Not Around Preston

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, and former capital of Bohemia. I was there three days, and it is a fair-sized city, so this is the first of four parts. Other parts are here: Prague Part Two, East of the River Prague Part Three, West of the River Prague Part Four, Getting Around I was lucky enough to get a view of the city as my aeroplane came into the airport. So let us start with the river and its bridges. The Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic, and flows generally northwards to join the Elbe at Mělník, which in turn discharges into the North Sea northwest of Hamburg. It is crossed by 18 bridges in Prague. In the image above, you can see four of them. The one at the bottom is the most famous; the Charles Bridge. Above it is the Legion Bridge, then the Jirásek Bridge and at the top the Palacký Bridge. The Charles Bridge is the big tourist attraction, and was packed with people whenever we saw it. This is a view looking east along the bridge. Co...

On the second day we focused on the city west of the river. It was noticeably less touristy - even though the castle is on the other side; there were far fewer signs in English. This is also the hilly side - we got a tram up to the top, and made our way down. In fact, we started at the Břevnov Monastery, which is a couple of miles out, as there was a fair on. This in the monastery, the church on the left. Looking the other way across the courtyard. There is a brewery in the monastery, the Brewery of St Adalbert. The beer was served from here; I guess it is brewed there too. Inside the church was very ornate. Note the monks - this is still a monastery. But some of the fancy stonework was just painted on! The fair was just outside - I assume on monastery grounds. We got the tram back towards the centre, getting off at the castle. Prague Castle is the biggest ancient castle in world. It is sat on a hill, and has a cathedral in the middle of it. There was a fort, Přemyslid fort, o...

Prague has some interesting features in this area, so I thought a blog post was in order. Walking You are going to see most just by walking, and most of the city can be done on foot. However, I want to talk about the pavements. About 90% of the pavements are surfaced in bricks of dark and light grey, in attractive geometric designs. It all helps to make the city very attractive. Prague Metro Plans for a metro system date to the later nineteenth century, but it was not until 1974 that the first section opened. Today there are three lines in operation, imaginatively named A, B and C. A fourth is under construction. You can guess the name. The system is integrated with the buses, trams, ferries and suburban trains and you can use the same ticket on them all. Here is a 90 minute ticket I used to get to the airport by Metro, then bus. They have to be stamped before use (tickets purchased on board are automatically stamped). Buses The interesting thing about the buses is that some are trolle...

We had two full days in Prague, and explored the area east of the river on the first day. The big tourist area is the Old Town Square. On the west side is the Old Town Hall, which features the famous Astronomical Clock. On the opposite side, towering over the other buildings is the Church of Our Lady before Týn. Slightly off the square are these colourful buildings. Wenceslas Square - as I understand it anyway - is anything but square, being some 700 m long, but only 60 m wide. I would call that a wide street. This was the setting for the Velvet Revolution, 17 November to 28 November 1989, the start of the end of communism in the country. This is the main tourist drag, and if you go here at night, expect to get offered all sorts of things... There was construction work going on, which did get in the way of some photos. This is to bring trams back into the square. At the top is the National Museum - a very impressive building. And in front of it, a statue of Saint Wenceslas. Th...