Trip Report: Rick Steves’ Prague Audio Walking Tour

I admit it, I’ve grown to appreciate Rick Steves over the year. In my earlier traveling days, I may have thought he seemed a little old and dorky but now…maybe that was a little harsh! I’ve found his online resources to be pretty comprehensive and the travel forum has some helpful advice and if someone seems a little off in the forum, don’t listen to them! In Prague, I followed his Prague audio city tour, which was great. Some of the main sights were highlighted and given historical context, while there were some lesser known detours that I never would have found on my own. So yes, I recommend giving it a try.

There are a few ways to access the tour. I downloaded it via podcast form and listened to it in the iPhone podcast app. You could also download the Rick Steves audio tour app, but I found that the list seemed incomplete relative to the webpage and podcast listing. It may have been an error on my part, but I went with what worked for me. There is also a link to the tour map, which was very helpful.

The tour starts in the New Town, in Wenceslas Square. There are a few corny Dad-jokes by Rick, but it provides a cool overview of some of the protests and political changes that have occurred with Wenceslas (Vaclav in Czech) Square as the main venue.

The Grand Hotel Europa is across from the Marks&Spencer where the large balcony was used by famous Prague resistance leaders to address the crowd during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

The walk guides you northwest “down” the square and it is really well-paced for a medium walking pace. The tour has you walk into the Lucerna arcade, which seems a little weird and random but it has it’s rewards: an ice cream shop (I wasn’t hungry but another time!), a Tesla radio window, and the upside-down statue of Wenceslas!

The tour then leads you to the Franciscan garden, which is a tranquil spot. It was a drizly day, but would be a perfect spot to hang out with an ice cream cone. There are sculptures in the garden, including the above creepy one of three cloaked, eyeless figures.

Then, you’re led back into the street towards the Municipal House, a gorgeous Art Nouveau event space/concert hall where the conference had its large party on Thursday. This is actually where I stopped the tour since I did it in two parts to fit the time I had.

The next day (Friday), I ditched the conference to tour Prague until my afternoon flight to Vienna. I went back to the Municipal House and walked towards the Old Town Square. Along the way, there were interesting buildings with varied architecture. The House of the Black Madonna is an excellent example of cubist architecture that has a cool staircase inside, which is the lead image for this post.

I thought the Old Town Square part of the audio tour was really well-done. They had a 360-spinning tour that was clearly explained and gave a lot of information in a short time. You start at the base of the Jan Hus memorial. Prague was under the control of different rulers/empires at difference times, with some accompanying Catholic/Protestant/local sect conflict and death. Jan Hus was a Protestant Hussite who protested against the Catholic Hapsburgs. He’s regarded as a Czech patriot and his gaze is on the golden Virgin Mary on the Catholic Church, which was made by melting down the Hus chalice. Full disclosure: I might not have the details exactly right, but I’m a fan of a statue’s pointedly directed stare! In the same square, but in a different section closer to the astronomer’s clock, there are 26 crosses marking the site where 26 Protestants were beheaded.

Now, beheadings might be out of vogue but going around the corner and staring at the Astronomer’s clock is cool. I wasn’t there for an on-the-hour display, but the different faces telling the time, sun position, date, etc are really neat. I also liked the Czech twist of having a clock that tells you which Saint’s name day it is. In Czechia, there are a limited (~8000) names that are allowed as first names and most are saint-related so you can have a name-day as well as a birthday, both of which are occasions for cake! In the picture above, the lower light blue clock with the golden, flower-like center is the name clock and the names are written in a radial direction on the light blue border.

The tour ends at the St. Charles Bridge and reviews the backstories of a few of the statues. One statue (not pictured) is rubbed for luck in making one wish, but you only get one in your lifetime! So, I’m saving it for when I’m back with SMS. The saint pictured above was the queen’s confessor who wouldn’t tell the King what she told him. So, the king threw him into the river and as soon as he hit the water, 5 stars appeared signaling the priest’s purity and uncorrupt nature. So, now his statues have very fetching 5 star crowns!

At the end of the bridge, I saw a heron in a tree. This was not part of the tour, but a nice end. I continued on my Prague walk, which I’ll detail in another post since this one focuses on the audio tour. Do I recommend it? Yes! It was about two hours, including pauses that were needed as I walked from one place to another. It was well-paced and made the city’s history accessible and provided a richer context to my delight in experiencing this beautiful city!