Prague

What a fabulous, fabulous city! There are not enough superlatives to describe this place.

Amazing setting on the Vltava River, incredible architecture reflecting styles over the last thousand years or so, great food (Photo 4)and drink and lots of sights. We’ve had a ball.

We used airb’n’b to book a place very close to the old centre. Superb location, which means we have been able to walk to everything. Just a brief rundown of what impressed us: The old town square – really well preserved buildings and a real buzz with LOTS of tourists; an old, but still working, astronomical clocks (rated one of the least impressive sights in Prague!) which we thought was pretty cool(photo 1). The Charles Bridge over the river from the old town to the castle – one of the iconic sights of Prague and it doesn’t disappoint. (P 2 & 3 - statue on the bridge) There are amazing statues/sculptures on buildings everywhere - (P5-8)

The Jewish quarter with a number of old synagogues, burial ground, and amazing buildings, especially art nouveau-themed ones. Many of these buildings have amazing decorative details and statuary which reminds you of the wealth that created them. We don’t seem to do buildings like this any more. We were able to go into a number of synagogues, some of which had reminders of the anti-semitism that existed here in the 20th c. One – the Pinkarova synagogue – had its walls covered with the names of the nearly 200,000 Jews from Czech who were shipped off to the death camps. It’s been a chilling reminder of inhumanity. Other synagogues were museums. Everything is in good condition because Hitler’s favourite city was Prague. The Nazis explicitly kept the jewish quarter intact because they intended it to be a museum for a lost race of people. Yes. Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral also spectacular monuments.

One of the most amazing buildings was the Municipal House, an over-the-top confection of art nouveau pretending to be a concert hall. We bought tickets to a concert there and marveled at the sheer elegance and flamboyance of the decoration. Concert wasn’t too shabby either – some Mozart and Dvorak. What else? We’ve done a lot of walking – up Petrin hill for some great views of the city, along and around the river, some loops around the bridges. Mary has taken to the wrought ironwork everywhere - a sidelineof photos