Chocolate shops and cafés in Prague, travel stories part 3

Choco Café

I already told you about the chocolate museum in Prague, but there are a few other places that deserve to be mentioned. The city has many chocolate shops, one more tempting than the other. Unfortunately, we could not possibly visit them all, but we did stop by in a few.

One was a fairly small shop where we bought a nice selection of hand-made pralines. All of these were just heavenly, but my favourite was perhaps the ”Cleopatra”, a milk chocolate with a luscious caramel filling. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the name of the shop!

I have already told you about the amazing chocolate museum, or Chocolate Story, and mentioned the chocolate shop downstrairs. It is a huge shop, which sells not only chocolate but also marzipan, fudge, other goodies and... beer. There's also a café where you can enjoy waffles (with chocolate, naturally), fruit skewers covered in chocolate, chocolate mousses and so on. The only problem was that with such a wide selection, it was very difficult, almost impossible, to choose what to buy! We had limited space in our luggage, after all...

Before our trip, I had discovered that there was a café called Choco Café in Prague. I never make detailed travel plans, but I'll admit that this place was on my ”would be nice to visit” list. And my DH chivalrously located the place on a map and navigated the narrow streets of the old town to get us there (I could get lost in a hot chocolate cup, so wherever we go, I depend entirely on his sense of direction). And it was a lovely place! The interior is cosy, with mismatched tables and chairs (some of them big, plush, inviting armchairs), chandeliers and vintage posters. In addition to cakes, pies, hot chocolate, home-made lemonade etc. you can buy chocolates – there's a selection of pralines and quite a nice collection of chocolate bars. And, to our amazement, there's also a sort of chocolate fountain, or a chocolate tap, from which molten chocolate runs continuously...

I am somewhat ashamed to admit this, but we actually visited this café three times. It was that good! The hot chocolates were so thick you could almost eat them with a spoon (we did). And there was such a selection of delicious looking cakes it made me despair for I wanted to taste them all! Luckily, my family enjoys sharing, so what we'd do is pick two or three cakes, order a slice of each, and share them. The tiramisu was tasty, as was a chocolate nougat cake, but then, I'm also a big fan of cheesecakes and they had several silky smooth, creamy ones topped with berries... If I absolutely had to choose a favourite, I might pick the chocolate cheesecake, but only because, well, chocolate and cheesecake in one!

Now, it sounds like we ate nothing but chocolate and cake during our visit, but that's not true. Among other places, we happened upon one of the best Indian restaurants we've ever visited, a place called Indian Jewel. This is where we had my birthday dinner. As far as culinary experiences go, I'm afraid we pretty much skipped the traditional Czech cuisine – unless you count hot mead. It being February, we found that a cup of hot mead was just the thing when you've spent hours and hours walking around.

Chocolate Story – chocolate museum in Prague, travel stories part 2

The gates of heaven

A few days ago I wrote about some book-related experiences in Prague. Now I'll continue with another favourite topic: chocolate!

I must start with the visit to the chocolate museum... yes, that's right, a museum dedicated to chocolate! I'll admit that I didn't know about this museum when we planned our trip or even when we arrived – it was one of those things we discovered unexpectedly. One night, we were walking along the streets of this beautiful city, and I saw a sign that said ”Chocolate Story” … that called for some investigation, and the place turned out to be a chocolate museum! That was, of course, something we had to see.

The museum isn't very big, but the exhibition features many fascinating objects and a great deal of information. You learn about the history of chocolate, health benefits of eating chocolate, how cocoa is grown and harvested, and so on. You can watch a couple of videos about how chocolate is made, and you can even observe a live demonstration of praline making – which includes a tasting of the finished product! We happened to be the only people watching the demonstration, which meant we could observe the process up close. I can only admire the skill of the chocolatier. He made it all look so easy!

When the pralines were finished, we got to sample them. These particular specimen were milk chocolate pralines filled with hazelnut nougat, and I have to say, it was delectable. It was one of the best chocolates I have ever tasted! (We have pictures of me eating the chocolate, but the look on my face is simply too lascivious for those pictures to be shared.) We were also offered an opportunity to try making our own chocolate, but although I was tempted, I refused (I am infamously clumsy and messing around with molten chocolate in the museum kitchen just didn't seem like a wise idea).

In addition, the museum features numerous interesting artefacts, among them chocolate cups and vessels for making hot chocolate, from ancient clay cups of the Aztecs to the later, decorative European versions.

A chocolate cup for a moustached man!

In addition, there are chocolate wrappings and chocolate boxes...

A book-shaped chocolate box!

...and a huge, and I mean huge, chocolate fall (that's like a waterfall but what falls isn't water but molten chocolate).

Why, oh why did they put that glass there?!?

After touring the museum – we stayed well over an hour, it was so fascinating – we visited the museum shop and bought a couple of chocolate bars, which, we assumed, were flavoured to resemble the oldest chocolate (the kind you drink) recipes from the Aztecs and the Spaniards, respectively. There is also another, larger shop on the same premises, but more about that later.

If you're a chocolate lover and are planning to visit Prague, I heartily recommend including a visit to the chocolate museum in your itinerary!

A handy chart for describing the aromas of chocolate

Books in Prague, travel stories part 1

During the winter holiday I visited Prague for the first time. The trip was also my birthday gift, but we picked the destination together with my DH. We wanted something that was not too far away from Finland (long flights with a mercurial six-year-old are not exactly a relaxing way to start and end a holiday), that was fairly affordable, and where there'd be something interesting to see and do. I must say we picked the perfect place! I had heard that Prague is a beautiful city, but I had no idea just how stunning it is. Old buildings, narrow streets, bridges spanning the river... we spent most of the time just wandering around the old town because we simply couldn't stop – behind every corner, there was something beautiful to see!

We never make detailed travel plans, but we often have a ”might be nice to see” list. This usually contains some of the ”must-see” sights, especially if they've something to do with history, literature/books, or chocolate.

I had heard that the Prague city library boasts an interesting piece of art – a tower all made of books! That sounded like something worth seeing. So there we were, outside the library, when it opened its doors on Saturday morning. The book tower was impressive – not only is it a big pile of books, there are also mirrors placed cunningly inside the tower so that when you look inside, it appears to go on infinitely. And the best part was, there just happened to be a group of musicians dressed in what looked like traditional costumes performing what we assumed were folk songs in the library lobby, right in front of the book tower! We went in looking for one art experience but got two!

The second book-related attraction was something we'd not even heard of and discovered quite by accident. We took a taxi to the Prague Castle area, and the taxi driver asked us if we'd rather go higher up the hill, to visit a monastery there – it's a short walk down to the castle from the monastery and the view is just stunning. He mentioned that there's a library with beautiful old books and manuscripts... and that settled it!

For me, Strahov Monastery, or rather, its library, was one of the highlights of the entire trip. There were beautiful old tomes and ancient manuscripts – the kind that look just magical. I can't imagine how much patience and painstaking work it must have taken to not only write them but to make the beautiful illustrations! They were amazing.

And there were two library rooms straight from a book lover's dream. Just look at those shelves – they were packed with books, it wasn't just one row, it was at least two. And the old globes with their maps, the frescoes on the ceilings, the respectful silence, the scent of old books... There was no access into these two rooms, which was a pity but perfectly understandable (I suspect you had to book a tour and we hadn't prepared for that), and I was content just stading there and looking in. It was quiet and peaceful, I could have stayed there forever.

If you love books and if you find yourself in Prague one day, don't miss the libraries!