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I've left it longer than I would have liked to start writing this, so I've already forgotten too many details, but I took an uncharacteristically large number of photos, and annotated most of them, so I hope they're going to help jog my memory enough to put together a decent narrative. It was a wonderful holiday, so I do want to be able to remember as much of it as possible. It's without a doubt the longest that Ramesh & I have spent together without the responsibilities of real life or other people to distract us, and that felt like a really good way to start our married life together.
Day one: mostly travel
A 14:20 flight allowed us a relatively leisurely start even though we hadn't managed to find time to pack in the run-up to the wedding, and the journey to Prague was straightforward and low stress, which was a great relief, and the fact that the hotel sent a driver to pick us up from the airport definitely helped. It was the most opulent place I've ever stayed - antique furniture and cut glass chandeliers and our butler(!) offering us homemade pralines the moment we got in the door, and a view of Prague Castle from our private balcony. We settled in and unpacked, and went out for dinner at a restaurant in the old town which did vegetarian versions of classical Czech cuisine.
Our room
View of the castle from the balcony
Day two: Stravhov and Petrin tower
The next morning we woke up refreshed and set off to Strahov Monastery, which has a gorgeous library filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful knicknacks, and a gallery of religious art collected by the Abbots throughout the ages, and now shared with the public. The walk to the monastery wasn't very long, but was steeper than we'd realised, so it took us a little while to get there, but did mean that we were rewarded with some extraordinary views of the town once we got there, as well as lots of beautiful architecture and statuary, before we even got to inside the library and gallery. Some of my favourite things in the library include this book made entirely of bling
and this map of Europe which is also a woman
but there were so many fascinating oddities.
After going round the library we went to a nearby restaurant for pancakes, which turned out to be unlike any pancakes I'd ever had before - more like dropscones than crepes, but with a lighter texture, and served with a wonderful sweet-sharp blueberry compote. I was disappointed later to find that not all pancakes in Prague are like this, but glad I got to experience them once. After eating we still had a little time to kill before the gallery opened, and whilst Ramesh opted to stay sitting down drinking coffee, I went for a wander and found a sign pointing towards the Petrin Tower. Due to one of those things where you keep thinking something is just round the corner until you've gone much further than you originally planned, I eventually had to call Ramesh and ask if he minded me leaving him to wait whilst I went up the tower. It was very cheap to get in, but the lift was quite expensive and had a longer queue, so I opted for the stairs. There were a lot of stairs, but views always seem better when you've worked for them, right? My photos don't even begin to do it justice, so you'll just have to accept my word that it was considerably more stunning in real life!
The gallery had two floors, the first of which consisted of chapels and chapter rooms which had only a few pieces of art in them, but was infused with a sense of holiness that I found almost disturbing, but in a good way. Upstairs was set out more like a traditional gallery, with mostly paintings and one room of tat. My favourite piece was this crucifix which really doesn't shy away from the horror of the passion:
The plan had been to go to Prague Castle in the afternoon, but we got there a bit later than planned and Ramesh was already feeling quite fatigued from all the walking we'd done already, so we decide to stroll back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing. In the evening we went to a blacklight theatre show called "Aspects of Alice", which we'd seen and enjoyed on our first trip to Prague in the very early days of our relationship. One of the things we remembered from the first time is that it had started fairly innocently, with every feeling of being a show for kids, and then suddenly in the second act there were naked lesbians and some rather shocked gasps. I think there may have been a few complaints since then, because this time, although the scene where Alice is talking to the flowers has some suggestive eroticism, it falls well within the realms of plausible deniability.
It was still fun though, and they added a bit after the show where they demonstrate how some of the acts are done and ask for volunteers from the audience to have a go. After waiting to give other people a chance and realising that no-one was going to I put up my hand and had a go at clowning. I was quite pleased with myself, as although they'd clearly arranged it so that it would work whatever the audience member did, I think I managed to actually give a performance and make it funnier.
Day one: mostly travel
A 14:20 flight allowed us a relatively leisurely start even though we hadn't managed to find time to pack in the run-up to the wedding, and the journey to Prague was straightforward and low stress, which was a great relief, and the fact that the hotel sent a driver to pick us up from the airport definitely helped. It was the most opulent place I've ever stayed - antique furniture and cut glass chandeliers and our butler(!) offering us homemade pralines the moment we got in the door, and a view of Prague Castle from our private balcony. We settled in and unpacked, and went out for dinner at a restaurant in the old town which did vegetarian versions of classical Czech cuisine.
Our room
View of the castle from the balcony
Day two: Stravhov and Petrin tower
The next morning we woke up refreshed and set off to Strahov Monastery, which has a gorgeous library filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful knicknacks, and a gallery of religious art collected by the Abbots throughout the ages, and now shared with the public. The walk to the monastery wasn't very long, but was steeper than we'd realised, so it took us a little while to get there, but did mean that we were rewarded with some extraordinary views of the town once we got there, as well as lots of beautiful architecture and statuary, before we even got to inside the library and gallery. Some of my favourite things in the library include this book made entirely of bling
and this map of Europe which is also a woman
but there were so many fascinating oddities.
After going round the library we went to a nearby restaurant for pancakes, which turned out to be unlike any pancakes I'd ever had before - more like dropscones than crepes, but with a lighter texture, and served with a wonderful sweet-sharp blueberry compote. I was disappointed later to find that not all pancakes in Prague are like this, but glad I got to experience them once. After eating we still had a little time to kill before the gallery opened, and whilst Ramesh opted to stay sitting down drinking coffee, I went for a wander and found a sign pointing towards the Petrin Tower. Due to one of those things where you keep thinking something is just round the corner until you've gone much further than you originally planned, I eventually had to call Ramesh and ask if he minded me leaving him to wait whilst I went up the tower. It was very cheap to get in, but the lift was quite expensive and had a longer queue, so I opted for the stairs. There were a lot of stairs, but views always seem better when you've worked for them, right? My photos don't even begin to do it justice, so you'll just have to accept my word that it was considerably more stunning in real life!
The gallery had two floors, the first of which consisted of chapels and chapter rooms which had only a few pieces of art in them, but was infused with a sense of holiness that I found almost disturbing, but in a good way. Upstairs was set out more like a traditional gallery, with mostly paintings and one room of tat. My favourite piece was this crucifix which really doesn't shy away from the horror of the passion:
The plan had been to go to Prague Castle in the afternoon, but we got there a bit later than planned and Ramesh was already feeling quite fatigued from all the walking we'd done already, so we decide to stroll back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing. In the evening we went to a blacklight theatre show called "Aspects of Alice", which we'd seen and enjoyed on our first trip to Prague in the very early days of our relationship. One of the things we remembered from the first time is that it had started fairly innocently, with every feeling of being a show for kids, and then suddenly in the second act there were naked lesbians and some rather shocked gasps. I think there may have been a few complaints since then, because this time, although the scene where Alice is talking to the flowers has some suggestive eroticism, it falls well within the realms of plausible deniability.
It was still fun though, and they added a bit after the show where they demonstrate how some of the acts are done and ask for volunteers from the audience to have a go. After waiting to give other people a chance and realising that no-one was going to I put up my hand and had a go at clowning. I was quite pleased with myself, as although they'd clearly arranged it so that it would work whatever the audience member did, I think I managed to actually give a performance and make it funnier.
