Czech’ing out Prague

Prague is a city that just doesn’t make sense, almost completely physically unscathed by World War 2 and its soviet occupation and totally mind-blowingly beautiful, yet completely oppressed for so much of the last century.  It is a town that has seen and felt so much horror and yet stands tall with not even a scratch.

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The more I learn about Prague… the more surprising it is.  Today we have seen an astronomical clock, which was first installed 1410… way before Australia had become the country of Australia… see what I did there? That’s no. 9 off the list… smooth ey?  We explored the clock tower and an Apple Museum… not the eating kind of apples the other kind. Watched the changing of the Prague castle guard with its epic fanfare trumpets. Shot a crossbow… and learnt that I would die if I was reliant on my crossbow skills for anything… it is not a skill I possess. Learnt all about communism in a fairly biased communism museum and explored the Jewish Quarter. Which had been singled out by Hitler to be preserved as a museum of it’s own to the ‘extinct race’, thankfully it has not served it’s purpose entirely. In the quarter, there was the most incredible ancient cemetery, another weird fascination of mine, where generations of Jewish people were buried and the tombstones crowded each other out and were built on one on top of the other.   According to the audio guide the graves were 10 layers deep… you can decide what that actually means.

While we were in Prague we were also introduced to Trdlo… a delicious pastry hybrid… recommended both with and without nutella.  As we were told before we got there… and now fully agree with…
“If you don’t like prague…. there is something seriously wrong with you”



Český Krumlov

I have been trying to work out how to describe Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, just right… it is not at all what I expected, which shouldn’t really be a surprise given what I have already experienced on this trip.   But if I had to describe it… this is where I would live if I was indeed, a Disney Princess… which is something I have given more thought than I care to admit.   But it would be seriously perfect for this, tiny cobblestone streets, a beautiful river, picturesque skyline and an ancient castle complete with a bear moat… seriously a moat with bears instead of water… not ideal for the bears right now, but definitely Disney princess movie worthy… because it would be cartoon and the bears would be part of the family in a totally animal rights approved way.


Just to add to the magic that was Český we stayed in the one of the greatest places I have ever walked into… The Old Inn, right in the town square. An Inn which I am pretty sure has just been added to over time. The stairs and floors have no real order, you just follow the signs around twists and turns until you get to your room… which for us was right up the very top… in the attic… it was super cosy and ticked ‘have a room in the attic, complete with slanted roof’ off my life bucket list… although the roof did make the shower a little more complicated then it should have been… I have never had to kneel to shower… and I hope I don’t have to again… but it was fun for a night.


Oh… and we visited our 4th museum for the year today… which means no. 76 is off the list.  Not bad for day 12 of 2016!

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