Prague; Tuesday, 23 July, 2013

The train had been making pretty slow going over the final parts of Germany, which was good for the views and the scenery was stunning, but not so good for its timekeeping so by the time it crossed into the Czech Republic it was already 15 minutes late and proceeded to get later as the journey went on, finally pulling into Prague almost 30 minutes behind schedule.

I stepped off of the air conditioned carriage into an absolutely baking Prague, the wall of heat hitting me being reminiscent of stepping off a plane in a hot country.

I walked what I had thought was the short distance to the hotel, but in the end turned out to be a 20 minute slog mostly uphill. I checked in, had a quick shower to cool down and then headed out into town.

First stop of the afternoon was the castle, for which I had discovered the direct tram stopped almost outside the hotel. I had a long wander around the castle grounds including the gardens, and then grabbed an early dinner in one of the restaurants near the cathedral.

I walked back through the gardens and picked up the tram down the hill to the start of the funicular railway up to the Hunger Wall and Petrin observation tower, I took in the views from the top of the tower before heading back down into town via a long walk over the Charles Bridge, long mostly because of the number of times I stopped to watch performers, including the very good violin quartet who were playing the hits of Abba and the Beatles…

From the Charles Bridge, and via a very nice gelato, I wandered my way over to the Old Town square.

By now the sun was starting to set and I decided, after seeing the price list, that I didn’t actually want a last drink of the night, so I wandered back via Wenceslas Square to my hotel.