Restaurant U Zlatych Nuzek

On a day of exploring Prague’s historic areas, we crossed from Old Town to the original town, Little Town, the settlement of squares and narrow streets at the foot of Hradcany—atop which sits the Imperial Castle and St. Basil Cathedral. The heights and the town are connected by a broad and gradual medieval staircase that gently winds down the hill.

We crossed the Charles Bridge, the first bridge over the Vltava, connecting Old Prague directly to Hradcany. Today it is a pedestrian walk, an arts bazaar…a place to listen to an interesting busker, sometimes a whole band.

In Hradcany we took an immediate turn down into the medieval town—and after making a Rubic’s Cube of turns among ancient buildings crossed a small bridge to Kampa, a thin strip of land that begins under the Charles Bridge and for three hundred meters or-so is an articial island in the Vltava.

Kampa is separated from the riverbank by a narrow waterway that was created as a millrace in the Twelfth Century, but island it is none-the-less.

At the bridge-end, to the right, Kamps is an centuries-old green park maintained to an English model. We needed replenishment and turned left onto Hroznova Na Kampe, a tree-lined square in the shadow of the Charles Bridge.

We’d walked a very jagged loop.

The square’s history dates to the Fifteenth Century—today it’s buildings are Renaissance and Baroque…behind the trees inviting and soothing as the park only meters away.

Almost all of the buildings on the square are hotels, their bars with tables on the walk.

We chose Restaurant U Zlatych Nuzek…probably because there were more diners outside than at the others on a sunny day with a chilly wind, even though all had heat lamps.

We were looking forward to a big dinner late in the evening at U Stareho Pivovaru and I ordered appropriately: The Pilsner was immensely refreshing and Klobasy was on the menu…Ah Ha! This is a more delicate, and trimmer, cousin to the Russian or Polish Kolbasa. The garlicky and thoroughly spiced pork sausage was scored and grilled to the bursting point.

Very good…and good patats frites, as well. A perfect stop.

(Note: Ezra and I took a roundabout route to the island intentionally. When crossing the Charles Bridge from the Old Town to the Lesser Town, about three-quarters of the length of the bridge, on the left there is a broad staircase going down to the Kampa square.