A Day In Prague

The previous night Trish and I had decided not to attend an optional river cruise after we had an 'included dinner' at the hotel so we did the city on our own. As I said below, the night was one of our highlights of the whole time we were away. The ride on the metro into the city centre was a story in itself. We had arrived in Europe at the time of "Euro 2008", a huge European soccer Championship. There were pre competition friendly matches going on and our train was full of jubilant Czech football supporters after their win over Scotland.

The loss did not seem to dampen the enjoyment of the Scottish supporters as they moved from bar to bar in the city of Prague throughout the night to drown their sorrows dressed in their kilts

Our one full day in Prague was to be full on and the temperature would get to about 30 degrees. Our bus took us on a tour of the city and then to Prague Castle. Now the castle is actually quite a collection of buildings, of cathedrals, office accommodation and former accommodation for the royal family. Sometimes there is also accommodation for groups such as the Royal Guard or the servants. So visiting a castle isn't always the same in each place you visit. Photos to the above left and the two below were taken at Prague Castle.

Prague Castle once housed the Royal Family. It seems each succeeding monarch decided to add a new building to the castle.

As you wander around the cobblestone squares inside the complex you wonder in awe at the stories the buildings you are seeing could tell.


We were then dropped off in the centre of Prague with 2 and a half hours to have a good look around this pretty city. It has magnificent squares and colorful buildings as you can see in the photo above. There is the famous clock (below) which people cluster below (see photo to the left) to catch a glimpse of the two figurines which appear on the chiming of the hour. There are numerous outdoor eateries and more souvenir shops than you can ever imagine. This was a place Trish had really been looking forward to seeing.

The warm weather made walking a little uncomfortable but we managed to walk quite a bit of the city. We were also disappointed in how local shopkeepers were always overcharging tourists. For example in a Prague souvenir shop a fridge magnet was AUD$10 (in London you would pay AUD$4) and a 500ml bottle of water was AUD$4.50. If you walked around the corner there was a drink vending machine which would sell you the same bottle of water for less than AUD$2. This blatant over pricing for tourist items did not endear us to Prague.

We arrived back at our hotel about 3:30 and Trish and I headed to the small outdoor bar across the road. Language was no problem when ordering today.

That night we attended an optional Czech dinner. There was plenty to eat and drink with some 'traditional dancing and music'. Only one other tour group was there so the evening was very enjoyable. I enjoyed plenty of Czech beer and wine. This is a photo of us enjoying the night with another of our group Barbara. Trish and I were keeping a lookout for Barbara at the request of her son. Barbara was travelling alone and keeping an eye for her was a fulltime job!

The next morning we were on our way again towards Budapest. On the way we passed through Slovakia and the city of Bratislava. This is a newly emerging ex communist country and the feeling around the city where we had a stop off was a little eerie. There were very few people about on the streets and I overheard some European Tourists complaining about the prices they were being charged for their beers, something we too had noticed for many touristy things.


As I have been a bit lazy in adding some posts lately, the post below is a 'new' one I have published today as well.