Saturday, June 6, 2009

vinohrady

As pretty as Prague is, I can't stand the floods of tourists around the biggest attractions (mainly Old Town Square and Charles Bridge), so it was nice to escape the crowds and explore the Vinohrady neighborhood. The streets are lined with huge, beautiful old townhomes. The only people out were those walking their dogs (most without leashes...dogs here are extremely well behaved) and pushing baby carriages.

From our apartment in Old Town, we went through busy New Town and Wenceslas Square.Vinohrady neighborhood.The tower toward the back is Prague's tallest landmark, the TV Tower. Ten giant baby sculptures (by local artist David Cerny) are crawling on it. Here are some more shots.
A park high on a hill in the neighborhood had nice views of the city...and a giant beer garden. Beer is everywhere here...can you imagine if there were bars in city parks back home? I don't think that would be such a good thing. Best to keep those 40s hidden in paper bags;)In addition to the grand townhouses, the neighborhood also had big villas.I think this church was in Peace Square, and I think the second picture is in between Vinohrady and New Town.We also had lunch at a really good Indian restaurant in Vinohrady. The food here has been a little scary. Typical food here is pork knuckle. We ate (really bad) pizza and salads the first two nights, so we were delighted with Indian. On the third night we found an awesome vegetarian restaurant just a minute from our apartment and ate there twice. Dave isn't a vegetarian by any means, but even he was grossed out with the thought of pork knuckle.