Prague

Prague is a great place - period. I won't let the less than friendly weather, the strangely dry air or the lack of really great cuisine (yet good & cheap) detract anything from that statement. You can sense the city's imperial history and intellectual as well as artistic past in every single step you make. Which is almost the best thing: Everything is practically within easy walking distance. So while the place is geographically tiny, it is a cultural giant.

Unfortunately, I only really had two days to discover, so I did a lot of walking during the day and hit a bit of the famous nightlife as well. The music scene is positively vibrant - there's classical concerts (note the plural) every single day, even now. But I was more after some jazz at the time, so we went to highly commendable U Staré Pani and felt right at home.

For the historically minded (recent history, that is), there is a fascinating little photo exhibition with Lubos Kotek's pictures of Prague in the 1980ies up until the velvet revolution of 1989 - how different (and sad!) the mood must have been then! It seems that the city was largely under scaffolding then - without any actual work being done, though! I was wondering whether this might have been an unconscious mechanism to shield the city's inhabitants from being confronted with their great past?

Anyway, things are much better now. I took full advantage of the incredibly well stocked second hand book- & print shops. The purchase I am proudest of is the beautifully framed description of Edinburgh from Sebastian Münster's 1560 Basle edition of Das Ander Buch for a very reasonable price. Here it is:
And here's one that is not on every postcard: The John Lennon wall, being added to.Watch this space for more travel reports - next week from Warsaw.