of time. An archetype of alternative medicine – a synonym for therapeutic fasting, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, biodynamics.
The year ends unspectacularly and a new one begins. The calendar sets the pace. As the sun rises, we leave Karlovy Vary, we leave the Czech Republic. If you dig deeper, you will discover a stubborn and self-confident nation. There is much to be proud of here. An infinitely rich treasure trove of culture and history. A country that has always been contested, whose rulers have always changed. A capital city that is one of the most liveable in the world. The Czech Republic has no superlatives to offer: not the largest lake, the highest tower, the deepest canyon. The Czech Republic is a quiet country that is best discovered through its people.
Info about our trip
We traveled to Prague and the western Czech Republic between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The capital in particular was flooded with tourists. It is probably just as bad in the summer months, so we recommend the months of March, April or October, i.e. the absolute low season, for a trip to Prague. We think that the eastern part of the country in particular is less touristy and you can immerse yourself even more in Czech culture here. A tour through Moravia is definitely on our travel list.
All in all, the Czech Republic is a safe, well-developed and very pleasant travel destination that has something for everyone in its repertoire: Winter sports, hiking, family vacations, pub crawls, romantic sightseeing. But beware: the region around the spa towns in Bohemia (such as Karlovy Vary or Marienbad) are popular destinations for German day tourists and coach tours. Of course, you will also meet a large number of spa guests there. On average, you will therefore mainly meet older people and pensioners – the offers on site are designed to suit them. Nevertheless, these are beautiful cities, even if they are not particularly exciting in our opinion. We decided to travel to this region mainly because Chris’s family is from here.
Compared to other European countries, the Czech Republic is definitely a cheap country to travel to – you’ll notice this especially outside the capital region.
The food in the Czech Republic is greasy and low in nutrients. Few vegetables, but all the more meat and white flour. Most of the restaurants we visited served better convenience food such as potato fritters from the freezer or ready-made baked cheese. French fries are served with many traditional dishes, which we always find a shame and lacking in creativity. We were therefore quite disappointed by the “normal” restaurants in Prague, so we quickly switched to cooking for ourselves in our apartment in Karlovy Vary.
However, we do have one recommendation for Prague: Vegan’s Prague. Here, classic Czech dishes are cooked and refined in a modern and really great vegan way. An absolute recommendation, and not just for vegans.
In Prague, we stayed at the Hotel Hermes, which is a little out of the city. The hotel is a standard hotel with clean rooms and good connections to the subway. There are also plenty of free parking spaces. However, we are sure that you will find cheaper and more central accommodation outside the high season.
At certain times, Prague is a crowded city full of people from all over the world. Therefore, you should pay a normal amount of attention when you are out and about in the typical tourist areas. Otherwise, the general security situation is comparable to other Central European countries, if not better.
We always carried our little man with us in the carrier – for us the best and most flexible solution when traveling. Especially in the crowded streets of Prague, you don’t want to be traveling with a stroller. Don’t forget that many sidewalks and streets are paved with cobblestones, which also makes a stroller a bad idea.
The Czechs generally seemed a little more reserved than the people of southern countries. We didn’t have any particularly positive or negative experiences when traveling with a child. In summary, it can be said that the tourist infrastructure is well developed and you won’t have any problems when traveling with children. On the contrary: we consider the Czech Republic to be particularly suitable for families, as you will find many different activities in a small area that will appeal to both adults and children (castles, exciting museums on every conceivable topic, outdoor activities, etc.).
We drove around the Czech Republic with Mr. Lux. There are toll highways, which we didn’t use, and country roads, some better and some worse. Prague has excellent public transport, so you can easily stay in a hotel in the outer districts if you’re looking for a bit more peace and quiet. Traveling by metro doesn’t cost much and you can easily get to all points of tourist interest without spending a lot of time.
- One should not be missing from your reading list: Franz Kafka. His most famous works are Metamorphosis and The Trial
- Another outstanding Czech author is Milan Kundera; his early works in particular also deal with life in Czechoslovakia, such as Life is Elsewhere