Prague, Czech Republic

27th June

The view as you arrive into Prague can only be described as spectacular. We passed over the magnificent snow topped mountains of the Swiss/Italian Alps before landing on an amazingly flat, lush and fertile green plateau. The airport is located about 30 mins out of town and perched up quite high above the town located in the valley below. It continued to be picture/postcard stuff all the way in to town, and especially around the Old Town area where we are staying. Our accommodation is a beautiful, modern and large, 2 bedroom apartment right beside the Old Town Square.

We settled in at the apartment and then went for a bit of a walk to get some groceries. After that, we only had to venture downstairs to the basement cellar for dinner. We had a quick drink though first off at an open bar in the Square beside the Old Town Hall Clock, the latter being quite a tourist attraction. We looked on, as did many others, as the pantomime of the clock chiming the hour unfolded. It was quite a spectacle and occurs on the hour from 9am to 9pm.

Dinner was a rowdy affair in an old converted underground cellar, practically directly under our apartment building. There was a 4 piece band (double bass, piano accordion, fiddle + ukulele) playing traditional folk music to the great pleasure of many of the groups dining there. A group of five, older, Norwegian couples led the singing for most of the evening but a large group of Japanese diners were, surprisingly, almost as vocal. The food was good but too plentiful which made us think of Oscar and how he would also love this meat eating capital.