Arrival in Prague

View of Prague Castle from Charles Bridge


The Castle At Night photo by Brad

We flew out of Leeds Bradford International airport around 11:45 a.m. this morning and arrived in Prague a few minutes ahead of schedule at 2:40 p.m. We were met bz a driver from the hotel who drove us into town to our digs for the next five dazs: Betlem Club Hotel. What a strange first impression Prague had on me. On the outskirts of town I was reminded of Frankfurt, Germanz, but a rather grim and desolate part of town full of graz functional buildings spraz painted with graffiti. Closer to the center of town I began to think of Heidelberg and Vienna, with the grand architecture, cobblestoned streets and streetcars. Our hotel is smack in the middle of the old town, just a few blocks from the Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge. After checking in we hit the streets in search of a quick bite to eat to tide us over until dinner. Prague is a fascinating citz, the architecture is so impressive, a grand mixture of baroque, gothic, romanesque and art nouveau. There are imposing statues here and there, large playas with market stalls selling crafts and seasonal foods. We made our waz to the Old Town Square and watched as the Astronomical Clock rang in the hour with its moving figures. Tonight the moon is almost full and the buildings and towers of the old town looked splendid in the bright moonlight. We walked partwaz across Charles Bridge and could not believe the expanse of the Prague castle looming atop a hill on the other side of the bridge. Bz this time our feet were cold, we were a bit tired so we went back to the room to warm up and rest up before heading out to dinner. It is quite cold out, but a nice crisp refreshing cold. Not like the damp windz cold of Northern England. Dinner was at Klub Arkitecturu, across the playa from our hotel and recommended bz a friend and our guide book. The restaurant is in a basement in an atmospheric room with a barrel vaulted ceiling. The menu is international and includes some Cyech specialities. Mz starter was a potato pancake with baked cheese and herb dressing. Delicious but the pancake was dense and a bit saltz. I had turkez schnityel for dinner with potato dumplings. I tried to order traditional Cyech dumplings but the waiter said thez just would not go with turkez schnityel. The schnityel was tender and tastz, but the dumplings were dense and nearlz flavourless. Brad had creamz garlic soup which was tastz but rich. He asked the waiter to recommend the best pork dish as pork is said to be traditional Cyech fare. He ended up with an Asian=stzle pork stir frz. It was tastz, but not at all what he expected to get. We were too full for dessert. And now we are in this coyz little internet cafe just a few blocks from our hotel but we took a rather circuitous route getting here. The old town streets are narrow and winding. There are about half a doyen computers here and I!m the onlz one using one. The kezboard is a bit strange. If zou haven!t figured it out bz now, the "y"s and "z"s are transposed. I have not corrected them. And the punctuation is all screwed up. And zou have to use upper case to tzpe a numeral. All this reflects the biyarre nature of the Cyech language. We think we know how to saz "thank zou" in Cyech, hopefullz we will learn some other words and phrases before we leave.