Prague Journal - Autumn

Autumn season adds to Prague‘s beautiful character. Prague, city of a hundred spires, little mother of all cities – as she is known. If you get up early and walk up the hill to Prague Castle, you can see Prague’s many spires towering above the autumn mist rolling through the Old Town and across the river Vltava.

The Czech capital offers you uncountable historical monuments, cultural and culinary experiences, as well as entertainment and shopping. I would like to recommend two places which come alive especially during autumn:

Prague Jewish Quarter Josefov:

The name Josefov comes from the emperor Josef II, whose reforms improved the living conditions for the Jewish in Prague. The Jewish Quarter lies between the right bank of the Vltava River and the Old Town Square. It contains the remains of Prague’s former Jewish ghetto, with its multitude of legends about the mystical Golem and the spirit of Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) and The Strahov Monastery (Strahovsky Klaster):

started its long itinerary through history with establishment of the Premonstratensians, a religious order of canons founded in 1120 by St Norbert as an independent part of the Catholic church. The Strahov Monastery it is not only an active place of pilgrimage but also a valuable museum and a famous library, still holding an unbelievable number of rare volumes. The Philosophical Hall, built in 1782, contains an impressive number of more than 42,000 volumes covering themes from philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, history, philology. The Cabinet of Curiosities brought to Strahov from the estate of Karel Jan Erben in 1798. It now houses natural science collections, mainly with sea fauna, complemented with collections of insects, minerals, and wax replicas of fruit, archaeological collections: ceramics, handcuffs, Hussite peasant weapons. A much appreciated curiosity is the remains of a Dodo bird (Dodo ineptus), now extinct.

The Strahov Monastery is located on a hill from which you get unforgettable view of the Castle, old Prague Quarter and an orchard which is especially colourful during this season.

If you take a walk from the Strahov Monastery through the Lesser Side to the Jewish Quarter you wil reach the Alchymist Hotel (http://www.alchymisthotel.com/index.php?sekce=about&page=history), inside you will find the combination of Prague romanticism and Italian design. This accommodation is for the true connoisseur.

And should you get hungry on the way there, the left bank of Vltava offers many opportunities to refresh. To mention just a few:

Cafe Savoy (http://www.ambi.cz/ambi_cafesavoy_kontakt.php) – for afternoon coffee and home made cakes;

U modre kachnicky(http://www.umodrekachnicky.cz/) – the best of Czech cuisine;

Hergertova cihelna (http://www.kampagroup.com/en/) – international cuisine as well as unforgettable views of the Charles Bridge.

And if you like a very romantic dinner - try the Pallfy Palace (http://www.palffy.cz/cz/index.htm), where celebrities come to eat.

Cultural season is in its full swing and one of its autumn highlights will be the Karel Gott concert on 13 November (for information go to: www.interkoncerts.cz).

For more useful advice and information go to:

http://www.prague-guide.com/

http://www.pragueexperience.com/

With this I bid you farewell, wishing you a colourful autumn, wherever you may spend it.

Katerina