Czech it Out! Prague (2)

I was surprised by how busy Prague was, for the shoulder season. However, it is the 6th most visited city in Europe (4.4 million visitors per year) so I guess it's busy all year round.



This is the point on the Charles bridge where John of Nepomuk was thrown into the river for refusing to disclose the queen's confession to the king. The stars around his head represent the stars that appeared on the water when he drowned.

That King was Wenceslas IV, who was also heavily involved in the Hus affair. Bad King Wenceslas?



People being thrown out of, or into, things is something of a feature of Czech history. There were 2 famous defenestrations that led to wars. In the second, in 1618, 3 noblemen were thrown out of a window in Prague castle and fell 70 feet. All 3 survived. Wikipedia notes that: "Catholics maintain the men were saved by angels, who caught them; Protestants believe they fell into a heap of horse manure". Isn't history great?



Near the castle I visited another St Nicolas's church, or as the Czechs call it, Kostel sv. Mikuláše. This one was a bit flasher on the inside.





Then it was a quick jaunt down the road to another cathedral: St Vitus's. This is another impressive slab of building.



I did the various tours around the castle. I wanted a photo of the defenestration window, but some American girls were standing in the way and their high-pitched squawking drove me from the room. I could see the appeal of defenestration.

In the evening, I roamed the streets taking photos.









More love locks on the bridge.



I then finished the evening with a violin concert at Clam Gallas Palace, where both Mozart and Beethoven played. It was breathtakingly magical.



I then strolled back through the old town, past Our Lady church...



and watched the Astronomical Clock report the hour. The American man next to me asked loudly "Was that it?". Yes, you hillbilly, that was it and it's been doing that, with limited interruption, since 1410.



One street over from the clock, I found an icecream bar and ordered a sundae with bananas and peaches. When it arrived, it was huge. A couple of spectators gave me worried looks, but I smiled back knowingly. I've dealt with oversized European puddings before and this one disappeared pretty fast.

Czech it Out! Prague (1)

My train travel to Prague wasn't simple either. A section of track was closed with a bus replacement. Once again it was late before I arrived. I checked into the pension and then set out with my camera for a walk.

I was aiming for the Charles bridge, but must've started at a point on the river north of it, because I walked for ages and ended up in a distinctly un-touristy area. I had to scamper across a motorway to get back to recognisable territory.

The door in my pension was padded leather. I guess my high school guidance counsellor was right about me ending up in a padded room.

The next morning, I gnawed my way out of the restraints and hit the streets.

Wenceslas Square

This is the House of Two Golden Bears. No idea where the name came from. The door was built in 1590 and there are passages under the house that lead to the Old Town Hall and the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn.



There are so many cool buildings in Prague. This is the Old Town Hall and the tower.

Church of St Nicolas

The Church of St Nicolas is a Hussite church. Jan Hus was an influential church reformer prior to Martin Luther. As a gesture of reconciliation, the Catholics offered him safe passage to visit the Council of Constance, and then, due to a clerical error, burnt him at the stake.

Hus was a follower of the English reformer Wycliffe, who was also declared a heretic and burnt at the stake. However, unlike Hus, he had already been dead for 44 years when it happened.

This all worked brilliantly for the Catholic Church, except that the vast majority of Czechs promptly became Hussites.

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn might be the most impressive building I've ever seen, especially at night. It was begun in the 14th century and was originally a Hussite church, before being taken over by the Catholics.





The Charles bridge. Couples attach love locks to the bridge to symbolise their love.

In Cambridge, we do something similar to symbolise that our bicycle has been stolen.

A Bohemian Rhapsody: Cesky Krumlov (2)

Cesky Krumlov - let's add some sqiggles - Český Krumlov, was founded in the 13th century. There are many pretty buildings, although the tower of the castle stands out. The church is St Vitus's.

The town is nestled in a bend in the Vltava river, and I slogged my way up a couple of the nearby hills, looking for the perfect birdseye shot. Never quite got it.

Before heading to the station, I bought a cheese and ham pancake - or palacinky. You get a good feed off one of those.

Czech your Passport: Cesky Krumlov (1)

My last holiday from work was several months ago (if you ignore a day trip to Liverpool to visit Her Majesty's Immigration Service, which I promise was not a relaxing getaway, although it could've led to further travel - both sudden and compulsory).

I have been to the Czech Republic before, but only to Prague, and that ten years ago on a truncated visit, so I decided to give it another go.

A friend had recommended Cesky Krumlov in the south of the country, so I flew to Linz in Austria and then took a train over the border. From there, I caught a smaller train, and then downsized again. I'm glad that train got me to CK, because the next step down was going to be me pedalling a rail jigger.

Of course it went less smoothly than I planned, and it was after 9pm before I made it to my pension. I missed the prepaid dinner that I had paid for in my reservation. There's 2 pounds I'll never get back. Actually, maybe I lucked out there.

In Linz, I ate a vividly-pink sugary snack from a bakery. It was like eating a Duplo brick.



I ventured out into the cold to look for food, but Cesky Krumlov is about as lively as Tinwald on a Thursday night in November at 10pm. My dinner ended up being a bag of tortilla chips, some cashews and some mineral water. I'm too old to be eating like that.

I guess the cashews are pudding. My mouth hurts.

Both the centre of Cesky Krumlov and the centre of Prague are Unesco World Heritage sites. And I think they're justifiable inclusions, because they're both beautiful. I was blown away. Here are some shots from my wander around the town the next day.

The sign on the wall is the edge of the bear pit. That's right: anyone can swim across a moat to attack a fortress, but it takes a real bad-arse to swim across a moat full of bears.

And the Czechs are famous for producing great bears.