Debonair David: Prague from the Tower

~I have returned from my trip to Prague! The trip was fantastic and I met a lot of great people, but it's also good to be back. Over the next few weeks, I will present some of the better pictures I took while in the Czech Republic, along with suitably-embellished accounts of my time there. I'll be posting the pictures in roughly-chronological order, and each post about Prague will end with a panoramic image.

After a long transatlantic United flight (they gave me pasta! and I got to watch both National Treasure 2 and Cloverfield!), I arrived at Ruzyne airport on the outskirts of Prague, which is a very modern facility. I was met by a student from Charles University and her boyfriend, who both spoke good English. They helped me change my money and get a shuttle bus to the center of the city.

Upon arrival at my hotel (great location, no air conditioning, occasional hot water outages, and five TV channels), I found that I had a few hours left until I was scheduled to meet up with the other group members. After walking around a bit, I found a large, old tower nearby (the "Powder Tower", once used to store gunpowder) and was able to climb to the top for a few pictures:

^ The streets of Prague are like canyons, with solid walls of apartment buildings on either side.

^ Most of the buildings have distinctive red roofs, and there are many cathedrals such as the one in this picture. In the old town area (depicted above, and where my hotel was), there are no skyscrapers or very tall buildings.

^ Many of the buildings are very decorated with statues, pictures, friezes, embellishments, etc. This unusual statue is just sitting on top of a bank, ignoring the satellite dishes nearby.

^ One thing about Prague that I particularly enjoyed was how friendly it was to pedestrians. Many of the roads in the old town area are pedestrian-only or have very large sidewalks. The city also has an excellent system of subways and trams that are inexpensive and easy to use.

^ This dome is above the Municipal House, where I went to hear an amazing string concert.

^ See what I mean about the red roofs?

^ This golden crest is located above a concert hall. The lion in the middle is the coat of arms for the Czech Republic.

^ One of the city's more recent (and distinctive) landmarks is the TV tower in the background, which was built during the communist era. If you click on the picture, you'll get a larger view, and if you look carefully, you may see bumps on the middle part of the tower. They are disturbing sculptures of babies, which were controversial and were taken down a few years ago, only to be recently reinstated.