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Category: Czech Republic (Page 4 of 4)

The Slav Epic

Alfons Mucha’s Slav Epic was the highlight of our trip to Prague!

You may not have heard of Alfons Mucha before, but if you spend time in the Czech Republic, you will see his work and influence all around you! Mucha’s style became the foundation for Art Nouveau. Even without prior knowledge of Mucha, the Slav Epic is a must see cultural gem!

The Massive Paintings

The Massive Paintings

On 20 canvases, Alfons Mucha portrays the history and mythology of the Slavic people, spanning 1,500 years. Mucha devoted 18 years to completing the series. These nationalistic pieces of art helped unify the Slavic people, ultimately gaining their own country after World War I.

Exterior of the Veletrzni Palace

Exterior of the Veletrzni Palace

The Location: The enormous canvasses, some as large as 25 feet by 20 feet, are well-displayed in the Veletržní Palace. Located just outside the main touristic district, we caught a tram (Line 12, 14, 15 or 17), which dropped us at the museum entrance.

Viewing the Art: Today, viewing this collection provides a great overview for a modern visitor to Prague. Each piece chronologically portrays a scene from history or cultural folklore. The paintings will introduce you to the major political figures, which you will see celebrated throughout the Czech Republic. For example, find Jan Hus in the artwork. Hus tried to reform the Catholic Church more than 100 years before Martin Luther, but was burned at the stake for heresy. You will also find his statue in the center of the Old Town Square, and in Mucha’s stained glass window in St. Vitus Cathedral. Learning these historical figures will add depth and understanding to your visit as you find them at attractions across Prague and the Czech Republic.

Detail of the Apotheosis of the Slavs

Detail of the Apotheosis of the Slavs

When viewing the paintings, consider that colors are symbolic: white for peace, red for war, blue for the past and orange for the future. In addition, Mucha highlights the focal points in each work with extra detail applied with oil paint, making these figures pop out of the canvas.

The Cost: The Veletržní Palace has other great artwork as well, but with limited time, Rebekah and I only visited the Slav Epic exhibit. Based on the collections you wish to see, there are multiple choices when buying tickets at the front desk. Admission for the Slav Epic exhibition only is 180 CZK (about $9.00 at the time). Once inside the exhibit, there is a desk where you can purchase the English informational pamphlet for 10 CZK ($0.50). You SHOULD definitely do this! The descriptions of each piece bring the paintings to life with the background required to properly enjoy the works. Allow two hours to view the Slav Epic and read the descriptions.

The Gallery

The Gallery

Other Noteworthy Items:  If you find yourself in love with Mucha’s style after visiting the Slav Epic, there are two additional attractions in Prague where you can view more of his work.  As mentioned above, Mucha created a stained glass window in St. Vitus Catherdral, located within Prague Castle.  The window is simply stunning; a must see.  The second option, which we did not have time to visit, is the Alfons Mucha Museum in the New Town.

UPDATE:  The Slav Epic is currently closed.  Please check this link to verify that the Gallery has reopened prior to visiting.  The expected reopening is August 1, 2015.

Old Town Square – Prague

The Old Town Square is one of my favorite locations in Prague!  I could go back to this place every day.  It is a busy place where you can watch people all day and into the evening.

The Square is the center of the Old Town, one of four towns that now make up Prague.  Major landmarks within the Square include the Church of Our Lady before Týn, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Jan Hus statue and the Old Town Hall with its famous Astronomical Clock.

Jan Hus Memorial

Jan Hus Memorial

Standing prominently in the middle of the Square is a statue of Jan Hus.  He is often compared to Martin Luther, but 100 years earlier.  Hus was a priest who attempted to reform the Catholic Church, but was burned at the stake for heresy.  His bravery and willingness to stand against corruption transformed him into a Czech national hero.  You will see the image of this cherished priest around town and throughout the Czech Republic, such as in the artistic masterpiece the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha.

Church of Our Lady before Týn

Church of Our Lady before Týn

The Church of our Lady before Týn, aka the Týn Church, is absolutely beautiful!  The spires make you feel like you are in a fairy tale.  I just loved looking up at them.  I had not seen anything like this church before in real life.  The entrance is very interesting.  It appears as if the property in front of the church was sold at some time.  As a result, you cannot see the lower part of the church.  To enter the church, a narrow walkway between the buildings leads you to the front door.

Astronomical Clock

Astronomical Clock

The most popular site in the square is the Astronomical Clock.  It is on the south side of the Town Hall Tower. The oldest parts of the clock are from 1410!  At the top of every hour, two doors open and Jesus’ twelve apostles make an appearance while a skeleton rings a bell.  The spectacle concludes with a rooster crowing.   We felt completely safe in the Czeck Republic–however, while around the Clock, be aware.  While you are looking up at the clock, packed together in a crowd, you may not pay attention to your belongings.  This is a perfect opportunity for pick pockets to work.  If you have a bag, put it on your chest and wrap your arms around the important zippers and you should be good.  Also, do not leave anything of value in your back pockets.  This is a general smart travel tip.  Now, enjoy the scene!  You can also climb the tower for a good view of the Square.

There are tons of restaurants on the Old Town Square.  Between the Old Town tower and the Church of St. Nicholas, there are food carts that smelled tasty.  We enjoyed a late dinner at Al Minuto Ristorante, an Italian restaurant that shared the wall of the Astronomical Clock.  The Staropramen beer they served was cold and refreshing and the pizza was delicious.  When the server put the pizza on the table, it was gone in a minute!

Detail of Astronomical Clock

Detail of Astronomical Clock

From the Square, you can catch a tour or book tickets for a concert.

To get to the Old Town Square from the New Town, follow the main road through the Powder Tower.  If you are coming from the Little Quarter, cross the Vltava River at the Charles Bridge and follow the main road east.  A short walk north from the Old Town Square is the Jewish Quarter, another great area to explore.

Hotel Hastal Prague Old Town

When Rebekah and I travel, we look for a cheap but comfortable hotel near the town’s center. We do not like to pay a lot of money for a really nice hotel room, especially when we want to leave that room as much as possible to experience the culture surrounding us. To make the most of our time in Prague, we also valued staying in the heart of the city, with convenient access to our points of interest. Hotel Hastal Prague Old Town was the perfect fit!

View of the Square from our Room

View of the Square from our Room

Location: Hotel Hastal is located just outside the Jewish Quarter in Prague’s Old Town. The great location makes it easy to access all of Prague’s sights, especially if you take advantage of the subway and above-ground tram system. A tram stop is a short five minute walk east of the hotel. If you walk five minutes to the west, you will be standing in the Old Town Square, featuring the Tyn Church and the Old Town Hall Tower with its popular Astronomical Clock.

Our Double Room

Our Double Room

The Bathroom

The Bathroom

The Room: The hotel is not fancy, but is very comfortable and clean with a family-run feeling. Art Nouveau prints by Czech artist Alfons Mucha decorate the hallways and rooms. Our room provided plenty of space along with a double bed, desk, chair and closet. The room also included a small TV and a safe. The bathroom was spacious with a corner shower. The large double window overlooked a mostly quiet small square and church.

The Breakfast: A delicious breakfast of hot and cold food is included with the room. The buffet features eggs, sausage, meats, cheeses, breads, yogurts, cereals, and jams. Each day, a different coffee cake is served as well. The options do not rotate much from day to day, so plan accordingly for a long visit. As an added bonus, a coffee machine and tea are available 24 hours a day. This was a great perk, and added to the overall value of our room! We caffeinated up one afternoon before taking to the streets again for a concert at the Municipal House.

The Cost: Our double room cost us only 80 Euros (about $110 at the time) per night. We found the cheapest rate by emailing the hotel and booking directly with them. A credit card number was required to hold the room, but only cash (USD, Euros, or Crowns) was accepted at checkout. Since we knew ahead of time that Hotel Hastal would accept US Dollars, we avoided an ATM/exchange fees by bringing the required USD with us from home. Overall, the payment process was very easy.

Other Noteworthy Items: The staff was incredibly helpful and kind.  They even arranged a private car to pick us up at the airport since we were arriving at midnight and were not familiar with the city and public transportation. The transportation cost (29 Euros) was added to our hotel tab.  This was great because we had not figured out currency yet.  A bar serving Staropramen beer, a Czech beer staple, shares the breakfast room. Although the hotel bar sells some of Prague’s least expensive brews, we were not able to partake due to relatively early closing times.

View of the Church from our Room

View of the Church from our Room

Without a doubt, if we travel to Prague again, we would stay at Hotel Hastal.

As avid fans of Rick Steves, we bought his 2014 Prague & the Czech Republic Guidebook, where we first found information on this gem of a hotel.

Prague City Overview

Rebekah and I have always wanted to explore Eastern Europe, and Prague was the top city on our list.  Prague, the City of a Hundred Spires.  When we found a cheap flight to Prague using frequent flyer miles, we didn’t think twice about booking the flight!

After much planning, we decided to spend four of our ten day European trip exploring the Czech Republic.  We also wanted to see the Czech Republic beyond Prague, so we limited our time in Prague so we could travel 4 hours south by train to the picturesque Czech town of Český Krumlov.  This decision left us with two full days in Prague.  Looking back, two days is theoretically enough time to catch the Prague highlights, but we moved quickly to cover so much ground.  You could have easily spent a week in Prague, including short day trips to see the surrounding countryside complete with small castle towns.

To make the most of our time, we researched the destination beforehand so we could spend our time on the ground enjoying.  Rick Steves 2014 Prague & the Czech Republic Guidebook was a most helpful resource.  I highly recommend this book for traveling in the Czech Republic.

Before we jump into what we did, let’s take a look at the city of Prague itself.

Crossing the Charles Bridge from the Little Quarter into the Old Town

Crossing the Charles Bridge from the Little Quarter into the Old Town

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A Case Study in Redeeming Frequent Flyer Miles

Today, we kick off a series about Rebekah and my most recent international trip.  But before we dive into the stories from the trip, we wanted to take a minute to break down redeeming frequent flyer miles.

Our trip, like any good trip, started with the classic question:  “Where should we go?”  Rebekah and I had accumulated 120,000 miles in our American Airlines frequent flyer accounts, and the miles were burning a hole in our pockets.  Where should we go?

London - Picadilly Circus

London – Picadilly Circus

Redeeming American Airlines’ Frequent Flyer Miles:  Since we were redeeming miles, we figured a good place to start was the American Airlines website.  The Awards Map, a relatively new feature, helps find possible destinations based on the number of frequent flyer miles you wish to redeem.  Using this option, the website shows possible destinations in a selected area (such as Asia Pacific, Europe, Central and South America, etc.) originating from a specific airport, ours being DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Airport.  We set the miles we were willing to spend to 30,000 miles per person (one-way).  Based on the dates of travel, we realized we did not have enough miles for Asia or Africa and few options for South America.  Europe seemed to be the best fit.  By eliminating the countries we had already visited in Europe, we only had 45 countries to choose from.  Ha.  Still daunting.

When booking flights using miles, we were shocked to find the additional taxes and fees to be extraordinary.  Some options, such as a flight to Gibraltar, cost 30,000 miles and $760 per person one way.  We quickly ruled out these locations.  In general, we found flights connecting through London Heathrow were more expensive than connecting through other airports.  Also, direct flights were normally the cheapest, since less airports equals less fees.

One benefit of using frequent flyer miles is that you can easily book one-way tickets for half of the miles of a round trip ticket (based on the dates).  We quickly realized there was no benefit for us to book a round trip ticket, and started to view each way as an independent option.  However, the Award Map became even more difficult to use for a one-way return ticket, as you have to select one city in Europe at a time, and select continental US as the return.  Once you do this, you can see if DFW airport is available from the selected European city.  The American Airlines Award Map can be a frustrating tool because of its limitations, but after a lot of work, it helped us narrow down our final destinations.

After much searching, we decided to fly home from Paris, mostly because it was a direct flight back to DFW with ideal departure and landing times and minimal taxes.  After even more struggles, we found a great flight to Prague.  We wanted to explore Eastern Europe if possible, and this was as far east as we could fly on 30,000 miles.

Prague - View of the Charles Bridge

Prague – View of the Charles Bridge

Modifying a Frequent Flyer Ticket Itinerary:  Later, we discovered another benefit of using miles:  no change fees.  After looking at our work schedules again, we were able to extend our trip by two days.  I was not sure what fees would be associated with such a change, but thought the extra time in Europe would be worth a try.  I was pleasantly surprised to find there was no fee.  As long as a flight for the same number of miles is available, the only cost would be the difference in taxes.  In our case, we only changed the return flight, knowing we would not find another flight to Prague.  We easily found a new return flight from Paris, and the taxes for the later flight was the same as the previous flight.  There was no cost to modify our itinerary.

Overall, the representatives at American Airlines were very helpful.  However, if they book the tickets for you directly, there is a fee, so avoid the extra fee by letting them help you make an online booking.  Once you have an online booking, they can assist you with any changes.

When all the planning was complete, we booked a 1 stop flight from DFW to Prague, with a layover in London Heathrow (a rare exception to the high taxes).  The cost for each person was 30,000 miles and $96.80.  The return flight was direct from Charles de Gaulle Airport to DFW for 30,000 miles and $90.90 each.  For those keeping score at home, our “free” tickets cost us a total of 120,000 miles and $375.40.  When it comes to airlines, “free” is not always free.  This definitely made us rethink the value of frequent flyer mile programs.

Our Itinerary:  After a lot of work, Rebekah and I were going to Europe.  We would visit the following locations:

Paris - View of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe

Paris – View of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe

In the coming weeks, we will break down each of these four destinations, sharing highlights and the most memorable experiences from each location.  We look forward to sharing our experiences with you!

If you have successfully booked a flight with frequent flyer miles and have any tips, feel free to share in the comments section!

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