The World's Most Beautiful City?
I'm prepared to cast my vote for Prague.
We arrived Saturday late afternoon to light rain and overcast skies. By the time we were taking our bus to the hotel, the skies had begun to clear and we were treated to our first view of this magical city. Cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings from every period side by side in a lovely mix of styles. We have a congenial group of 27, not only from California, but from New Mexico and Colorado. We all gathered for a welcome dinner at the Cafe Louvre, where we ate hearty Czech food, drank the world famous Pilsner Urquell and sampled the herbal liqueur Becherovka. That was about all we were up for after our LENGTHY day of travel. We headed back to our hotel...a lovely old building that was once an insurance company where Franz Kafka worked! We shouldn't have been surprised by that...we're surrounded by history. After all, the NEW Town in Prague was built in 1348!
The Christmas markets are in full swing....and full of tourists. Today (Sunday) we spent the morning touring the Old Town and New Town areas with a very knowledgeable local guide, Janna. The area around the Charles Bridge is amazing...and once again we were treated to a period of lovely sun breaking through the clouds and glittering on the River Vltava....also known in German as the Moldau. Which is fitting, since we also visited the Smetana museum!
After lunch, part of the group headed off to visit the old castle area, while some of us decided to wander the markets and do our part for the local economy :) There are LOTS of concerts around town, so many of us are headed out to hear music tonight. I'm looking forward to hearing Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the beautiful old church of St Nicholas tonight. Will report on that tomorrow and hopefully be able to post pictures......how to decide which ones, tho? Everything here is beautiful.
Wish you were here!
Cheryl