All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Ground Pic

Christmas Day in Prague - with brewpubs, mulled wine, local beers and football ground geekery on the agenda.

Christmas market in the Old Town Square.

So, what sort of a fool would spend Christmas morning catching a metro and tram to the suburbs, then walking up a hill, just to look at a football ground?
Oh, that'll be me.
Dukla Prague are immortalised for indie music fans of a certain era, thanks to the Half Man Half Biscuit b-side "All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit".
Just a picture at their Stadion Juliska would do me.

The sort of idiot that would drag you away from the delights of a historic
city centre to look at a second division football ground.

Okay, so it would have been good to make it here to actually see a match, but at least the security man was kind enough to wave a geeky football ground fan past and we could actually see the stadium. 
There have been past 'incidents' of walking a couple of miles to look at the dull brick wall of a stand and a glimpse of a floodlight over some rooftops.

What we needed next was a non-Christmassy Christmas dinner...
For this we travelled back to the historic centre and made our way to a street-corner brewery and restaurant in the Old Town, U Tři Růži.

Waited a painful amount of time to get this shot with no-one standing right in front of U Tři Růži.

U Tři Růži (Husova 232/10 - web)

Located in a house dating back to the 15th century, the ground floor houses a 10-hectolitre brewery in the corner.

The walls are characterfully painted by artists Jiří Bernard and Pavel Jakl with pictures depicting Czech brewing and the history of the house.

I guess you don't get to drink with the locals in a spot like this - we bagged the last available table between a cheery Japanese group and some Spanish girls who spent a good ten minutes counting out an enormous stack of coinage to pay their bill.

Alongside our food, we had a Christmas Weiss beer - nice enough but with nothing to justify adding 'Christmas' to the name. 
Much better was the tasty 'Monastic Special of St Giles No.4' a 7.2% ABV Belgian dubbel style ale which went down a treat.

Leaving the brewery we took a leisurely route (ie. I got a bit lost) through picturesque streets until we reached another brew pub that we knew would be open today. 

Pivovarský Dům (Lípová 511/15 12 - web)
This was, quite frankly, a dull disappointment.
The front room of the pub, with seating next to the brewing equipment, looked nice, but with no space there we were directed through to a soulless rear room, where the tables were too close together and service came with a scowl.
150czk (roughly £5) brought us a sample tray of 8 different beers. 

Wheel of Beer.

But over half of these beers could be instantly dismissed, with the small measure being more than enough.  Thumbs down for the Green Nettle Ale.  And I'm guessing the fruit beers were made by adding flavourings to a pale lager base, which gave them a novelty feel.  The only one that I would have been inclined to order more of was 'Štěpan' - the traditional Czech pilsner.

By this point, we were beginning to realise that the craft bars were much more reliable that brew pubs, but we had another brewpub on our itinerary.  Never divert from the itinerary.

To get to this we caught the Metro southwards to Vyšehrad, then walked around 10 minutes.

Pivovar Bašta (Táborská 389/49)
Somewhat away from the tourist masses, Bašta was a small neighbourhood brewery, nicely decorated with wood panelling with an upper ledge displaying steins, beer bottles and other assorted bits and bobs.
Late afternoon, they were only using the tables closest to the bar, but to the side were two characterful rooms in traditional Czech hostelry style.

Nice window.

When we first sat down we figured someone had brought a child making the most terrible noises, only to discover a mynah bird on the staircase to the basement, making it's presence known.
There were just a couple of beers on the menu, with their seasonal offering sold out, so I opted for the 'Svĕtly Kroužkův Ležák 12°', a 5% ABV pilsner - quite drinkable, without being overly exciting.

Not a real man

It was less than a five-minute walk from Pivovar Bašta to a highly-rated beer bar which was due to open at 5pm.

Zlý časy (Čestmírova 390/5 - web)
This proved to be a wonderful basic bar.  No blackboard or modern screen, just a solitary leather bound beer menu which was passed around the tables.
Apparently you can get some unusual Czech beers here, although with just a few days in the city I was none the wiser to what was an unusual find and what wasn't. 
I picked the Beskydský Pivovárek 'Winter IPA', because I wanted to see what a winter IPA was.  And I'm still not sure.

Beers at the pleasant Zlý časy bar, Prague.

From Zlý časy we elected to make the 30-minute walk back to the centre of town, making it to Wenceslas Square which was busy with throngs of people around the Christmas market stalls. Our Christmas Day ended with hands cupped around beakers of mulled wine, the national museum spectacularly lit up at the end of the avenue on a mild Prague evening.
Beats sitting at home on the sofa watching Ice Age 3 and the Eastenders special, I reckon!