Czech Republic, Prague

We're really loving this place. It has such a rich an interesting history and is quite a vibrant place - very different to Vienna which was lovely but nowhere near as vibrant as Prague. I find most of the buildings in Prague a little bleak, there is none of the wild decorative work that you see on other buildings in European cities. I had desperately wanted to visit the Klementinum, a very baroque library (which I discovered is now closed to the public) but could easily have walked right past this building - very plain on the outside considering what it houses on the inside (if you don't know it it's worth the look on google images). Our tour guide of the day before had recommended we get to the main bridge that crosses the Vitava River well before the crowds at 8am, so this is what we did before breakfast. The bridge leads away from the old town (where we are staying, right opposite from the astronomical clock) to the "new" town on the other side where the Prague Castle sits. Compared to what the bridge was like when we crossed back late in the day it was a good plan. After breakfast we went across the bridge again to the Castle. We spent a few hours here talking around with the crowds. It is quite a big site and it is a little limited to parts you can go into, but very interesting anyway. From here we went further up the hill to the Strahov Monastery where there is a baroque library, quite small, but it was the consolation prize for not getting into the Klementium. The monks also have a brewery here, pretty popular, so we joined the crowds and had a few beers. That ended our day sight seeing....dinner in a restaurant just off the town square - lovelyRead more