Prague

We arrived in Prague wet, very, very wet and literally trailing slugs, several of the revolting creatures left behind at the first cafe in which we took refuge. I had trails of slime on my gortex hood, our panniers and Li’s helmet. Obviously they don’t wash off in a down pour.
The day before reaching Prague we had tried with all our might to reach the city and a night with our warm showers host. At 65km we still had 40 plus to go and was going to call it quits. Speaking to Carlos out host we apologised and said we would not arrive as planned. Carlos was happy for us to arrive any time before 1pm and up for a challenge at 6pm we decided to push on. After 19 km detours, steep climbs and treacle legs, winding roads and no lights to guide us we gave up at 96km camping next to a cacophony of the loudest frogs I have ever heard, nettles that stung my bum and slight disappointment for not reaching our destination. We were lucky to find a place to hide our tent as the closer we got to Prague the more built up the terrain became.
The morning brought torrents of rain, a descent that scared the hell out of us with trucks racing past and brakes struggling to perform in the wet.
I had no expectations of Prague, only aware that it was highly recommended as a destination for a city break. Immediately as the old town came into view, Prague took my breath away.
This city hit me similarity to my first visit to Paris, the, colour, river and architectural beauty, history, and it was buzzing. Goose bumps……and promise if a rest day.
What was also a shock were the tourists. We arrived on a Friday and weekend of the Prague marathon. Our accommodation had been arranged for previous night and we spent hours on the Internet, in a cafe slowly being ingested by slugs, searching for accommodation, preferably dry and cheap. Camping was the only option. Ah….. The camping was attached to a hostel and as the other occupants chose to go into town for meals we colonised the kitchen, dried our underwear, shoes and assortments on the radiator and felt like we were in heaven. Maybe the other occupants decided not to have meals in the kitchen due to the damp smell permeating from us?
Saturday, raining, but our clothes dry we enjoyed the sights, smells and tastes of the old city.
There is a clock tower in the main square, a major tourist attraction and as it came close to the hour people swarmed. We stood with the rest of them looking up, more and more difficult to see, umbrellas and children on shoulders, bumping and pushing, loosing Li and then the bells struck. I am still bemused and slightly underwhelmed, as the figures on the clock rung small child size bells, popped there heads out of the tower window for all of 30 seconds and then retired until the next hour. Tat, very old and I guess pretty, but I still tat. The architect of the tower had his eyes poked out so he could not make anything as beautiful for any other city.
This is a very beautiful city.