We start off at the iconic Charles Bridge. It is a very slow walk across the cobbles as the crowds stop to admire the river views, and so much space is taken up with street portrait "artists" and other purchasing opportunities.
On the West side of the river now we follow the cobbles up a steep hill, overtaken by Segway tours, and are rewarded by panoramic views over the red tiled roofs. We people watch as we lunch on traditional meat and dumplings under a shady umbrella at one of so many small restaurants.
Prague's castle, monastery and the C18 domed St Nicholas church are all within a stone's throw of each other, on pleasant cobbled squares. There is more space up here so we can stop pushing the bikes and ride around the city fortifications, and then down a very steep path through a park, back to the river. We have seen plenty for one day, but will return to start exploring the flatter East bank side.
Before more City sightseeing,we spend a day exploring the outer area, to make sure we can find our way out when we need to move on. As elsewhere in Bohemia there are shops with union jack flags selling only secondhand British clothes. The labels they stock are listed outside, including M&S, River Island & Laura Ashley. We stop at a Tesco Express out of curiosity - similar to British ones, with some English labelling, but otherwise pretty Czech. We are ashamed to say that we bought our evening meal at a Lidl's - well "our" village doesn't have any other. We spot 2 young touring cyclists with a trailer. They are from Belgium, speak good English, but they have not cycled far, having brought their gear most of the way in a van.
Next day we feel overly pleased with our modest achievement of catching a bus to the nearest underground and actually get on the right train to the city centre! We are exploring the flatter area which includes many streets full of wonderful art nouveaux buildings, culminating in the Obecni Dum concert hall with such a richly decorated exterior.
The old town square has wow factor with so many different styles and eras included from the unique 14C clock tower. A newly wed bride and groom emerge from the adjacent church, their photographer having to push aside tourists to nail that iconic photo in front of the clock face. A cheer goes up as they elbow enough space to release 2 white doves.
The Old Jewish quarter around the old synagogue and Jewish cemetery is packed so tight with tourists that we give up trying to look around as there is no chance of reflective walk through an area that witnessed such persecution. There were quite a lot of visitors when I was here 20 years ago, but not this many and now so much circulation space had been lost to cars. There had been just the odd Trabant about in those days.
Location:PRAGUE
