Days 16 and 17: Prague!

I love Prague.

That’s all, end of blog.

Ha, just kidding about that second statement! But seriously, our whole family loved our 2 days in Prague – we all wished we could extend our time there, and decided we must go back!

Day 16

We stayed in a roomy Airbnb just up the street from the Italian and Romanian embassies, and right above the Prague Visitor Center:

We started our first day with hot drinks and pastries. While the temperature in Prague was similar to back home, there was much greater humidity and a biting wind began blowing in the afternoon, so it definitely wasn’t warm! Our down vests given to us by my parents really came in handy, as did the advice from a friend to bring layers.

Our drinks were works of art:

Afterward, we explored the nearby streets as our laundry ran through the wash back at the apartment.

The buildings in the area had such amazing architecture. The variety of styles and building materials were incredible, as well as the level of craftsmanship.

Here are a few things we saw:

Our guy found what I thought was a great hat, though he opted to leave it behind:

Next, we headed for Prague Castle, which dates back to the 9th century AD. Photos definitely do not do it justice – standing near the castle and looking up, you feel a wave of awe that’s impossible to describe. We were there as daylight was fading, so we were able to see the castle as it gradually was lit for the evening:

After that experience, we made our way down the streets of Prague in search of traditional Czech food. As we did, we suddenly saw the most incredible moonrise – it was huge, and had a crazy orange/red hue!

My iPhone was utterly incapable, but here’s a rough idea of what it looked like:

Here are a few photos taken during our search for food:

We found a place that served great food:

Here’s our boy with two spoons to rival those we’ve seen used for meals:

Day 17

Today our agenda was to learn about truffles. In Prague, you might ask?

Actually, yes! We met up with Nela, the truffle hunting dog, and one of her team of hunters – coincidentally also named Nela. We learned many, many things over the course of our 3 hour private tour and lunch with them. Did I mention that this team supplies truffles to all the Czech Michelin-starred restaurants?

We met at the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, which was where I felt we really started learning about the Czech people. Our guide told us about why the memorial was there, about the famous Czech artist who designed it, and how it isn’t completely bleak – that the memorial was designed to be followed in both directions, showing that humanity can be reclaimed, and that there is always hope.

This was the memorial:

Next we were brought to a beautiful area where 5 different parks coalesced. Our guide told us about Nela’s training, and explained how it differed from traditional training of dogs for truffle hunting. She said dogs are traditionally trained to look for truffles by getting them to associate truffles with food to fill their bellies, and then are kept deliberately hungry for motivation to hunt. She talked about the pros/cons of this method.

We then learned that the Czech Republic is very well-regarded for dog training, and the hunting team was trained by a great dog trainer, and then the team trained Nela – using positive behavior reinforcement and clicker training. We learned about the details of truffle hunting, where they do and do not like to hunt (and why), and much more. We also saw Nela in action, and she was amazing doing her job!

We saw breathtaking views of Prague, and the tour ended with a fabulous meal at a restaurant the team supplies truffles to. We were able to taste both white and black truffles – I found the white more aromatic, but the Black had a deeper flavor. Even our girl (who despises mushrooms) tried them…ironically (and happily!) she’s also the one who found this great tour for us.

Here are photos taken during our tour:

Lastly, we walked back to our place over the Charles bridge…it was much less crowded than when we saw it earlier in the day, but there were still a ton of people.

Here are more photos from our walk across the Charles Bridge and around Prague: