There isn't much to add to the log for our first day. After getting settled in the hotel, we walked to the nearby Namesti Republicky (Republic Square) which is a huge concourse with several roads leading off it. After a few wrong turns, we found the street that we wanted, which housed a T-mobile shop; here we bought a local Czech SIM card for my wife's mobile phone, thus enabling her to call me, me to call her and the children to call her.
By the time we finished there, we discovered that we were ravenous so we stopped at the first restaurant that we found and had a meal (too much salt). From there, we walked back to the hotel and rested a while. Later on, we went to the huge Palladium shopping centre, which is literally a stone's throw from the hotel; we each drank a pot of tea in order to revive ourselves and then checked out the variety of stores. Most of them seemed to be women's clothing, which means paradise for my wife and boredom for me. We found a big bookshop, but of course all the title are in Czech.... After leaving the shopping centre, we rambled a bit outside (actually getting a little lost, but I have an inertial guiding system in my head so we reached the hotel without difficulty. Even though it was only about 7pm, we went to bed, as the lack of sleep had been getting to both of us.
Day 2
We woke at around 6:30am; I did my daily chores on the computer, and then we had a sumptuous breakfast in the hotel's dining room which was fairly full. When we hit the streets, they were pleasantly empty - there were a few tour groups but they weren't a hindrance. From our central location, we located the Powder Tower (a very imposing - and tall - building) and behind it, Celetna street which would take us to the Old Town Hall and a major square. We walked down the narrow street, mainly admiring the architecture; one has to look more up in Prague than down, as the buildings are tall and the architectural frivolies are outstanding.
In the Old Town square is located the Astronomical Clock; unfortunately we just missed its 9am call.
From there we carried on into the old city (it's like Jerusalem!) until we found the Charles Bridge. We crossed this slowly and made our way into the little 'Venice' section at the other end, which was charming. Part of it also reminded me of a French boulevard. Whilst the bridge had been moderately crowded, this part was fairly empty which added to its charm. After resting a while and drinking an ice cream sundae, we took one of the boat cruises, which started off in the mock canal (which apparently featured in the first 'Mission Impossible' film, masquerading as the real Venice) and then continued onto the Vltava, where we changed onto a bigger boat.
After the boat trip, we checked out the Charles Bridge museum, which although small was interesting, showing how the bridge had been built and how it had been renovated. From there, we saw that we had about ten minutes to get back to the Astronomical Clock before it chimed 3pm, so we fairly ran through the now crowded streets in order to get there in time. Just as we arrived, the clock chimed, a trumpeter (live) blew a fanfare from the tower's top ... and that was it. Maybe we were missing something. I intend to go back again this morning, when there are fewer people and check what is happening, because the Wikipedia page says that there is more to meet the eye.
Returning via Celetna, we stopped in the souvenir stores which we had studiously ignored in the morning, and my wife bought all manner of Czech souvenirs. The most interesting was a little shop which we found buried in a sidestreet, featuring little 'sculptures' of objects made solely of nuts and bolts. We bought a small chicken, mouse and dog (if I remember correctly), but there were much bigger pieces. Imagine trying to get them past customs....
After another rest in the hotel and sorting our possessions out, we went to the shopping centre again, to eat a passable Pizza. This time we found all the shops selling clothes for men - they're simply on a different floor to the women's shops. We tried to find a linen jacket for me; it took some explaining from me before my wife understood what I wanted. Eventually we found something good - only it was too small and they didn't have anything larger.
From there to gentle (as Robert Fripp tends to write). More days await us.
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