The Sights on Sunday

On Sunday we decided to take in one of the city tours. So after an east European breakfast, we made our way to the town square to look for people holding yellow umbrellas - despite the fact that the weather was hot and sunny. The tour starts with a walk round sights near the main square and then goes to the river to board a boat. At one stop, the guide explained to us that vertically challenged people like Kathy were known as "small beers". The river trip is a good place to get a feel for the geography of the city and also to see some of the main attractions from a distance. Our tour included a drink on the boat.

On leaving the boat, we visited the Jewish Quarter before crossing Charles Bridge to a tram stop. The tram took us up the hill to above the castle where a lunch stop was arranged in the cellar of a restaurant. The meal included traditional food - I think I could give the dumplings a miss next time. After lunch we walked down through the Strahov Monastery with its famous library and over to Prague Castle. Here the guide abandoned us, with a view over the city and some instructions as to how to get back.

As we made our way back to the hotel after the 6 hour tour on a hot day, we passed the concert hall where there seemed to be immense interest in the group to get some culture. This was rather an anathema to Alan who has never been big on culture. It was decided that the favoured piece was on that very evening, so after a quick change at the hotel, we were back at the concert hall ready for the show. For the record it was Mozart's Requiem by the Praga Sinfonietta orchestra with the Vox Pragae mixed choir and conducted by Miriam Nemcova (she was the one with the stick at the front). There is a very ornate ceiling with lights in the Smetana Hall.

As we were going to be a bit late we had booked a table in the Needlehouse restuarant for dinner. We were treated well in this restaurant. Candles on the table were lit as we sat down to study the menu. Sally hadn't realised that holding the menu over the candle might be a problem. As smoke started to rise, reality dawned and panic set in. She proceeded to do a good impression of Rowan Atkinson as she waved the menu around frantically looking for somewhere to put it or somewhere to smother the flames, hoping nobody would notice. Fortunately the flames subsided fairly quickly and no damage done, except Sally had slightly less choice than the rest of us.