Letter from Prague

So, the next day we did what every Prague tourist does and headed out across the Charles Bridge with the masses of others…. bearing in mind, as I said, the last time I was in Prague it was still Czechoslovakia – it was pre the days of Easy Jet flights and stag night parties, pre package tours – it was in the days where many people still said “Where?” or thought it was behind the Iron curtain still I saw a HUGE difference right here, right away – last time the bridge was half empty, used by Prague residents on their way to work  – for sure it was one of Prague’s main tourist sites, but not like this – it was mobbed!!!We still managed to take some moments to take in the impressive views though…And then we headed to the Astronomical Clock amidst more throngs of visitors.Now I think this was another tourist site I’d not remembered quite accurately – whilst it’s undeniably cool and fascinating, I remembered it as having more moving parts and had bigged it up to the kids quite a bit!! Thankfully they thought the skeleton was quite cool, and they liked the music and the horn player too – phew!The Staromestske  nam, or old town square is very impressive – surrounded by grand buildings, ornately painted. We wandered around quite a bit and up and down some of the surrounding lanes and then over to the Jewish Quarter where everywhere had huge queues, and we’d not been organised enough to book in advance and we frankly weren’t going to stand in line for hours with kids in tow – which is fine – sometimes looking from the outside is half the fun!

An ice cream stop was of course in order – Saffy had been asking non stop about when we could have ice cream after a friend of ours had told her where the “best ice cream in Prague” was!!! We’d resisted to this point as we were still feeling pretty cold – but what’s a holiday without ice cream??
We followed a walking tour and passed some amazing buildings, had lunch in a micro-brewery which had some fab wall murals….

and saw the monument to the fall of communism, which is hidden down some passage off a main street and easy to miss.We took in some street art – decent street art I mean – for Prague’s walls are frankly covered in graffiti – I’d read about this before going, but in my head this had meant cool murals and symbolic artwork, but in reality most of it is little more than crappy spray can tagging – I was a little disappointed, and disheartened by how shoddy this mindless vandalism made some of the grand buildings look.

Lots of souvenirs on sale everywhere! 
And late afternoon we headed back over the even more crowded Charles Bridge, got caught in a downpour and Jo, Indy and I took refuge in an Irish pub!!! Somehow Tommy and Saffy missed it and ended up back at the hotel!! I tell you, after all that walking, and the rain a Kilkenny went down very well!!!

The day was topped off with dinner in the Hanging Cup pub – where I have no idea what everyone else had, but I had the most awesome veggie pie ever!!!! It was recommended by a photographer friend of mine who studied in Prague and it was fab!