Prague Gardens

The gardens in Prague are part of its glory, in my humble opinion. Additionally, in the past few weeks, I've heard more than one non-Czech, East European say that the gardens in Prague are wonderful. So, since spring sprung about 2 months ago, I've been enjoying the variety of gardens we have here.
Formal gardens
I have always liked the Prague Castle gardens, enjoying the views of the city.

I've always loved this tree, which reminds me of the wisteria we have at home.

More recently I've discovered the Wallenstein or Wallenštejn gardens in Malá Strana. I had seen it from the Castle for years but never knew how to get there, until Kari showed me on Easter :)

There are peacocks!

I'm still finding other formal gardens hidden around the city.

Other gardens
Then there are those that are not formal so much but definite green space, like Petřín hill, where we went for a picnic on Easter Monday. I've spent hours walking around that hill finding surprises around corners like this door that leads to another garden...


...or wandering around on a snowy day...One of my favorite places is Vyšehrad. I don't consider this a formal garden because it's not sculptured, etc but it's peaceful greenspace...

Beer gardens
However, my favorite type of garden is of the beer variety. Once the weather gets warm, and you see the cafes and restaurants putting out their outside tables you know that the beer gardens will open soon. For years, I had heard of the beer garden at Letná park. I finally went there a few weeks ago and was kind of let down. While it does have the promised view, the atmosphere is a little quiet...

...other than when my friends are there that is :)

Another good one is at Vyšehrad, but I don't seem to have a picture of that. When I had been before, they had a big grill going that had some amazing grilled goodies and we talked with some really nice people who wanted to try out their english :)

My favorite, so far, is Riegrovy Sady. I've been there a few times and really enjoyed the atmosphere.
Lots of people, food, beer, a big screen tv that shows sporting events...basically, an outside bar. And, as in other pubs around here, people will bring their children...
So, it wasn't so surprising that I had a good time one Sunday afternoon, sitting in the shade, drinking good beer, having good conversation with this group:

I think I might have finally found a type of gardening that I'm actually good at!