h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Four-night stay in Prague just coming to an end ... we have had fabulous weather - sunny but not too hot - and have done *loads* of sightseeing. Went out for a lovely meal yesterday (my 60th birthday) and this evening we've been to a film in the Prague Film Festival. More details when I get home, as I'm writing this on rather unpredictable computer at the hotel.

I see the hotel computer couldn't copy with apostrophes! We also had some trouble finding the @ sign - the keyboards seemed to be designed to cope with different languages, but it was not at all obvious how to find this particular symbol. Given that most people would be using the computers to check email, this was rather a disadvantage...

Anyway - how was Prague? Well, we had a great time! The weather was perfect: warm sunshine for the first two days (warm enough to eat outside at lunchtime, as long as you were in the sun), slight cloud cover on the last day, but temperature still 14.

Day 1: a Czech first-year student from N College came to meet us at the hotel and took us to Visehrad - a hilltop castle in the south of the city. Saw (among other things) the cemetery where a number of notable people are buried: Dvorak, Mucha, Smetana and others. We also had a quick orientation visit to the Old Town Square and the Jewish quarter. In the evening, G went to the opera to see 'Rusalka'; I went to check out the cinema where the film festival is being held, and to get the programme.

Day 2: Petrin Hill (walked up, as the funicular was having its annual overhaul, before the tourist season proper starts on 1 April). Prague Castle and surrounding buildings (Royal Palace etc). Saw the changing of the guard at 11am - the 12 o'clock one is apparently more impressive, but we were doing other things by then. Birthday dinner (it was my 60th and G's 65th - both on the same day) at a cosy, friendly restaurant in Mala Strana: delicious medaillons of wild boar!

Day 3: Wenceslas Square, Old Town, Havelska street market (loved the witch puppets, which cackle and flash their red eyes when activated by sound!), Jewish quarter.

At the end of three full days of concentrated sight-seeing, there were still things left that we didn't manage to see. Oh well, there's always next time!

Or 'cope', even ...

Susan had a ver' nice hol in Prague some yonks anent. Really enjoyed the place.

Douglas