PRAGUE

The overnight train to Prague was pretty fun, I have to say. It was a nice luxury getting our own compartment, it would have been much tougher with a room full of other people, or sitting upright! We had bunkbeds with surprisingly soft linens, space for our luggage and even a tiny sink. The steward asked us which language we would prefer before giving us the details of the trip. It was great.

We arrived in Prague at 7am, which is not usually my favorite time of day, but in this case it was ideal. We carted our luggage about 2 miles to our hotel, dropped it off and headed to the Charles Bridge just a couple blocks away. It was one of the most significant landmarks of our trip but it was surprisingly quiet, so we took our time looking at each of the statues, and enjoying the views.

Eventually we crossed the bridge and started hiking up a large hill toward St. Vitus Cathedral. On the way we had breakfast, the most noteworthy meal in our visit to Czech Republic. I was delighted with my nutella and banana crepes, with pecans and a big pile of fresh raspberries!

We climbed the rest of the way to the castle hill, and the cathedral. It's one of the most spectacular examples of architecture I've ever seen, I was completely gobsmacked. The photos do it no justice. It was still fairly early, so we were able to see everything to our hearts' content before admiring the view over Prague, and heading back down.

As we crossed back over the Charles Bridge, we paid a small fee to climb a very old tower at one end, and had another good view of the city -- in all four directions. This is where I took the photo above.

We went back to the hotel for our first nap of the day, but not our last! Then we went to lunch, through the Old Town center, and to the Jewish Quarter. It didn't take long, and I was thankful because I was beginning to feel exhausted of my fellow tourists. It seems that Prague is a popular tourist destination for Europeans, and has expanded incredibly since Dave visited 10 years ago. Everywhere we went there was a tour guide waving a closed umbrella in the air, and a crowd of twenty following behind them, taking every shot their overworked little digital cameras could muster. As an inadvertent result of digital photography, everyone takes ten times as many photos, so everyone is accidentally stepping into each other's shot, and no one is really LOOKING at where they are! I was so exasperated that my camera was put away for most of my visit.

Anyway, we went back to the hotel for another catnap, then headed next door to an English pub -- Dave had suffered long enough without a ball game. A restaurant on the same block provided dinner. Finally we went back to the Charles Bridge for one last stroll while the sun set. Now the bridge was filled with artists and performers (and tourists taking pictures). It was fantastic.

On our way back to the hotel we witnessed a moment of comedy. The street and sidewalk were filled with pedestrians, and just in front of us a worker was rolling a wheelbarrow down the sidewalk. It was only a matter of time before he had to contend with a beggar who had set up shop. And instead of moving around him, he rolled right over the hat with money in it! Of course the beggar started screaming at him, and the worker just kept on moving, screaming back. We couldn't help but grin about it!

Prague was just beautiful to look at, the sights were great, and I'm sure there were lots of exciting things we missed. But with all our travel and all those (other) crazy tourists, it was the perfect last day of our trip. The next morning we grabbed a quick bite before heading to the airport, spent time in all the duty free shops in Prague -- and Heathrow -- before arriving home at 6pm the same day. Amazing, it was all just like clockwork. : )