Our river cruise was scheduled to depart from Vienna. Before the scheduled cruise, we flew to Prague for a Pre Trip.
The stay in Prague helped us adjust to the time change and to learn a bit about life in the Czech Republic. We went on three optional day tours to explore the rural countryside, visit a castle, and walk through a Nazi concentration camp.
The 1989 Velvet Revolution was a nonviolent revolution led by students that ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia. One of the ways that students communicated was to put graffiti on the John Lennon wall, shown below. Here and elsewhere, you can click on a picture for an expanded view. Click the back arrow to return to the riveting dialog.
On January 1, 1993 the Velvet Divorce separated Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic, with Prague as its capitol, and Slovakia, with Bratislova as its capitol.
Prague is known for it puppets and marionettes.
Prague pastries are made by wrapping dough around a cylinder and rotating the cylinder over heat. We stopped on our city tour to sample some of these rolled pastries.
The Prague Castle overlooks the city of Prague. Here is a view of the city from the castle.
For me, the biggest surprise about Prague was the lack of bicycles. Most people use public transportation, which is cheap and abundant. Škoda Auto manufactures about half of the cars driven in the Czech Republic, and locals seem to much prefer cars to bicycles.
Here is a pictures that was on the wall of our hotel room. Immediately I see a male and a female, but I don’t understand why. Do you see it the same way? And if so, which is which?
In the late afternoon, we did an optional tour to the Czech countryside.