I have a few spare minutes before wending my way to the almost-impossible-to-pronounce Hlavi Nadrazi (Prague main station) to catch the 1042 to Vienna, so decided to make the most of the wifi to catch up.
Tuesday started off with a "free" (give us a tip please) walking tour of Prague - it was actually really good, taken by a tall and handsome young man with a good sense of humour who added a lot of personal insights. These tours, while faintly embarrassing because of the herd element (thankfully not an umbrella in sight), are a really good way of orienting yourself and deciding what you do and don't want to see in more detail. It was over 3 hours and took in the old town, Wenceslas Square and the Jewish quarter, finishing up near the concert hall with national hero and genius Dvorak in front.
I've found myself wandering around Prague with a crick in my neck - there is so much to see on the tops of buildings, whether that's sculpture or rococo or art nouveau details. I haven't done any major building interiors this trip as I've found myself a bit short of time, plus I think you can get museum/cathedral/castle/palace fatigue so just yomping round and taking in the architecture has been enough for me. I'd like a return visit one weekend though.
I'd done a bit of exploration across the river the previous evening and picked that up again in the afternoon. I headed for the metronome on top of the hill across the Czech bridge - looks impressive from a distance but once you've climbed all the steps it's a major disappointment, mainly because of all the graffiti which has completely ruined the area. I walked through the parks and up towards the castle area, then back down and through the cobbled streets towards the Kafka museum square - major error, should've paid a visit but didn't have enough time so I settled for an Aperol Spritz instead in front of this highly amusing sculpture
Just one whinge - a bit like the cyclists in Amsterdam, got a bit annoyed by the segways buzzing all over these quaint and narrow streets - they are everywhere! I'm sure they're fun, but really - what's wrong with walking?! Fashion observation - every woman here under 40 is wearing skinny jeans or trousers with ripped knees. And the clothes shopping is pretty good, but actually quite upmarket and not so cheap.
Back across the Charles IV bridge to meet up for another tour - this time a Beer Walk which was a nice way of having a sociable evening with other English speakers (and some jolly nice Polish people too) and enjoying some nice beer and a (frankly) not very nice dinner, but enjoyed meeting some new people and sharing experiences. Those I was chatting with were a bit jet-lagged and I had to pack, so not a late evening but a very pleasant one, and yay! the weather has warmed up a lot and Vienna looks set to be a bit of a scorcher - speaking of which, time for Nellie and I to get going.
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