Prague, Czech Republic - October 6-10, 1999

Unfortunately, I have waited so long to create this page, I have forgotten practically everything I did in Prague. And a good deal about the city itself. I do know that it was the highlight of the trip. I knew it would be and eagerly looked forward to that part of the trip. Unluckily, it came at the end, when I was sick. I probably could have enjoyed it more.

What I do remember is that pretty much everyone spoke English. There was a castle, although we didn't get to see much of it. What we did see was very impressive. I got to see the "Moldau" - all of you who like classical music will know what that refers to. My favorite classical piece of work, written by Smetana.

Prague is situated in a major crystal producing region, so the crystal is very good and very cheap. Probably won't stay that way. Also, unlike Budapest, it wasn't heavily damaged by the Germans or the Allies during World War II. Lots of old (and new) stuff to see and do.

I do, on my trips, keep a journal. So, following, are my memories of Prague, Telc, and Dürnstein, edited from said journal.

We departed Vienna bright and early on a cold and overcast day. Apparently, a cold front was moving across Europe at this time. So, what was once a sunny and relatively mild trip, weather-wise, was now not so sunny or mild. I was very colorfully dressed, according to the journal - blue fleece jacket (bright blue) with red mittens. Many other tour members were apparently very envious of me.

From Vienna we journeyed to the medieval town of Dürnstein. It is very small, very quaint, and I have been here before. On my Europe trip of 1982. It is one of the tourist stops on the way from Vienna to other points. In this case, to Prague. But, in 1982, to Münich. We didn't stay long.

We stopped at the Austrian/Czech Republic border for lunch. I seem to remember that I actually liked what I ordered. Or at least it wasn't too horrible. On to Telc (pronounced Telch). No one on the tour really wanted to go there, but it was on the itinerary so we were going to go. So we went. Telc is another small, quaint little town out in the middle of nowhere (like Dürnstein). It had a church and a main square (like pretty much every other town or city we'd visited), as well as some interesting architecture. Again, we did not stay long.

On to Prague. Two hours later we arrived. Because of some sort of mixup, we did not stay in the hotel we were supposed to stay in. Instead, we were transferred to a better hotel, at least according to Bettina. The hotel was very nice (probably the nicest one we stayed at). To make it up to us for putting us in such a nice hotel instead of the one we should have stayed at, we were treated to a river tour the next day.

But the river tour, on the Moldau (or Wlatava), came after the city tour. We went to the castle (Hradcany as it is called), which was overrun by tourists. Imagine that. Me, a tourist, complaining about a place having too many tourists. We did spend a lot of time in St. Vitus' Cathedral, at least according to my journal. It is attached to the castle. The President of the Czech Republic also has his offices somewhere in the castle. The castle was damaged very much during WWII.

Then the river boat cruise/tour. We were fed lunch on the tour, but I was still sick so I didn't eat much. After the river tour, I leisurely toured about the Old Quarter of the city with another couple on the tour. The Old Quarter is where the Jewish residents used to live, prior to WWII, and there are still a lot of buildings and a cemetery from that time still there. And a lot of shops. Anyway, we strolled around the Old Quarter and shopped, somehow making it over to Prague's town square. Like I mentioned earlier, all towns have one. Prague's was very large and very pretty, but very crowded.

I went back downtown, to the older section of Prague where the Square is, later that night. Prague is pretty safe at night, and it has good public transportation. I rode the subway, which was not that hard to figure out by this point of the trip. Having been on other subways in other cities. I went to the Charles Bridge, which goes over the river, thru the Old Town (where the Square is), up to Wencelas Square. A lot of recent political happenings took place at Wencelas Square, including in 1968, when the Soviet tanks rolled into Prague to prevent Czechoslavakia (at that time the Czech Republic and Slovakia were still one coutnry) from leaving their sphere of influence.

The next day was the scheduled tour of Konopiste. It has the title "Castle" in its name, but it is, in all reality, a hunting lodge of one of the last Hapsburg rulers. We didn't stay long at Konopiste and there really wasn't all that much to see. Many of the people on the trip had arranged to take a more extensive tour of the Jewish Quarter of the city (many of the people on the trip were Jewish), so they did not go to Konopiste. I would have liked to go on the tour but I had watched them arrange the trip at the hotel. Too much arguing for me in that group.

So, after Konopiste, I went on a walking tour of the Old City. I had brought along a book with some walking tours of Prague all drawn out and detailed. The one I choose was the Old City - it was called the Kafka tour. Which took me back over some places I'd already been but I really did like the Old City, so I was not disappointed by that. I did wish the sun was shining, though. It was overcast the entire day.

Prague was definitely the high-light of this trip. I really do want to go back.