Prague, The Czech Republic

Pretty, pretty Prague.

Prague certainly lived up to its reputation for being one of the loveliest cities in Europe, or anywhere in the world for that matter.

Began the morning by doing a little tour, I saw the pseudo train in the old square last night and thought it would be a different way of doing a vehicle tour to get a quick overview. The tour headed across the river to what’s called “The Lesser Town”, it’s uphill and very steep in places. But it’s where Prague castle and St Vitus cathedral are located.

The tour finished back in the Old Town Square, which has entertainers at various sections of the square. This morning there was a Bohemian band playing traditional instruments and music, really enjoyable, later in the day there was a Jazz Band, then a soloist on a keyboard, all in the same location.

Bohemian band

My day was spent wandering around the old town, after yesterday’s shock with the amount of tourists and especially tour groups, I was able to find less populated areas to wander around in! I stayed the side of the river that the Old Town Square is on, so didn’t go up to the castle or cathedral, there was enough to see just in the old town. One thing though that did surprise me was there were a lot of big churches but they were all closed. Not sure whether it was to keep tourists out as hordes of them could be disrespectful. Two major churches were undergoing restoration, both were around the Old Town Square. It was just surprising since generally churches are open and free for people to enter.

I thought this little hotel was very sweet!

Another little observation, most of the buildings (at least that I saw wandering around) in the Old Town had at some stage been restored, across the river it was possible to see many in their unrestored state. Lots of restoration work is still going on in Prague, there’s a lot of buildings!

 Looking across to the Lesser Prague area with St Vitus Cathedral. The bridge is the Charles Bridge. 

This was my first visit so I was quite happy just to wander and get to know at least one little section of the city.

I saw this building from a distance and thought "how pretty" the laughed when I saw the Starbucks under the arches!

The apartment building in the foreground is so newly renovated I could still smell fresh paint! Next to it are apartments that looked as though they dated from the 1960s-70s, not all the old town is historic.

This beautiful building I think had been a synagogue, it was in the old Jewish quarter.