Greetings from Prague

I have, for the past couple of weeks, been Frannioso Busybusybusybusybusybusybusy!! I’ve had at work wall to wall teaching. When I haven’t been teaching I’ve been preparing for teaching or doing desk sessions. It’s been absolutely flat chat. Time takes on interesting properties in fortnights like that. Although each day seems to stretch interminably before you and to last for ever, in fact huge swathes of time just vanish and suddenly two weeks have gone and you don’t quite know where!

It would have been useful to have spent this weekend, as we did last, at home gently pottering in the garden and on the allotment and catching up with domestic things like clearing up and washing and ironing. However, some weeks ago, the Property Appraisal people asked me if I would join them in Prague this weekend to do some induction sessions for a new Czech cohort. They decided a couple of weeks ago that they didn’t have the numbers to run the new cohort at this time and postponed it until next year. In the meantime, I had bought tickets for The Builder and me to go and The Builder had taken Thursday and Friday off work. I spoke to Alison in our department and decided to go anyway. Never been to Prague. Seemed a fun idea. And the air tickets were non-refundable. No point wasting them.

Then the property people sent me an email asking if, since I was going to Prague anyway, I would spend an hour or two doing refresher training with last years people. Fine, said I. The only reason I’m going is because you asked me to. Don’t mind doing some teaching while I’m there.

They went completely silent. Not a peep out of them. I decided to treat it a a holiday and booked things for us to do. They formally cancelled the teaching at 17:30 last night - when I was long gone and well into holiday mode. This did not come as any surprise to me. They had kept me well informed last time. I had inferred that there was no teaching for me this time from their silence.

So. We arrived in Prague on Thursday evening and took a taxi to the hotel. The taxi fare was exactly what the people at the taxi stand had said it would be. The only problem was - the taxi driver had taken us to the WRONG Hotel Amadeus!!! We had to get another taxi to the right one! It’s a nice room we’ve got. A little sitting alcove with sofa and telly and coffee table. There’s a small kitchen sink with bar fridge and two ring electric hot plate. Alas - there is nothing to use on the hot plate. Not even a kettle. And no plates or cutlery. Not quite sure why it’s there. And the bed has to be, almost without exception, the most uncomfortable bed I can ever remember sleeping in. And two single mattresses pressed together in a frame with two single duvets would be somewhat disappointing if your primary purpose in coming to Prague had been a romantic one!

We went on a guided coach trip of Prague yesterday morning. As we set off, I was thinking that on the whole I preferred Warsaw. It’s smaller and more compact and the tourists haven’t found it properly yet so it’s not very crowded. As the morning progressed, however, it became very clear that Prague gains a great deal by not having been completely razed to the ground during WWII. It is not as dominated by depressing concrete Soviet-style 1950s and 60s apartment blocks. It is, in fact, a very pretty city. The Little Quarter, on the other side of the Charles Bridge is beautiful. I like Prague. I like it a lot. I’m not so fussed by the crowds of people, though!

The tour was very interesting. The guide ran it in English and French. I was pleased to discover that, if I concentrated, I could understand a lot of the French commentary. We had a pleasant walk around the Castle area, and saw most of the City Centre. And ended up 3 hours later in the main Town Square. Pizza for lunch (extremely nice pizza, I must say) and then we headed to the river to collect the many bridges. Including the Charles Bridge, which is ancient and beautiful - and heavily laden with tourists and street artists and jewellery stalls. We had a very nice potter around and then headed back to the hotel for a sit down and a bit of a rest before dinner.

When Roger discovered that we were coming to Prague, he recommended a couple of restaurants and a jazz club, which he and Kate had been too when they visited. The first restaurant he recommended looked to be very, very expensive, and a jazz club didn’t really appeal. But the second restaurant looked interesting and wasn’t too expensive. The Cafe Louvre. Been here since the beginning of the 20th century. Has a gallery restaurant, a cafe, a proper restaurant and a billiards room. And really, really nice food. The pork loin I had just melted as I ate it. And it wasn’t too expensive. The Builder very much enjoyed his pork tenderloin too.

And so a slow stroll back to the hotel, a couple of glasses of wine and back into our very uncomfortable bed - where we both slept right through until about an hour ago. All that walking must have worn us out!

It’s funny how quickly you get used to living in what is very nearly a smokeless society. There are ashtrays everywhere here. People smoke in the restaurants and in the hotels (the jazz club would have been unpleasantly smoky, I think). It quite shocked us when we first noticed! And nearly everybody smokes out in the street. Very few people do now, comparatively, in Britain.

The weather has been very sunny. But the wind is cold. We are glad we brought out jackets, jumpers and gloves