Prague – A Bohemian Rhapsody

The first dawned, and we snored at its arrival. There really was little chance we’d be up anywhere close to daybreak. So we slept in, and made the most of our awesome room in New Town Apartments. It was close to ten o’clock when we finally woke up and scraped ourselves together. It was warm, and the Weather Channel on the complementary wifi said it was going to be 27C today. This was a fair bit more than we’d experienced for some time at home. It was going to be more than the Prague natives had experience recently too as time would tell…We had a breakfast of rolls, Parma ham, coffee and more coffee. And pineapple juice. We gather up our stuff and headed out.

Out apartment is on the square with St Nicholas’s Cathedral. It’s also on the road that leads down to the Vlatava River and the world famous Charles Bridge. Now, I mentioned that it was a warm day, and we thrust ourselves into throngs of people. People mostly from Prague it seemed. It would be an awesome day experiencing a city, showing off how awesome it can be, and being enjoyed by the local inhabitants. Cape Town (home) is no exception, and we often see this at home – a beautiful day being enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. It was fantastic to be part of the experience.

We headed over the Charles Bridge, and onto the Old Town Square. It was chaos. There were people everywhere! We had lunch at the Hotel Prince Restaurant on the square, watching people and and people in horse-drawn carriages go past. It was really nice, and thankfully the sun at these latitudes is pretty feeble, even on such a day, because sunscreen was furthest from our minds.

The day was spent wandering about, making images, watching people and plotting the remainder of our stay. We soon found ourselves in the Old Jewish Quarter, and managed to find free wiki access. Now THAT’S not something you find everyday. Clearly, Prague is a special place.

And then we happened on one of the most incredible things. The Hotel Intercontinental. But incredible in the most insane fashion. In the middle of the most stunning Bohemian architecture is a Soviet monstrosity of epic proportions. Our minds are still boggling. I’ve inserted an image to show you what it looks like. Feel free to compare it to others in the galleries of Prague on this blog to get the full meaning. In fact, this was to be a routine occurrence – exquisite facades interspersed with what can only be described as Soviet bomb-shelters. Actually, if they’d been bombed, they might look a little better.

On that note, Prague was only bombed in one place during WWII. And that is a miracle, as today we are able to experience a true Bohemian Rhapsody…

NOTE:
Galleries of images in these posts can be found at:
On the streets
Buildings
Facades