Prague

Introducing Bryn Kewley.

I had a storming run this morning! Got a little lost but in doing so found a parade ground, stumbled across canoeists navigating a slalom course, helped a man push what I assume was his moped through the front door of his house and took a second to watch Prague grow, as deep foundations for a new building were laid.

The trip has been brilliant so far. Highlights include the Germanic countryside which is as beautiful as its autobahn is smooth, Dresden’s Neustadt (new town) featuring incredibly creative architecture and decoration as well as ear wigging what the hands of Prague’s astronomical clock actually mean!

The accommodation has ranged from Cologne’s five star Hyatt to Dresden’s Kangaroo Stop and Prague’s Elf Hostel, and truthfully I’m not sure which I prefer. Staying in the Hyatt was a wonder; comfortable, relaxing and for a price every convenience can be catered for. Yet the quirky hostels seem to carry less presumption and so long as they are clean and the beds comfortable their exciting sociable verve just might be my preference.

Sophie Ibbotson.

Prague is one of those places that has always been second on my list of places to go – it sounded fascinating but I’d never quite gotten round to going. It was therefore a delight to pitch up here yesterday lunchtime. The drive over from Dresden was only a couple of hours, so there was plenty of time to check out the town.

Prague is definitely a place best seen on foot and, preferably, without a map. I say that because it is a wonderful place to just wander. Around every bend is another surprise. Sometimes you come across something quite charming – a fountain in a courtyard or a string quartet playing Vivaldi – and sometimes something less so. The hen parties dressed as Vikings and the hand-blown snow globes certainly fall into the latter category, though they’re entertaining nonetheless.

Perhaps the most famous site in the old town is the astronomical clock. To look at it is undoubtedly beautiful, but the real accomplishment of its makers is its technical mastery. We were fortunate enough to listen in as an English-speaking tour guide explained how each part worked.

The time is told by the Roman numerals around the outside of the upper face. The golden sun moves outwards along the clock hand as it approaches the summer solstice, and back towards the centre of the clock as it turns to winter. The silver orb that represents the moon moves across panels of black, orange, green and blue depending on whether or not it can be seen in the sky during daylight hours.

On the lower clock face you can see the days of the year. For a reason we couldn’t establish, the date wheel rotates anti-clockwise. The detailed paintings are not zodiac signs as we first thought but representations of different saint’s days. They too change according to the calendar.


As it approaches the hour, huge crowds gather to watch the clock chime. Three figures in medieval dress and a sinister skeleton all spring into life: the people are scared by the passing of time but death does not care. Far above them at the top of the bell tower a single trumpeter pokes his head out beneath the roof tiles and blasts out a note across the square. A chime sounds somewhere within the clock, and the figures once again become still.