Prague Celebrations

This weekend I celebrated Kristy's 28th birthday in the home of Good King Wenceslas - Prague - together with some of her friends.

On Saturday the six of us walked for hours around the city taking in all the sights - the old town square with the amazing astronomical clock and the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, the Jewish quarter, the Charles Bridge (lined with artists, tourists and buskers playing jazz), both of the St Nicholas churches (maybe a little OTT with the gold leaf) and the Prague castle. Fabulous baroque architecture - loved the scraffiti on the buildings and the unique house signs. And of course, the cobble stone streets and endless red rooves were gorgeous. The fascination of the Austro-Hungarians with astronomy is interesting. David, we walked through Klementinum, previously a Jesuit university - the order at one point almost controlled education in the city. With the country's independence, this part of the culture seems much more at the forefront than blight of communism - possibly with the helping hand of the tourist.

[This marks the moment we took out of our visit to the Czech Republic to watch the England / Portugal game in a bar full of English folk. Oddly a very quiet bar by the end of the match.]

On Sunday we headed off on a day trip to Cesky Krumlov, a unesco world heritage listed area. The early morning sprint to the bus station and 3 hour trip there was definitely worth missing the sleep-in and breakfast for. The town was delightful. The castle - one of the Hapsburgs' - sits on a hill overlooking the town. More meandering cobble stone streets lined with old (really old) homes and shops. The main square reminded me of the scene from Chocolat with the church and statue watching over the people and their daily movements.

Food & drink notes: plenty of ice cream stands, Czech honey pie is tasty, local Staropramen beer isn't a bad drop, don't think I'll be getting into the goulash and dumplings though.

It was a whirlwind taste of the city and quite exhausting but it was my first visit to this part of the world and I am hooked. On my next visit I will fit in some jazz and Mozart. When are we going to Vienna Elaine? And Budapest is moving up the list very quickly!