Mrs J accompanied the talking heads to Prague last Wednesday for my three-score-years and ten. So the old brains are full of impressions and images of our week of walking around the city, snacking in quiet corners and dining in grand halls – and bumping into people from a city and a culture they are justifiably proud of.
Of course it was a bonus as always to have the encyclopædic commentaries of my live-in architect – pointing out the subtleties of gothic, baroque, renaissance and neo-classical features (to name but a few) – which so many years of oppressive occupation in successive centuries have failed to destroy and which resonate daily to the sounds of Mozart, Smetana and Vivaldi. Music in Prague is for everyone, not just the privileged few and we tasted it (memorably it has to be said) during an hour in the freezing cold in St George’s basilica; the 10th C. rotunda resounding to the skills of a fur-clad string ensemble.
Several practical victories come to mind. We sought a ‘large’ downtown hotel room – and got one in spades, high up above the pedestrian street, with a four metre ceiling, art nouveau light fittings and space for several cats to be swung in unison. (However, nocturnal caterwauling from feral revellers is also a feature of Prague tourism – no doubt much worse in the summer months.) Indian food, courtesy ‘Indian Jewel’ in Tyn square, was exceptionally tasty and elegantly served; while the centrally situated Tesco food hall provided lashings of mature cheddar, Branston pickle and Marmite – all strangers to Vikingland. And not least Norwegian.com flew us in style and at low cost – so that we could put behind us some dire memories of Ryanair and easyJet!
Boadicea's Chariot 
Good to hear from you, Janus. It’s good to hear that you enjoyed your holiday in Praha.
Not to say that I’m not a bit envious… And you confess to actually flying Lyin’ Air and Squeeze-you jet?
Oh stoppit! I have to fly Ryanair to the UK later this year and EasyJet back home. Not out of choice I hasten to add (particularly in the former case which will be the first and hopefully the last), but needs absolutely must.
OZ
I spent a memorable five days in Prague some years ago with my daughter. Loved it! Especially the food…
Môre Jay
Eers Welkom terug
Happy birthday for last weekend.
And now a quick moan.
Do you not have a camera or cameraphone? I (and I’m sure others) would much prefer a personal snap of your walk around Prague than some boring (to say the least) file picture. I’m sure you have your reasons but I ain’t accepting ‘old age’ 😉
Hi, C! Yes, I fly easyJet to the UK regularly but would not subject Mrs J to such an indignity!
G’morgen, Soutie and thanks.
Just between us, I got tired in Prague of tourists flashing their equipment at all the sights rather than akshully enjoying them. I went deliberately without phone or camera! Sorry.
But me? Old? How very dare you! 🙂
I can understand that!
I got up at 6.00 am and went wandering with my video camera then. It was magnificent… The Charles Bridge (your photo) was impossible to cross during the day because of the crowds – but at 6 in the morning I could hear the birds singing. My daughter looked at my video and finally understood why I was prepared to get up so early!
Boa, luckily, the winter weather kept away most of the visitors last week, except the stag-nighters and drunken teenagers – but they kept later hours than we did.
Couldn’t agree with you more Janus, re camera. I often do not take one quite deliberately.
I get equally tired of people walking backwards into you taking stupid photos on their mobile phones!
One wonders what happened to their brains, can’t they remember what things look like?
Christina, Mrs J and I were speculating whether any of the snappers would look at any of their creations when they got home or are most of them despatched to ‘friends’ who never look at them?
How funny Janus, spousal unit and myself were making exactly the same suppositions Thursday night. We had gone down to the Seattle Garden show to which I never take my camera mainly because the show gardens are vulgar in the extreme. However I must have been walked into backwards by about a dozen indiscriminating morons ‘capturing’ the scenes on their bloody ipods or whatever! Total tossers!!!
I only go because there are some nursery stalls selling reasonably rare shade plants that I wanted to buy and I needed a selection of lily bulbs to fill some specific holes in borders. Sometimes the internet will not do, one needs to see stuff.