Praha

Arrived in Prague (or Praha as the locals call it) Tuesday about dinner time. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much, as drab and utilitarian as Berlin (due to its communist past) but without the energy of a big city. Trains from Berlin don't arrive at the main train station-- they arrive at the small dingy suburban station and while suburban Prague on the outskrts of the old city is safe enough, it's a work-a-day neighborhood with very little aestheitic appeal. Then factor in that the the Czech language is slavic in origin (think Russian) rather than romantic (French/Spanish) or Germanic (German/English) and there are no such things as slavic cognates in English and well, it's a bit overwhelming. The only way we were able to find our hotel was locate where we were on amap and count the intersections as they went past, as there was no way to understand the recorded voice announcing each stop.

Hotel prices drop by half as soon as you move out of the historic central city, so we stayed in a place about a 10 minute tram ride into the major tourist district-- close enough to come home mid day for a rest if we wanted. The hotel has small rooms and although it's western the way we would think about it, the service industry is far less service oriented than we're used to.

Yesterday we spent the morning at Prague's Castle and then simply spent the afternoon and envening walking the historic district. Prague was largely spared durinmg the war, so there was very little rebuilding to do; the result is street after street after street of fabulous architecture and facades. There are four main squares in hte old city each connected by charming old streets, then the castle district overlooks them all.

Today we spent the morning in the Jewish sector and then spent the afternoon in hte shopping district. Ate dinner tonight in Cafe Slavia, home of Prague's 19th century intellectual elite, with a table by the river with a stunning castle view, and we ate lunch yesterday in a monastery.

I won't say there's a lot to do here as opposed to other european cities but there certainly is a lot to see.

We leave for a long day on the train back to western Germany tomorrow (Friday)