The Old Town (23 September 2024)

Walking to the Old Town
 

It was another nice morning, and we decided we would amble to the old town to do some exploring of that area.  It intended to be a relaxed day. 

 

We had thought of going to the café we had had a nice coffee the previous day but being Monday, it was shut.  A few hundred metres further on we came across another little basement café.  It turned out to have decaffeinated coffee as well as flat white, which seem to be ubiquitous in Germany, Copenhagen and Prague.  We stayed much longer than intended and as it was a nice atmosphere and the coffee was good. 

Our coffee place

 

The Old Town was lovely to explore.  It was maze of narrow streets and alleyways.  It would be very easy to get disoriented and lost.  We came across a little outdoor market selling a mixture of vegetables and tourist tat.  There we purchased one or two small gifts.

One of the view from the Dancing House
 We also went to the main Post Office as it was supposed to be a rather magnificent building.  It’s charm was internal with a huge atrium or banking hall with fresco artwork.  It was a busy place.  I am not sure whether it was all postal activities that were being conducted. 

Inside the Post Office

A piece of art work in the Post Office

Around the corner was Wenceslas Square -  the huge square which I remembered from pictures I saw of demonstrations there in 1969 when Soviet tanks advanced on the demonstrators. Also, this is where, in 1989 during the Velvet Revolution, democracy was brought to Czechoslovakia.  There is a lot of reconstruction of the square occurring as they are laying another tram line there. 

 

The top end of Wenceslas Square

The rest of the Square - showing the disruption going on

I have been impressed with the public transport in all the cities we have been.  Auckland, which is the same size as Prague, really does not have the same integrated public transport system.  The best part was that being over 65 years of age public transport was free.  A lot of travel payment seems to be done on trust as there did not seem to be any tag on/tag off systems that we could see.  All the services we used were frequent and it seemed that most places were only a few hundred metres at least from a tram, metro or bus stop. 

We made our way back to the apartment via the metro getting off where we had been recommended by our host.  Initially it looked like that would have been a good option but then we came to a series of steps that would have made carrying our bags down a major struggle.

We finished our day with a meal at the local Italian.  Our “mafia”  group were there again trying not look like the hoods.
Me
Me with our lovely Italian waiter




The wings flapped

Bev with a not traditional Prague sort of ice-cream

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