Urlaub 2 - Prag (Prague)

Not long after we arrived back from our trip in Sydney we managed a long weekend in Prague.

Prague is a bit like Paris. Lots of small houses cramped against each other.

The main attraction is the cathedral and castle, which are on a hill overlooking the city. Here's a shot of the front of the cathedral. It's designed so you have to look upwards to see it - to draw your attention towards heaven. Quite impressive!

We were able to climb to the top of one of the cathedral towers. It was a very long climb up a winding, narrow staircase. It was a two way staircase but only barely wide enough. Jo was carrying Owen in her arms, and felt pressured by the people behind to keep going without a rest. 287 steps! Here's the view from the top - well earned!

Many of the buildings had pictures instead of street numbers. So you would stay at the Prancing Pony on Charles street, for example. They've put numbers on now, but some of the old pictures are still there.

The Charles bridge is one of the main tourist attractions. It's decorated with about 20 statues, and is filled with street stalls.






This one is interesting - the clock tower has a little moving display every hour. We were advised to make sure we went to see this, but not for the display itself. Rather, to see the looks of dismay and disappointment on the faces of tourists who had waited and pushed their way to the best vantage point, only to realise that something state of the art so many years ago isn't going to be able to compare to modern entertainment.

This is the "Singing fountain". The base is shaped like an inverted bell, and the water rings the bell as it hits it. This tourist attraction is very dissappointing to many people, because it gets blocked up with leaves, and nearly half the time is out of order undergoing maintenance. We were fortunate enough to hear it working, though you had to listen really hard because it's not that loud.

Strange things in Prague:
1) Sitting down next to an italian tourist couple in Prague, and chatting to them in German.
2) Asking someone for directions "Excuse me, do you speak English", and getting an aussie accent "Yeah, sure".
3) Beer is cheaper than soft drink or water. In Germany it's similar, but there is a law that says there must be a non-alcoholic drink that is cheaper than beer on the menu. They don't have that law in Prague...