18 June 2016 (sunny and warm) 0 km

7.30am wake up and it was nice not to have to pack up all the gear, then a soaking tent on top of that, although today we could have gotten away with it as the sun had been up for a couple of hours and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Had until 11am before checkout, or as our information booklet stated Heck out. By 8am we were eating our ‘free’ breakfast. Some rolls, ham, cheese (staple diet in Europe) plus apple juice, jams etc, not yer good ol fashioned Big British Brekky. Continentals have to be so refined….. Then as Julia got stuck into paying the guys wages, I took a wander down the lane, (and a very nice lane it is) we reckon the rich and famous of Prague must live here. I was looking for another accommodation as we had to be out (after going on a drunken rampage last night )…not really, they were just fully booked for the weekend.  About 200 metres down the way I found a lovely home, renting rooms or cabins. Got a lovely cabin for two nights and it’s only half the rate of the room we had last night.

Back at the room I grabbed our clothes, which we’d washed last night and folded them, then had a look on-line while Ju packed her stuff. At 10.55am we were cycling down the lane and began settling into our new digs. 

Caught the tram from around the corner into Prague and exited just before the Charles bridge. Over another bridge where we began snapping our way around one half of the city. Briana had told us to take the Royal Tour and we did take a tour, but I like to call it the Peasants Tour… No lording it up, call a church a Basilica, a Palace….a big flash house and a 13^th century bridge….something to cross the river on. So, I’m sorry my gorgeous girl…they can take the lad out of Liverpool, but they’ll never take Liverpool out of

the lad…

We walked for about three hours before hunger pangs began to start so we popped into a little garden bar for a bite to eat. On the table they had some pretzels, so I took a couple, thinking they were freebies, before our meal…nice touch I thought.  Ju wasn’t tempted – said they lookd like they’d been there awhile and she wasn’t sure they weren’t just a plastic decoration.  And how would the waiter tell us “Excuse me sir, but you’re eating the table centrepiece.”  Bugger me, when I

got the bill, they’d charged me for two pralickis – at one euro each! Still, I had the last laugh….cause the tip they were going to get just got cut in half.   We decided that if we wanted some night shots tonight, we’d have to go back to camp and recharge…both the camera and us. One point I should mention here is the unbelievable amount of bloody tourists in this city. More than we’ve seen anywhere, by a long shot.

Back on the tram at 4.35pm on the trip back to Troja, the place it was so hard to find yesterday. Whilst I lay siege to the blog, Julia had a nana nap, ready for our return to the city tonight.  Around 7pm we wandered down the road for a Pizza and a beer, sorry Dad, no omelette and chips here and very nice it was too. Another valuable piece of info for beer connoisseurs, you can buy beer in Czech (and nice it is too ) for less than coke and they think nothing of drinking it from 9am in the morning.  

classic Czech pissing competition!

At 9pm we were back on the tram, returning to the city to take some night shots, but I don’t think we got too many that were as good as Budapest. The full on crowds are a pain in the backside as you can’t get a decent view of any of the buildings you want to shoot and because we don’t have a tripod, we usually use walls or bridge railings, which here, are overflowing with people. Have noticed that Prague has a lot of hen and stag parties on and in fact it seems to be a party town in general. 

The drivers are terrible and you take your life in your hands when crossing the road. Very fast paced and although some beautiful things to see, it’s too fast for us….now there’s a 56 year old talking..! Have noticed an awful lot of Japanese couples getting married here. Feels quite bizarre. Don’t know whether they are from Prague or if they fly over, but we saw about ten couples just today, at different venues, not necessarily churches.  There seem to be a lot of loud football supporters here too, so must check if Sparta Prague were playing. Cruise boats on the river are chaotic and whereas other places we’ve been seem to control the flow, here it is impossible to get a night shot from, or of a bridge, because they are all milling around underneath them. Spent until 10.30pm wandering the streets and on our way to the tram, caught the last fifteen minutes of the Austria v Portugal match.  Tram ride home full at 11pm and once there we crashed to the sound of some festival over the hill. Don’t know if it’s religious or musical or both, but there was some weird monotone chanting going on at about 2am…?  Had a good sleep, ready for tomorrow’s journey into the city.