Our second day in Prague was a productive one as we started the day visiting the NYU Campus in the Old Town section of Prague. I have to say one thing, the person who invested in real estate for NYU to create the campus was very forward thinking. They knew the neighborhoods to buy in and how trendy they would become. The dorms were in the “Williamsburg” section of Prague that I could see would be a neighborhood of the future as it was in the second stages of becoming ‘hipster’ and the classrooms are right in the middle of the historical section of the city.
Leaving the dorms early in the second morning in Prague.
Breakfast at Osada
My review on TripAdvisor:
I could not make up my mind with the pastries the second morning for either the fresh Apricot Cake or the Cream Cake so I had them both. God, the desserts here for breakfast are the best. Everything is made from scratch and made on premise and was still warm when they served it in the morning. I loved coming here for breakfast in the mornings. The courtyard was the best place to eat when the weather was nice.
The Apricot Cake
The pastries and baked goods here are excellent
The Cream Cake at Osada in our dorm complex
After another quick breakfast at the campus, off we went to visit the NYU Campus in Old Town Prague for the morning. We got an early start, so the cable cars were quiet that morning when we took the trip into the heart of Prague.
We arrived at the heart of “Old Town” Prague for a day of touring the main campus, having a meeting with the head of Prague City Tourism, Michel Drobik and then a tour of “Old Town” Prague with a visit to the famous “Astronomical Clock” and then a lecture and lunch at the new Manifesto Market with Senior Marketing Manager, Marc Felton. So, we had a full morning and afternoon planned for our tourism class.
The Prague Cultural Center
The detail of the Prague Cultural Center
The entrance to the Old City next to the Cultural Center
It was a quiet walk through this part of the city this early in the morning. I swear that we were the only people walking around this part of the city. It was like it had not woken up yet. It was like walking in Manhattan in the morning before everyone gets up for work. We had the whole city to ourselves. The restaurants were setting up their outside cafes so we got to see how the city comes to life and prepare itself for the day.
The unusual sculpture in the Old Town district
Old Town architecture
The architecture and decorations on the buildings were breathtaking. The pictures I took did not do this part of the city justice as there were so many beautiful embellishments all over this neighborhood.
The Golden Angel sculpture in Old Town
Old Town Square by the NYU Campus
Town Square by NYU set for lunch time
Town Square by the NYU entrance to campus
The NYU Campus building in Old Town Prague
The beautifully painted ceilings of the NYU Building are from Medieval times.
Waiting for the Astrology Clock performance that is on every hour on the hour.
Our group in front of the Astrology Clock
The Astrology Clock right before the 10:00am performance that has been happening for 600 years in the city of Prague.
The video of the clock performing:
After seeing the clock display, we met our tour guide for the afternoon, and she took us on a tour of Old City Hall and then we toured the Astrology Clock from the inside. That was a really interesting tour.
Old City Hall
Old City Hall Seal of the City
Doorway at Old City Hall
Touring Old City Hall with our tour guide
Old City Hall tour
The City Crest
The Old City Hall ceiling
We were then off to tour the Astrology Clock Tower and learn all of its secrets. Some of my classmates took the elevator but the rest of the took the stairs and really explored the tower. I thought the stairs really gave you a birds eye view of the tower and it’s inner workings.
My classmate climbing the stairs up to the tower at the Astronomy Tower
Climbing the stairs at the Astrology Tower
Climbing the stairs at the Astrology Tower
The 600-year-old religious figures at the clock tower
I thought it was fascinating to see the puppets of the saints that moved around. I could not believe these were 600 hundred years old and still worked perfectly. They told us on the tour they have the clock maintained by a master clocksmith who knows the clock well.
The stained-glass windows at the Astrology Tower
Me at the top of the tower
The view from the Astrology Tower
The view of the people at the Astrology Tower
View from the Astrology Tower
After the tour at Old City Hall and at the Astrology Tower, we met with the head of tourism for the city of Prague. He gave a us a presentation on the direction of how Prague wants to see themselves to the outside tourist. I thought they could have done a better job with the presentation because I did not think it showcased it that well.
It could have had more pictures and a better game plan on how to move tourists around the city. There was so much more to see than just Old Town and the Astrology Clock building. They are wonderful but I experienced so much more without even knowing the city.
Our class with Mr. Michel Drobik from the Prague City Tourism Board
Our Group shot with the speaker
I thought the one thing the city was lacking was promoting the city as a whole not just the touristy areas of the city. There are so many great neighborhoods with places to shop and eat and things to do that foreign tourists would like to see. People sometimes want to ‘live among the locals’ and see a city firsthand.
We had been lucky that day in that we got to the clock tower and Old Town early so there were not so many tourists but later on it was elbow to elbow. When we visited the obscure parts of the city with our tour guide, Jana, she took us to regular neighborhoods where the locals live and there was so much to see and do there as well. I think there is more of the city people would want to see and that would become the theme of our final project.
We took another group shot in Old Town before we left for the Manifesto Market
We left the center part of the tourist area after the lecture and talk for a tour and lunch at the Manifesto Market Andel, a gourmet sustainable grouping of restaurants in a market like setting. I have seen concepts lie this in Brooklyn where a grouping of ‘hipster like’ restaurants with seating and really nice visuals like fountains and pools with gardens is the focal point of the visit.
We met with the Senior Marketing Manager who explained the concept to us. After lunch I discovered that the Google and Pfizer headquarters were just down the street near the cable car station so I understood why it was located here.
The Manifesto Market Andel entrance
https://www.manifestomarket.com/prague/andel/en/
My review on TripAdvisor:
The inside eating area of Manifesto Market Andel with lounge chairs and pool with fountain
The Senior Marketing Manager talked with our group about the restaurants that they choose for the market complex, the sustainability practices that everyone has and the shared services that the market provides to all of its clients.
Senior Marketing Manager Marc Felton explaining how the Manifesto Market works and the restaurants and services that it provides to the community.
After the talk was over, we all had lunch at the market. I chose to go to Dirty Dog Barbecue, an American barbecue restaurant inside the complex. I had not had good barbecue in awhile and they had a dish called “Triple Sliders”, which was a barbecue pork slider, a hamburger slider and a fried chicken sandwich slider. The food was really good and the place filled up for lunch with a twentyish crowd of customers.
Ordering a slider combination for lunch at Dirty Dog Barbecue
Home
My review on TripAdvisor:
The triple sliders at Dirty Dog Barbecue
The weather really cooperated that afternoon and it was a clear, blue sky sunny day. It was perfect for eating outside. The only thing about the Market concept that a lot of us questioned is what do they do when it rains or when the cold weather comes. There is no way to cover the complex and there is no proper roof to cover the restaurants. I am not sure how they have worked this out.
When lunch was over, we had the rest of the day to ourselves and everyone dispersed and made their own plans. Our tour guide let me know that the cable cars were just down the street and I could pick them up to head back downtown again. After I finished my lunch, I walked down the street and discovered why the Manifesto Market complex would work so well in this neighborhood.
I passed the modern complex building of several American companies and right at the end of the block was an American style mall right down to the third floor food court that was larger than anything I had seen in the United States lately.
The Google headquarters was a block down from the market
The modern four story Westfield partnered mall at the end of the block.
I felt like I had entered a modern American zone of the city. I decided that since I had some time I wanted to walk into the mall and see what the difference was between this mall and the ones at home. I felt like I had been transported back to Paramus, NJ. It felt so much like home down the people shopping there were dressed like everyone in America. They just spoke a different language and with the diversity now in New Jersey of residents, it was not far off Garden State Plaza near my home.
The food court on the fourth floor was amazing. They had restaurants that I had never heard of before serving all sorts of casual food both in their seating areas and the large communal seating area in the middle of the floor. Who was the most busy? The large McDonald’s both inside the food court and in the first floor outside cafe. I felt like I was home. I have to say one thing is that if I ever move here for school or business, I will never feel homesick.
After I walked the mall and walked around the neighborhood for a bit, with its modern skyscrapers and Americanized businesses, I took the cable car back to Old Town to take a longer tour of the city. I retraced my steps and walked back to the Astronomy Tower which was packed with people later in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, the entire Old Town district was filled with tourists one on top of another.
I watched the clock tower perform again and then took an extensive walk around the entire part of Old Town, touring all the nooks and crannies of the side streets and then walking around “Paris”, a street of fancier designed buildings that housed all the exclusive stores from Paris and New York. Between the architecture and the stores and just coming from Paris, it did look like a Parisian street on the right bank.
Passing the old Opera House
After walking around the city for the rest of the afternoon, I decided to head back to campus. I was not sure what cable car to take and then looked at the map that I had and I decided to walk back to campus and explore the city. That was fun. I did it all at my own pace and stopped where I wanted to stop.
The Old Town Square
Crossing the bridge into the older part of the city
Creative bars at the riverfront
How these tunnels have been reused as bars
The Tunnel bars
The Riverfront from the bridge
Looking from all sides of the Prague riverfront
The statuary by the riverfront in a little park
It was a wonderful way to explore the city. I walked at my own pace and walked down roads and through small parks. I was able to peek into the windows of stores and restaurants taking mental notes when I might be able to come back.
I got to admire beautiful architecture, make detours on the road and just followed my Google Map on my phone that took me things marked on the map. The city seemed quiet that afternoon so I had the sidewalks to myself. It was a interesting walk through the city as I got to explore both the old and new sections of the city and then took a second bridge to the other side of the city back to campus. I must have walked over five miles back to the “Williamsburg” section of the city to the NYU dorms.
Passing artwork in our neighborhood
Passing interesting street art in our neighborhood.
When I came back to our section of the city, I realized how close everything was and the walk was not bad at all. I really got to see parts of the city that tourists usually don’t see or just pass on a bus. I also got to explore more if our part of the city. We really had a unique neighborhood.
The artwork on the buildings
After a long rest in my room, I headed off to dinner at a Chinese restaurant around the corner from our dorm. The neighborhood had some interesting Asian restaurants and I wanted to try a lot of them before we left. We would only have two nights free but I got to try some of the neighborhood spots that I had passed when touring.
Xing Wang Cinska Restaurace at Ulkomunardo 13
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=179136336308881
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Hunan Chicken with White Rice at Xing Wang was really good.
I was really surprised with dinner. The food was really good but it reminded me more of Americanized Chinese food than something really authentic. I think the concept of Americanized Chinese food is spreading around the globe. Even so, the Hot & Sour Soup was really good and had a nice fire to it from the chiles in the soup. The Hunan Chicken with white rice was also delicious. The service was so friendly too and the owners spoke perfect English which made ordering easier.
After a nice dinner, I walked around the neighborhood again and admired all the buildings and parks. NYU really picked a great neighborhood to put the dorms. It really was a great day of exploring the city and seeing how it has so much to offer not just to tourists but to locals as well.
I see a lot of potential in tourism here.
mywalkinmanhattan 