Our search for the John and George Cafe led us to Campanulla – a Tonino Lamborghini restaurant. Goodness, the food in this place is just soooooo good.
Do click and check —> Campanulla in goodfoodhunt
Charles Bridge and the search for John and George Café
Atsushi and I tried as much as possible to have our lunch and dinner (and sometimes snacks besides) in the restaurants which were highly recommended by Rick Steves in his “Best of Europe 2010” guidebook. Hence whenever lunchtime or dinnertime found us in a particular area, I immediately leaf through the book and check for a recommended restaurant near the area.
Dinner time on our first full day in Praha found us in the famous Charles Bridge (Karlûv most), erected back in 1357. Yep, back in the 14th century. The bridge was named after Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV who was crowned King of Bohemia and Count of Luxemburg on the same year the bridge was constructed.
One of our takes on Charles Bridge albeit it didn’t do justice on the bridge’s beauty. Took this photo of the Charles Bridge the following morning, on the bridge running parallel with Charles Bridge which is much less grander than Charles.
We crossed the bridge from the Old Town side on to the Little or Lesser Quarter which I presume was named “lesser” because it was right below the much grander Castle Quarter. The square right beneath Karluv Most which is part of the Lesser Quarter was pretty nice though. I wouldn’t call it “lesser” at all.
Since we were in the Little Quarter area, there was only one restaurant I was so intent on eating in – The John and George Café which was (as described in the book) in a little alley right beside the Lennon Wall. So off we went a-hunting for the Lennon Wall.
Of course, when on a trip, even when you have a destination in mind, you should take some time to “smell the flowers” as they say. After all, you went on a trip for sightseeing, right?
This here is the Charles Bridge’ tower on the Little Quarter side.
Charming. That’s the best word that would describe Bohemia.
Took one of our numerous A&M feet shots.
It took longer than expected to find the John Lennon Wall. Lost. And we were brave enough to go to where nobody else wanted to go.
A word to fellow tourist. When you see this poster, you’ll know you’re on the right track.
It’s a harbinger yes for we found ze wall.
This graffiti wall came to be the day John Lennon died. Fans comforted each other in this quiet side of the town and expressed their grief by writing on the wall. Remember, this was 1980 when Czechoslovakia was still under Communist Regime. The authorities would paint the wall clean only to be repainted with new graffiti the following day. It’s still there now so One can easily guess who won. Nowadays though it’s more for the younger generation’s expression for love and peace.
Whew! This came in longer than expected!
Up in next post, the John and George Café filler.
new neighbor, more Ziploc
A new neighbor is building a house nearby hence us neighbors got in our mailboxes some sort of construction schedule from the (we suppose) builders of the house – Asahi Kasei.
The owner’s name and exact address of the house was indicated on the flyer. Construction milestones for the next few months were also shown in that I can just imagine the excitement the owner-family has with even just looking at this milestone forecast. And really, Japanese houses get finished in no time at all; only six months based on this plan. Six months of building built-for-earthquake, built-for-winter house. Amazing, especially if you compare it to how fast, or rather how slow, houses are built in Pinas. Mind you though, these houses doesn’t come cheap. Around our area, you need around 60million yen for your house. And that’s just the house. It’s sans interior stuff pa.
Anyways, true to the considerate nature of the Japanese, included in this pamphlet is a notice that should we have questions or complaints as they build in the area, we shouldn’t hesitate to contact Asahi Kasei.
It came with a packet of ziploc which I am happy to get for free.
This is actually our second time to receive this; the first being a couple of days just before we flew to Europe. The packet arrived just in time. They proved really helpful as keepers for toiletries that might later get wet and messy.
Hopefully though, someday, our surname would be in that flyer.
Campanulla
A note: This is a continuation of my Charles Bridge and the search for John and George Café post in our atsushiandmarjorie.wordpress.com blog.
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So we found the Lennon Wall. But there were only two restaurants in site. I figure John and George Café would be a bit modern.
But this one is very Czech, complete with duck and Pork knee entree (the conversion rate is pretty good though).
And the other is this.
This cafe’s summer garden points to the very same spot that was described as the location of John and George Cafe – by a small alley just right beside the Lennon Wall. Hungry and not up for pork knee, we decided to try Campanulla instead, hoping that John and George had changed their name to Campanulla. A number of people were already seated in the summer Café and it wasn’t really summer already. It was actually cold what with autumn in full gear. And it was getting dark by the minute so we really couldn’t enjoy the garden much anymore. Hence we decided to eat inside instead. Took a few shots of the garden.
I later learned that Ludwig van Beethoven himself likes to hang around this garden.
Although we missed the chance to lounge in a place where a famous composer used to hang around, we still loved (and preferred) to stay inside the cozy Cafe. My guess is that this is a Tonino Lamborghini restaurant.
Photos of famous personalities who used to hang around the place (?) were on display.
I love G12’s shots on the place that I’m posting the shots I took inside the cafe unedited save for the watermark. The places we went to were really beautiful and breathtaking. Yet this shot is one of my favorites.
This is Italian yes. There are lots of stuff in the place that suggests the place is Italian actually. Really good juice.
The bread that’s on the house was really good too.
Curiously, the smell of salami followed me everywhere we go in Praha hence I didn’t order for a pork dish anymore. Ordered a salmon even when I had salmon already the day before.
I tasted Atsushi’s pork before eating my fish and the moment I ate it, I regretted not ordering pork. The meat tasted so flavorful my mouth waters now at the memory of it. Pork tenderloin with green pepper sauce.
When I tasted my salmon though, I got happy I didn’t make the wrong decision after all. Salmon was cooked just right. I ate three salmon dishes during our Praha visit and this salmon is the best one I had. And it’s easily one of the best salmon I’ve ever had. A far cry from the salmon in El Nido even. Grilled salmon with chipotle sauce, cream, butter, onions and chipotle chilies.
The tourists.
Of course we capped our meal with dessert – apricot crumble cake.
Had it with uber rich hot orange chocolate drink that was just simply marvelous.
I wanted to have our anniversary dinner here again, the following evening, but of course we had to try out other Czech restaurants to have more experience with the place.
But if ever I’ll be back in Praha, I’d surely eat here again. And again.
welcome to Vienna!
It is said that you’d be welcomed by the smell of the country you’re visiting the moment you got off the plane. I certainly loved Vienna’s welcoming smell when we got off the plane – it’s that of a good smelling soap. This smell lingered the whole time we stayed in Vienna making Vienna my favorite city among the cities we’ve been to in this trip.
Welcome, travelers!
The site of a fellow’s advertisement was a welcome for us indeed.
The luggage carts need euro coins though for them to be usable.
Vienna’s airport was better than Rome’s albeit it was just simple enough.
As is the case with most airports, Vienna’s airport is a bit far from the city center. There are a number of ways to get to the city center but we opted to take the City Air Terminal train as it’s the fastest and reasonably priced way; you’re in the city center already in just 16 minutes or so.
The sight we’ve passed by reminded us of work.
And like how it was in Italy, there were also quite a lot of graffiti welcoming us.
Once we got into the city center, we had to transfer to another train (the s-bahn) to get to the station that’s only walking distance from our hotel. as we were transferring to s-bahn, we saw this movie poster of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood.
Atsushi purchasing train tickets. One thing amazing with Vienna’s public transportation. It runs on honesty system. There were no station gates checking if you’ve purchased a ticket with the right amount nor were there police waiting in the stations to catch dishonest passengers. No checks whatsoever at all in trains, trams and buses.
After the complexity of Tokyo’s train system, Vienna’s train system was no sweat at all.
This hotel’s backyard confronted us when we got off (the wrong side) of our station.
It looks pretty normal. But the backyard is actually full of nude people sunbathing.
Anyway, we didn’t go to Vienna for the nudists. We went to Vienna for this!
And you bet we’re excited!
flying Emirates
It’s our first time to fly Emirates and indeed it was a good experience.
Their good entertainment selection (with a hundred movies or so, alone) tested my EQ – I had to get as much sleep as I can so I can be ready for our hectic-scheduled sightseeing.
Thankfully though, they had their aircraft done in such a way that it’s very conducive for sleeping. Can’t identify a constellation at all though.
The long-haul flight I had before was with Cathay Pacific economy and our “amenities” were given in a cheap-looking pouch with toothbrush that has threads which can be stuck in between your teeth. No eye mask at all. Albeit Hubs’ long-haul flights with Cathay Pacific had him bringing home Agnes B. cosmetic pouch (sosyal! Business class kasi). For Emirates’ economy though, I’m fully satisfied with the quality of what they gave us.
The pouch came in very handy. We used it as our coin purse during our trip – one for euro and the other for czech crowns.
Our travel agent informed the airline they have honeymooners on board hence we were given a cake and a memorabilia with our onboard photo in it. Nice!
Sadly though, we weren’t able to eat our cake. We are truly thankful with this thoughtfulness especially the photo. But a word of advice to Emirates: maybe it’s best to give the honeymooners some travel sets or even the plush toys you give around to the kids on board (I sooo wanted one!) rather than cakes. Our cake was given to us around a couple of hours before touchdown, with a 14-hour flight, and after a full meal at that so naturally, we weren’t able to eat it on board. We carted it around with us but we were still due to fly to Vienna and right after arrival, we headed out for the Opera hence the cake was left untouched until we had to throw it away. Mottainai, sayang.
Speaking of meals though, meals on board The Emirates were among the most tasteful we’ve had among the flight meals we’ve had.
Atsushi, fully refreshed after a 14-hour flight and sleep.
The honeymooners, about to disembark.
Because we’re flying Emirates, of course we had to have a stopover in the airlines’ home country. Dubai’s Terminal 3 is one big looong hallway with futuristic design and palm trees that’s reminiscent of the desert. It was quite impressive albeit since the design is like that of a hallway and not circular as it is in Hongkong International Airport (which both Hubs and I consider as our favorite airport so far), it can be quite crowded in some areas, with some jostling besides.
We had coffee at Paul’s where almost all crew members were Filipinos.
We had to wait for 5 hours for our next flight to Vienna hence it was good chance for us to try as well the local delicacy. Had whole wheat squagel. It tasted really healthy and good albeit it would have had tasted better had it had a bit more salt.
Time to board the plane for Vienna! 🙂
