2026 - Prague & Paris

FINAL NOTES 

I use a Google site for this travel journal, and Google sites cannot be updated on a phone (go figure). Since it was a short 10-day trip, I thought, "I'll just update the site when I get home, so I won't bring my laptop." I regret that decision. It only takes 30 minutes every evening to update the travel journal while the thoughts and senses of the day are still fresh, so I know I'll forget some of the things we saw by updating it afterwards - but hopefully in the future when I scroll through these pictures I'll remember them.

Travel Advisor - We've used travel advisors on our last three trips, and I think we've found our forever consultant: Natalie Smith with Fora. After our consultation, she planned the perfect tours in each city. Bonus: I love the Fora app and used it daily.

Private Tours: As we have traveled, private tours and drivers are upgrades for us that have been worth the cost. We have their undivided attention, and they have ours.  I'm not saying you won't ever see us in a tour group following a leader holding a flag and trying to corral 50 visitors through a museum... but for now this is our splurge.

In the future, for us, a 10-Day Trip should not include two cities: Keith and I like to explore the history of large cities, and we thought that a week (bookended by two weekends) would give us time to dive into two cities. The problem is that it effectively takes two days to arrive in Europe (leave on Friday night, arrive in Prague about 1pm on Saturday, get a nap, out to dinner, and Saturday is done). That left Sun-Mon-Tue to explore Prague. While the flight from Prague to Paris is only two hours, all of Wednesday was spent getting to Paris, then to the hotel, then unpacking, etc. In the past we used to delineate between an "exploration" vacation (go, go, go) and a "restoration" vacation (relax on a beach). As we age, we want a bit of both in every trip.

Overall, Prague was my favorite city - and Paris (will always) be Keith's. I highly recommend them both.

Days 1 & 2 - Travel to Prague

Today was our first day on this adventure, and after a long travel day, we are finally settled into the Mandarin Oriental. We have found the best way to jump right into the European time zone is to get settled into the hotel, take a short nap, and then go out to dinner. So we unpacked, showered, drew the drapes and crashed into bed... only to be awakened by maintenance requesting entry into our room to fix something that eventually couldn't be fixed. Natalie had booked us a cute garden room that overlooked the courtyard, but after this arrival fiasco we were upgraded to a suite that was amazing. I've never stayed in a room like it (pictures below). After this slight hiccup, had a wonderful dinner at U Modre Kachnicky.

Day 3 - City Highlights Private Tour

Scheduled Itinerary 

Today we had our six hour city highlight tour of Prague with Marketa. We started in old town, where we walked around market Square, down back alleys, and saw amazing architecture. We also saw the astronomical clock at the top of the hour so we saw it perform its machinations. We strolled past where Mozart stayed and where he performed his operas, and where Franz Kafka lived.

We left Old Town and went up to Prague Castle, driving up the street where Jan Neruda lived in the neighborhood about which he wrote in Prague Tales. Our guide painstakingly pointed out dozens of house signs - which may be my new favorite thing to find in old cities. We started with lunch at Kuchyn and then toured the castle. The stained glass windows in the cathedral are some of the most detailed and unique we’ve ever seen with fascinating histories. CLICK HERE. We will go back tomorrow evening because there was not enough time to do everything.

We ended the day walking across the Charles Bridge - a bit underwhelming after the rest of what we’d seen today, but it was also crowded so we’re going to go back Tuesday morning.

After two traditional Czech meals in a row, we decided to return the more familiar fare for dinner (and close to the hotel). There was a unique pizzeria close, but they were slammed so we made reservations there for  the next night, and then went to the local Irish pub.  It was exactly what one would expect :)
 

Day 4 - Terezín Private Tour

Everything that you read about Terezín is quick to point out that it was NOT a death camp... it was a concentration camp (the inhabitants were eventually moved from Terezin to death camps at which they were murdered). HOWEVER, more than 33,000 people died AT Terezín  (from either torture or illness)... so I think the distinction is meaningless.

Hitler used Terezín as a propaganda camp. The Jews, political prisoners, and others who were transported there did their best to make life livable, which at one point involved acting out happily playing sports and sitting in the sun all while the cameras rolled to produce the propaganda film for the Red Cross. Sadly, the film and the fake areas that the Nazis produced for the Red Cross worked - they came, they saw, they did nothing.

We took a few pictures, mainly outside, but this was not a place for selfies. 

Secret Synagogue 

**The grandmother of Marketa's ex-husband was detained Terezín and survived. Vera Cenkova

Day 5 - Explore Prague on Our Own

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. So today we walked from our hotel across the Charles bridge into Old Town to tour the synagogues. Each of the five synagogues that we visited have their own core exhibition, and only one of the synagogues still has religious services. Our first stop was the Maisel synagogue, and its core exhibition covers the early history of Jews in the Bohemian lands. The history of Jews being expelled, and then reintegrated into society then expelled again is a timely reminder that history rhymes. 

The second synagogue was Pinkas synagogue with its core exhibition being the children’s drawings from the Terezín ghetto, but the most astounding part of this synagogue are the walls covered in names of the victims of the holocaust. See the pictures.

Next to the Pinkas Synagogue is the old Jewish cemetery. They ran out of room during the middle ages, so they would put a layer of dirt over the old graves and bury the new person on top, then bring up the headstones. So it just looks like a jumble of headstones and that’s because there are 10 layers of graves beneath, but all the headstones are on top.

The next synagogue was the Spanish synagogue and this synagogue is stunningly beautiful. It’s core exhibition expands on Jews in the Bohemian lands in the 19th and 20th centuries

The last synagogue we visited was the Old New synagogue. This is the active synagogue used by the Prague Jewish community and its history includes the legend of the golem.

We ate a late lunch at Café Mozart (meh), which overlooks the astronomical clock. From there, we walked back over to the Charles bridge and took a boat tour of the Vltava River. 

We have absolutely loved the history, beauty and architecture of this city and highly recommend a visit.

Day 6- Travel to Paris

As mentioned above in the travel notes, pretty much the entire day is spent traveling from one city to the next. Hotel Monsieur Aristide is in Montmartre - a lively section of Paris with Sacre-Coeur and a vibrant nightlife. The hotel has possibly the tiniest elevator in the world, and the rooms are what one should expect in Europe (tiny). But the retro vibe (actual keys to the doors that you had to turn into reception every time you left the hotel), vintage market finds, and friendly staff more than make up for any perceived negatives.

Day 7- Literary & Pastry Tour

We are exhausted, but what an amazing day!

We started the day by getting reacquainted with the Paris Metro. Yes, you can take an Uber/taxi almost anywhere in the world now, but there is nothing like navigating the Paris Metro. With the right apps, it’s easy to figure out your route and pay the fees plus you have the added benefit of being with Parisians (and tourists) in the thick of humanity. 

We had a literary and pastry tour scheduled for 3:30 PM so we headed down early to the Musée d’Orsay. We’ve been here before but we will probably always visit this museum every time we come to Paris because, while not as large as the Louvre, you cannot see it all in one visit. We had lunch at the café there and then strolled along the Seine before making our way to the meetup for the tour.

The Literary & Pastry Tour with Patricia was fantastic! I expected the guide to cover Hugo, Dumas, and some of the other authors that Americans are familiar with — but she really went deep into the architecture of the area, the timeline of gastronomy before and after the French Revolution, and life/writings of Balzac. Four hours later, we ended up at the Balzac museum. Again, I highly recommend this tour to lovers of literature, pastry, and history.

**If you've seen the 2022 BBC Marie Antoinette mini-series, this tour takes you by the home of Marie-Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe who was beheaded during the French Revolution. The home has been the Turkish Embassy in Paris since 1946

Day 8 - Jewish Quarter Food, Culture & History Tour

Today was our final scheduled  tour: Jewish Quarter Food, Culture, & History Tour. We met in the Le Marais section of Paris and began the tour. Patricia's knowledge and love of history again brought the area to life, but I started to feel bad so she had to rush through it. In the end, we saw the highlights, but had to rush back to the hotel.

Day 9 - ILL

I suspect my illness was caused by food poisoning (I was suspicious of something I ate on the first night in Paris), but - honestly - there are a plethora of suspects: we were in/out of very public places, holding onto handrails up/down Metro tunnels, etc. While I had (and used hand sanitizer), it could have been anything. So while I convalesced in the hotel room, I insisted that Keith get out and explore Montmartre  area.

Day 10 - Still ILL

I felt well enough to take a taxi to the Jardins des Tuileries and sit in the sun for a bit. [Since "Fuck the Sun" is quite literally my tagline, you KNOW how sick I was.] Afterwards I took a taxi back to the hotel so that Keith could explore the Louvre. As you can see from the photos below, this time he concentrated on the actual architecture of building instead of the art. Again, I think we could visit the Louvre every year of our lives and still not appreciate all it has to offer.

Home

The flight home (9 hours direct) seems to get longer and longer with every jaunt to Europe. I truly envy people who can immediately fall asleep on a plane. As for me, it was 9 hours of reading books, working logic puzzles, watching movies, and trying to get up every 2 hours and walk around.

All-in-all, it's always great to walk back into our own home.