Week 4: Pfaffenriggs in Prague!

Monday morning we caught the train to Prague, which was….an experience. We had no idea that you could reserve seats ahead of time (outside of the tickets we bought) and were forced out of our seats 4 different times by people who had made reservations for specific legs of the trip. This included standing in the aisle for about 30 minutes until two people took mercy on us and let us squeeze into their seats (all 4 of us in 2 seats about the size of airplane seats- fun times!). The Sloans even had to sit on the floor outside the bathroom for one part of the trip- yikes.

Suffice it to say, we were all very excited to get to Prague and check into our hotel! We stayed at Hotel Waldstein in Mala Strana (“Little Side”), which is right on the other side of the river and below the Castle. It was an ideal location, centrally-located yet not nearly as crowded as Old Town. Every destination we’ve booked in Europe has “family rooms,” which are NOT the US standard of a crappy full size pull-out couch next to a queen bed, but twin beds for the kids and often in a separate room. The girls even had their own bathroom. The hotel breakfast was in this cool cellar with a wide range of European breakfast items (think salami, caprese, an assortment of cheese, breakfast pastries, and yogurts…yum). 

On our first afternoon, we walked over the Charles Bridge and stopped at several shops along the way. The Charles Bridge dates back to Medieval times and has 30 different baroque statues on it, so is very much NOT your typical bridge. Under the statue of St. John (a priest under King Wenceslas) there are two plaques to touch, one of which is said to ensure your return to Prague and the other to grant a wish. Eden had a lot of questions as to why the first plaque depicted someone being chucked into and drowning in the Vltava River. I deflected and we moved on!

Caitlin and Jen (my roommates turned lifelong friends from study abroad), this one’s for you. Karlovy Lazne is a five story nightclub that I have many (fuzzy) memories of. 

We got our first taste of goulash and a Kozel Czerny (the only dark beer I’ve ever enjoyed and a staple of my 2007 days) followed by the now-famous Prague trdelnik (“chimney cakes”). I have no memory of these from 2007 (Caitlin? Jen?), which is a true shame because they were INCREDIBLE. 

We started day 2 by heading up to the Castle. The weather was gorgeous and just like in Munich, Easter decorations abounded. Thank you Eden for helping us document! 

We started off in St Vitus’ Cathedral, an incredibly impressive church that houses the bodies of several patron saints and hosted the coronations of all of the Czech kings and queens. St. Vitus is world-famous for it’s stained glass, which was truly awe-inspiring for at least half of us.

The girls DID enjoy picking out their favorite windows and stained glass colors, deciding that this “rainbow window” was the best one. Eden had many questions about the religious icons depicted in the pictures and commented that “Jesus sure did have a lot of friends.” 

The Prague Castle (Prazsky hrad) is the largest ancient castle in the world and still serves as the official residence of the president of the Czech Republic. The grounds are beautiful, so we sat and enjoyed the sunshine while Jake did some more intensive sightseeing in St. George's Basilica, which was built over 1000 years ago.  

We finished off our castle tour by walking through the Golden Lane, which was created in the 15th century to house castle guards and goldsmiths, but has since had many famous residents including Franz Kafka. We were all delighted by the colorful tiny houses, some of which are preserved as museums and others which have been converted to tiny shops.  

We spent the afternoon in Kampa Park, located on the Vltava and home to David Czerny’s naked babies statues. It’s not every day you can climb up a baby’s butt. Giggles abounded! 

We strolled over to the Lennon Wall (Jake was very surprised when he discovered we were talking about John Lennon and not Vladimir Lenin!), a free-speech wall somewhat illegally resurrected after the death of John Lennon. Milo and Eden were very excited to write on the wall (Eden wrote: Eden + Eleanor = BFF).

Here’s a side by side of Eden and 2007 me (undoubtedly writing a Radiohead lyric) writing on the wall. Not pictured: night 2 of goulash.  

Day 3 was spent enjoying Old Town, beginning with the astronomical clock and its hourly show.  

As we were walking around Old Town, Eden beelined towards the horses like a moth to the light and ooo-ed and ahh-ed at the Appaloosas. I talked to the driver and he said we could have a 30 minute ride around Old Town for 40 US dollars- cheaper than I thought. It was nice to get to say YES to the girls and honestly a ton of fun for all of us. We wouldn’t have gotten to see nearly as much of Old Town pushing our stroller through the cobblestone streets and stopping to look at Google Maps every block. Eden also had the most genuine smile on her face the entire ride. 

The 2025 version of me walking through Prague looks a lot different than the 2007 version! 

We had lunch at the Easter market and the girls devoured this potato tower. Hadley, Queen of the Sausages, ate an entire Czech sausage on her own.

Our magical Old Town adventure ended with gelato at Cafe Amorino where you can pick 5 flavors of gelato that they make into a flower! Novel and delicious. 

Meredith and I snuck out for a long walk and grabbed a picture by the building of Charles University that we studied at. Meredith is my friend from Berkeley, but she did the same study abroad program as me in 2009. We both had dreams of taking our families here and it was incredibly special to get to do it together (or at least, as together as the kids and their various schedules would allow). We stumbled upon this park in Mala Strana filled with peacocks, so we had to take the kids back later to meet all our new friends.  

Prague was really showing off with the vibrant spring colors and cherry tree blossoms. This picture cracks me up- I told the girls to do their favorite pose and this is what they came up with. A couple of goofballs!  

Our last dinner in Prague was at the Vytopna Railway Restaurant, in which every table is covered with tiny railway tracks that deliver your drinks and dinner straight to your table. Such a fun idea! 

The train ride home was MUCH better (we bought seats!) and we were all happy to get back to our “home” in Munich. It’s funny how leaving Munich is what really cemented the feeling that it’s our (temporary) home.

Cultural Observations: Czech Style

Paying for Public Bathrooms: In both Munich and Prague there are attendants at public bathrooms whom you pay when you enter. In Germany it seems optional (more like a tip), but in Prague there were actually coin-operated turn-styles that the bathroom attendants moderated. What on earth do you do if you find yourself without a coin?!  

Getting the Bill at a Restaurant: We’ve been continually ghosted by our waiters in Munich and Prague once our food has been delivered. I think it’s actually a sign of politeness (not rushing us out of the restaurant), but yikes it’s like they want us to spend the night there. 

Expectations for Children’s Behavior:  One salient feature of both Germany and the Czech Republic are that children seem to be much better behaved (i.e., quieter) in public settings than American children. I have yet to see a single german child have any kind of meltdown or really much display of emotion in public. On the flipside, a certain 3 year-old in our family has had some BIG emotions, which have received many stares and zero sympathetic looks. 

An extreme example in Prague which, to be clear, is not a representation of the Czech people, just one extremely cranky a*hole: 

Hadley had her most epic toddler meltdown to date on our way to Kampa park. We had stopped to get gelato and the cone she got was (according to her) a VERY BAD CONE, a problem which could not be remedied by a cup, a new cone, or any other logical solution. No amount of reasoning, empathy, cuddling, bribes or threats could temper this tantrum- we just had to ride the wave. While doing so, a very angry Czech man came out of a nearby building and told us he was going to call the police! He suggested we slap her and move on our way. We had our words with him and by that point she had calmed down. Unsavoury to say the least. So if you thought it was all croissants and gelato over here, I can assure you that the kids are still very much kids who have their kid moments. I very much appreciate the looks of solidarity you get in the US when these situations happen! 

That’s all for now! Back to “regular” life this week. We hope everyone is enjoying spring from wherever they are reading this!