marathon sightseeing in Prague and relaxing in Mariánské Lázně

What I love about Europe is the fact that it's old, loaded with history and an impressive history of art. Seen not only in Germany on a few short city trips that I've talked my parents into when we went to see Erfurt and Dresden (photos can be enjoyed when following the link) but also in Prague. This beautiful capital of the Czech Republic is quite impressive with its Castle overlooking the hustle of modern life. Maybe even more famous than one of the biggest castles in the world is Charles Bridge that crosses the Vltava river and is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues who have to share the bridge with thousands of tourists every day plus traders who offer souvenirs, paintings, beautiful photographs and other craftwork. During the day the bridge is indeed a very busy place but so is Prague in general. My Czech friend Pavlina who did a brilliant job showing us around her town sometimes was the only Czech speaking person around.

I can't list all the buildings, attractions and sights we've visited as there is too many but to name only a few there's been St. Vitus Cathedral (sourrounded by Prague Castle), The Astronomical Clock, The Dancing House (don't expect too much, when you go to visit it), Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Vysehrad and the honorary cemetry next to it (here many famous Czechs are buried), an observation tower on Petřín hill called little Eiffel Tower (that offers wonderful views over Prague and Prague Castle) and many more churches and cathedrals whose names not even Pavlina knew. Considering our history (we've worked together on boats in New Zealand) Pavlina and I wouldn't miss the chance of going on a boat trip together and so we cruised the Vltava river. Only a short trip though we cruised up the river to see Vysehrad and then down to Charles Bridge to see Prague Castle and then we went back. We had to cross a watergate twice as the river level is changing and that was by far the most interesting part of our journey to see how they first pumped water out of it to reach the same lower level of the downstream part of the river and on the way back they pumped the water back in to get us back on a higher level.

The second last day I had been looking forward to for a very long time as this was the day we headed for one of the many sport venues to see Depeche Mode playing as part of their World of the Universe Tour. While the opener was performing in heavy rain the clouds disappeared as soon as Depeche Mode entered the stage. It was a great gig (as always!) although it took quite a while for the Czechs to warm up. They are also not the most passionate when it comes to singing out loud with the band (opposite to what I've seen during the boat trip when they sang and danced on tables) but in the end they've managed wonderfully especially the dude standing behind me and not hitting a note right.Well, I haven't been able to see much of the concert as every tall guy in the stadium must have decided to place themselves infront of me and so even the screens were hidden most of the time. But nevermind, the music counts. And afterall I was quite happy to be there at all as it was very likely for the concert to be cancelled after Dave Gahan (the singer) had fallen ill more than a month ago and they'd already cancelled quite a few shows. We were lucky Dave had recovered so quickly and he looked better than ever!

We've encountered quite a bit of rain while being in Prague and so we had decided to do some trips that didn't involve much walking but more driving in the car. Like everywhere else in Europe, the Czech Republic is blotched with castles, ruins and chateus so we only had to pick.

First we drove 50 km southeast where Konopiště is located. It is famous for being the last residence of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I. Seeing the huge and extensive gun collection Franz Ferdinand's in the large weapon chamber and as decoration throughout the house I guess it's only fair to call the Archduke a gun nut. He also liked to show off his numerous shooting trophies but I guess that's what rich men did these days. What else did they have to do all day?

The second trip led us to Karlštejn about 30km southwest of Prague. One of the most famous castles in Czech however very difficult to find and so it took as about an hour to finally pull up on the car park to start the ascent to the castle. The place used to house the Bohemian coronation jewels, holy relics and other royal treasures but they now live in Prague Castle.

We left Prague after a very eventful and walk-intensive week to spend two days in Mariánské Lázně, a spa town close to the German border. The top attraction of the town are its 100 mineral springs (53 of them are tapped) with high carbon dioxide content and often also higher iron content, both in the town itself and its surroundings. So don't be surprised seeing everybody walking about with water bottles, cups or ceramic mugs - that's part of the towns business as a spa town and you can drink mineral water until you leak, drop or whatever else. Every hotel with a good opinion of itself offers various treatments to spoil their guests, starting with massages, therapeutic baths, therapeutic applications, treatments to enhance beauty (or to restore it ;-) ) and many more. We devoted ourselves to a day of doing absolutely nothing but relaxing, enjoying massages etc and left Mariánské Lázně fresher than ever!