Czech Republic

A day in bed after her little slip and I finally talked Rach into getting up and see some sights. So that night go the tube to the square (which I wont attempt to spell) where the astronomical clock is. The actual clock itself is pretty lame, just a skeleton which pops out and rings a bell on the hour like a big morbid cuckoo clock. But lucky for us the square was also the site for the cities big Christmas markets. Kinda the same as the ones in Austria but with the grandness that Prague brings. But we couldn’t stay too long as I had to get the sick one back to bed and the chill was getting set.

Next and final day of our trip before heading home, so we headed out to see what Prague was really about (we had a few places to tick off). So back to the astro clock square to start the walk, from there we walked through the old town to Charles bridge. There’s like 30 odd statues lining the bridge and it makes for a pretty (and I mean prissy pretty) view of the old and new sides to Prague.

Next on the list was Prague castle, so passing the St Nicolas church we made our way up to the entrance.

Rach needed a bit of a break but we made it eventually

It not so much of a Castle but a massive palace type building that surrounds a mini old town contains a cathedral, basilica, convent and various museums, including a toy museum (but skip it, it’s not worth the stair climb). But all that site seeing really builds up an appetite and I was hankering for a pilsner.

And I can’t say enough about the beer, in most pubs (unless your in the tourist quarter) a pint will cost about 25 crown (or 75p) you’ll get what I say is the best beer you’ve ever had. Mmmm mmm I was loving that Pilsner Urquell., I could even have it on my weetbix for breakfast. I didn’t want to leave just for that reason.

The last thing we did before leaving was going to one of the many black light shows that are permanently playing in the city. And it was kinda odd, if you don’t know what a black light is (you obviously missed the 70’s) it’s a light that will only show up incandescent, floresant materials. And the show was a mix between a slapstick comedy cutting in-between serious/modern/contemporary dance performed by a trop all dancing all smiling dancers. Don’t get me wrong some of it was pretty cool and the black light effects got a thumbs up, but even though rach really like it I was a bit weirded out.

That’s it then, our tour of Italy / Croatia / Slovenia / Austria / Czech Rep all done. Time to plan the next trip. We’ll be going to Paris for our 1st wedding anniversary (ohh nice) and after the freezing temps we encountered in central Europe we’re planning a few weeks in Greece and Turkey this summer (the other extreme).

So until next time this is us singing out.
Chur bro’s

We got into Prague and straight of the train we noticed the drop in temperature. It wasn’t snowing like Austria but so so much colder, about -5 but bright and sunny. After a quick tube to our stop and then a 10 min walk (on which I’m sure that I contracted some sort of frostbite in my fingers) we arrived at our accommodation. Again we’d booked on laterooms the night before and when we arrived we were a bit dubious as the area wasn’t really the type you’d bring your mum to impresses her (if ya know what I mean). But this was the piece de resistance as far as late rooms went. For mere pennies we had landed a apartment that was better than our place at home, full kitchen, big king sized bedroom, living room, massive shower and all the mod cons.

Sweet right, well kinda. Rach was getting pretty sick and skipped on going out the first night and just sat and watched Czech Cable TV (a mix of French news, Algezera and some more dubious channels). I was going to go for a wee night walk but turned around within five minutes before I turned into a popsicle.

That night as we (well I) slept and enjoyed the balmy 23 degrees of our room, Rach woke up in a bit of a sweat and did a midnight run to the bathroom. A few minutes later I woke with a crash bang, then silence. Jumping from bed and running to the bathroom I came in and saw Rach sprawled on the ground, eyes wide open staring at the ceiling not moving. Within a few scary minutes she came around and there was nothing broken but a big bump on her head. We worked out that the temperature in the apartment had rising to 26 degrees in the night and as Rach rose from her business she had a head rush and fainted, crashing into the shower door and slumping to the floor with her head resting on the shower curb. Ever seen that add where the guy slips in the shower and cracks his head, well it was like that.

Obviously I didn’t get any pictures of that little encounter (I was too busy making sure my wife wasn’t dead or paralyzed). But that day I did get some images of a TV tower that was round the corner from where we were staying. Not so interesting right but look there’s baby statues climbing it????

I didn’t get it either. But there they are just climbing up and down. Hmmm…..