Welcome to the fairy tale city of Prague in Czech Republic.
For most part of our Eastern Europe tour, we had a Czech driver, a nice guy with a mischievous smile. How happy he was when we crossed into Czech republic and entered Prague late evening.
The sun had gone down and the city had taken on a magical glow in the fading evening light. The spires of many cathedrals in Prague were a sight to behold. It's the city of a hundred spires on the River Vltava
Next morning we began our city tour of Prague. We had a lovely Czech girl as our guide and naturally all the members of the group were more than
enthusiastic to begin walking in the city of Prague:)
The walk was going to be 5 to 6 hours through different parts of the city...but every second of it was worth it.
We began our tour in the Prague Castle. We visited the old Town square with the famous Astronomical clock, St Vitus Cathedral and many other 15/16 century buildings
We walked over the famous 600 year old Charles Bridge which gives incredible views of Prague. Jazz musicians played on the sides of the bridge, there were painters sketching/painting on their canvases.
It was Prague at it's very best. Medieval, pretty, very European and really really hard to describe it's beauty. It was a fairy tale city.
Skoda cars everywhere and all sorts of models...The car from Czech republic, now owned by Volkswagen has become very popular in India as a luxury car.
Afternoon right close to the Town Square, we sat down to drink 'Gambrinus', a popular Czech beer. Czech republic is undoubtedly the beer mecca. On a per capita basis, Czech people drink more beer than anybody else in the world, even more than the Germans.
Prague offers a wide range of beers from many of the 430 breweries within the Czech Republic. A country where the first pilsner beers were brewed, Prague is a paradise to any beer enthusiast.
The famous German poet Goethe has labeled Prague "the most precious stone in the crown of towns,"
Next day we visited Brno, Czech Republic's second largest city. Our Guide, this time a different Czech girl..We strongly suspected she was drunk!.
The whole group was laughing...and it was the most hilarious moment of the entire trip. We stopped by a nice castle in the countryside on the way between Prague and Brno and then visited Brno.
It was Euro 2006 football time. Czech republic was considered the strongest team and it lost in the early rounds. So we all sat down with our Czech bus driver that evening and consoled him. He told us... When Czech team loses, people drink 6 to 7 pints of beer to forget the loss...So we asked him what happens when the team wins. He promptly replied, we drink 13 pints!
That evening he did drink 5 pints and talked about his adventures...adventures with women.
We started towards our last leg in the tour. Eastern part of Germany. As we neared the Czech border, we noticed prostitutes everywhere walking freely on the roads tempting rich Germans.
Germany...It wasn't the first time I was visiting Germany. On my tour of Western Europe I had seen the lovely parts of Germany...All the pretty, pretty and clinically German towns.
But the moment we crossed the border, Germany with it's very very neat roads, villages, very pretty houses, with crystal clear road signs, the most efficient transportation, burst onto the scene. This was Germany...Everyone wants to drive German cars (Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche...) Germany continues to stand for quality, efficieny and much much more
But we were entering Eastern Germany, the part which was Commumist earlier and which was getting transformed
More about Eastern part of Germany in the following blog posts
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