Beautiful Prague in the autumn - LittleWanderingWren

Day 42-45 London to Prague, Czech Republic 1377 km’s
Prague is an amazing place at any time of year, but add in the rich colours of autumn into the mix of majestic buildings with their red rooftops, and you can’t go wrong for a quick European break…

I have offered to treat each of our children to a quick city break at the European city of their dreams… Jigs has chosen Prague – good choice!! I haven’t been here since just after the Velvet Revolution on November 17, 1989. Prague is a popular tourist destination and is now the 6th most visited city in Europe.p…It is easy to see why… The city was relatively untouched by World War II bombs and everywhere you look there are amazing buildings…

Travel is easy, with lots of options from the traditional below, to the efficient and cheap Metro and bus system. A 24 hour unlimited transport pass is only $5 US.

We are staying at Hotel General, who give us a glass of bubbly and a really warm welcome – our room is lovely with a chocolate on our pillow, although there is a very stern looking large painting of General with a sword above our bed!

We join one of those free walking tours, the sort that you tip at the end according to your means and enjoyment… Stormy clouds gather overhead and we start at the famous Charles Bridge at sunset…As the day turns to night the twinkling lights from the castle beckon us upwards….

The tour takes us through the Lesser town , meandering our way up through the ancient cobbled streets, through grand squares with huge Palaces, up to the sprawling Prague Castle..It is impressive and magical….

The next day we are off to join another free walking tour to see the Old Town and Jewish quarter. We meet at the Old Town Square and for the first time bump into hordes of tourists waiting for the Astronomical Clock to perform it’s hourly party trick.

Every hour on the hour, from 8am to 8pm, wooden saints emerge from trap doors, while below them, a lesson in medieval morality is enacted by Greed, Vanity, Death and the Turk. It takes some explanation to figure out the complicated zodiac figures on the clock’s face, reputedly there are some occult mysteries encoded in them…

Where ever we turn there is something interesting to look at… The city’s multilayer history dates back to the Holy Roman Empire. The Baroque, Rococo and Art Nouveau.

In the afternoon we take a Communist and Nuclear Bunker tour…Prague was under Communist rule for over 40 years. It was a time in the Country’s dark history full of paranoia, spying and violence…

Part of the daily life was the fear from a nuclear war. Facilities were built, which could be used to hide the civil population and save citizen’s from the radioactivity brought by nuclear bombs and long range missiles. Daily life was one of false alarms, trainings with gas masks and atomic suits…

On our final day we retrace our steps to see a few things we missed when first passing….

Lovers Locks – If you walk along the Mala Strana, near the Lennon Wall, in Prague you will see small locks on the gate over the canal. Legend has it that when you find your true love you carve your names on a lock and lock it onto the gate. You then throw the key in to the canal.

John Lennon wall was an ordinary wall until it was covered with John Lennon graffiti and Beatles lyrics. The Wall represents a monument to free speech and the non-violent rebellion of Czech youth against the regime. It was a small war of Czech people against the communist police who cleaned the wall until it kept coming back, and back….Some say it is Prague’s equivalent of the Berlin Wall.

Food & drink: It’s time for a break and we stop for some Trdelnik, a traditional cake and sweet pastry, made from rolled dough, wrapped around a stick then grilled and topped with sugar…yummy!

There are lots of options to eat. Traditional Czech food is quite heavily meat based, but it is all washed down with a pint of the brown, frothy stuff. The Czechs regard their locally produced beers as a national treasure. The girls in India got me into beer with a curry – beer after a day’s sightseeing is good!

One final picture, here are a few of my favourite things I will remember from Prague….