In October, our family took an unexpected trip to Prague and Vienna. We had talked about returning to Prague for a while, a city Chris and I had visited while I was pregnant. It had not worked into the vacation time schedule until now. So with a few weeks of planning, NHL Global Series tickets in hand, and a bunch of credit card miles spent, the three of us were on our way.

Thankfully our flight to Heathrow was uneventful. Dom got a few hours of sleep and we had a few hours to navigate through the airport before our flight to Prague. Our lesson learned from Italy – we had a transfer to our AirBnB waiting. We arrived at the apartment around 2 pm and settled in. It was a really nice family-friendly apartment building a few subway stops from the city center. There were six or seven strollers parked in the lobby, and the kids room had a bunch of toys including a toy kitchen that Dom loved. After a short nap we ventured out into the neighborhood for dinner at Italian Restaurant Equilibrista.

Everyone with kids talks about how traveling with kids is just that – traveling not a vacation. Dom did well given the huge time change, but three is a challenging age. He loved riding on the subway and trams, but had a heard time getting off when we arrived at our stop. His understanding that sometimes things are closed or that we have to wait to do things is a challenge at home, and felt amplified while traveling. We tried really hard to balance things that the adults wanted to do and actives we thought he would enjoy. The end result was the trip felt more like living in the country than touring.

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Chris’s Comments:

Prague has been a favorite city of ours since we went there a few years ago. We’ve always talked about living there, but never really chased it very hard for many, many reasons. When I learned the Flyers were playing there last spring, I was obsessed with going. I did a bunch of math and come to the conclusion I’d screw my PTO balance (going way negative) for like two years by going. Fast forward to me being on leave and stumbling into a RIDICULOUS deal on tickets with our miles and things became a reality. We stayed in apartments, as we generally do, which just makes life with a young child that much less hectic (read: separate rooms and a kitchen for 7 am breakfasts.

I had zero goals for Prague, other than the hockey game and seeing the city again. Melissa was pregnant when we were there, we were both sick, and we needed another bite from the apple… with a kid… to see what we still felt about it. I love Prague – I really do. The food options aren’t as varied as America, it doesn’t have world dominating technology at everyone’s fingertips, and it seems like there are broken things being fixed everywhere, but the people are friendly, they have great beer (they drink like 4x more beer in Czech Republic per person than the #2 country), and the city so, so beautiful. I think we’d raise a kid there, at least for a half dozen years, given the right opportunity.

Oh, and Prague is extremely navigable… even with an opinionated three year old. What parent doesn’t love taking a tram to drink a bunch of pilsner?!

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A quick rundown of our activities in Prague:

October 2 – Took the subway toward Old Town Square, had lunch at McDonald’s. After we watched the bubble blower in Old Town square and walked to Hamley’s toy store. After nap time we took the tram out to Restaurant Zalezitost for some great Czech food.

October 3 – Tram ride to Wenceslas Square for lunch at Vytopna Railway Restaurant, a restaurant were the drinks were delivered to the tables by model trains. It poured rain and Dom didn’t nap so we ordered dinner (yay internet food delivery apps!) in from Lasagneria.

October 4 – Tram and subway to Mistral Café, shopping at Mucha jewlery store, then took a tour of the city on the EkoExpres train. That night a babysitter stayed with Dom while we went to the Flyers game for our 16th wedding anniversary. 

October 5 – After breakfast in we took the tram out to the suburbs to meet a former co-worker of Chris’s and his family at the  Koala Café. Dom had a blast jumping into the ball pit and playing with the other kids. That evening I picked up things at the grocery store and we ate in.

October 6 – We walked across Charles Bridge and stopped at the Secret Garden Café for breakfast. Dom really wanted the cake pictured in the menu so waitress surprised him with a slice when we were done eating. Then we walked to a playground under the bridge and tried to take the inclined tram up Petrin Hill. The line was super long so we crossed back over the Vltava River to find where we took our pregnancy announcement photo three years ago. We then stopped in Old Town Square for Trdelník and mulled wine before nap time. For dinner we walked a few blocks to Lokal Korunni where we drank lots of beer and Dom ate more cake.

October 7 – Our last day in Prague, I went out early on my own to get the VAT paperwork filled out and see the city a bit more. That evening we returned to Old Town Square for another Trdelnik before having dinner at Mincovna. After dinner we watched a few of the street performers before heading to bed.