Prague Part 1
October 7 - Day 17
07.10.2011 - 07.10.2011
14 °C
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October 7 - Friday Day 17
Berlin to Prague - Czech Republic
Berlin has only four hills - one for each point of the compass - made up of rubble from the war.
Farewelled eleven of our little group last night with a very pleasant evening of pre dinner groups atTim and Jorg's apartment and dinner at the hotel.
Left through East Berlin and then onto the autobahn south towards Prague in the Czech Republic. Lunchtime break in Dresden where Tim took us on a quick walking tour of the Old Town. Dresden was bombed back to rubble in 1945. Why? Who knows? There was no industry or anything directly supporting the war effort. So we will need to do some research on that. It was the centre of the Reformation so it is primarily Lutheran. The iconic photo of Dresden after the bombing shows the one window and corner that remained of the cathedral which has been historically restored. A most unusual church, circular in construction with a large central dome and galleries around all sides except for the altar which has a very large organ over it. The organ actually melted during the fire storms that followed the bombing and protected the alter.
Finally some hilly country!! We climb out of Germany into the Czech Republic over the hills to the large industrial and mining centre of Usti (silver). Followed the road upstream alongside the Elbe River into steeper mountain countryside. The Czech Republic has had a short volatile history being declared a country in 1918 and then being annexed by the Germans in 1936 and now separate to Slovakia.
Prague is full of tourists! This is the first time that it has been cool - temperature only rose to 14 so the breeze was quite cool as we went for a quick location tour before dinner. Our hotel is very central again so we can wander around the old city easily. We heard that Tamworth was only 15 today so it's not too bad.
We have 2 days here and only tomorrow morning is organized for us so we will have time to wander. Lots of designer shops but nothing leapt out and said "buy me".
Posted by suengarry 07.10.2011 12:10 Archived in Czech Republic Tagged prague
