Fighting the crowds in Prague

Prague, Sunday

I must say that the Radisson SAS have really been very kind to help me get over my disappointment of yesterday. Alexandra even visits me at the hotel’s impressive buffet breakfast to ask how I am feeling. While I am sure they have had many guests in the past who have experienced similar problems, I am also certain I will not be the last.
Prague really must clean up its act or the golden goose will stop laying.
Every time I come here, I find the architecture jaw-droppingly amazing. The city has a lovely feel about it and the pavement culture is super. The tram and metro system is frequent and cheap, which is lucky, because a promised transport card from Czech Tourism hasn’t arrived and, being a weekend, can’t be sorted out until after I have left for Warsaw.
But August is not the time to come. The charm of Prague is completely ruined by the impossible scrum of tourists everywhere. Just like Dubrovnik, here is a tourist destination which needs moderation or it will completely spoil the reason people have come here.
I do make a trip up the old town bridge tower but, although it’s not late in the day, you can hardly move for crowds, so I decide to escape across the river to Mala Strana Park, to take the funicular railway to the top of Petrov Hill. There, the 60 metre-high look out tower, a sort of miniature version of the Eiffel, offers outstanding views across the city. But the locals and the tourists are already out in force and it´s quite clear that a long wait in the sunshine will be necessary. I consult my Time Out and revert to plan B, a visit to the National Technical Museum. Promising everything from steam trains to aircraft and even a coal mine, this looks very promising indeed. No tram or metro goes especially close and it´s a long walk up a steep hill to reach the museum. Which is closed. Zavreno. Geschlossen. Until 2010.
I repair to a local hostelry for a most pleasant and inexpensive chicken salad lunch, but, as I descend the hill, advise several other museum-bound tourists of the closure. I see some local supporters of Sparta Prague heading to the football stadium and I am very tempted to join them.
By the time I get back to Old Town the hordes have become more akin to a football crowd leaving a big match. It´s hot and it´s not at all enjoyable. I am wary of pickpockets and clasp my bag, from which I have put almost everything of value in the hotel safe, tightly to my body.
I escape to the backstreets, find some lovely arcades, lots of interesting-looking eateries and happen upon the Havelska market. When I was last here, it was a really nice place to go and buy produce. Now, like most of central Prague, it´s full of tourist tat.
I´m really disappointed with my experience. I like the place a lot. But on this occasion I´ve experienced the seedy side and the greedy side and that has, for sure, soured my view.
The saving grace, undoubtedly, has been the care shown by the staff at the Radisson who have been great. It´s refreshing to find personnel at a big hotel who really care about their clients.
I´m sure they will choose a different taxi firm to take me to the station in the morning.

You can see all the photos from my trip at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/MDSouter/MikeSEuropeanRailTrip

Vienna to Prague

Vienna to Prague

Saturday

The Journey from Vienna to Prague is most enjoyable, despite the boarding chaos at Vienna Station. The world seems to have gathered on the platform. I seem to be the only passenger who has bothered to look in advance at the train layout, so I am waiting in exactly the right place. People rush on, realise they are in the wrong carriage, and try to turn round against the oncoming tide of humanity.

I wait until the worst of the nonsense is over and then calmly find my seat. By then, of course, the luggage storage is in a mess, so by careful repacking, there is plenty of space for my bag. In the middle of my organisation a German man remonstrates with me for not asking permission to touch his property!

I am impressed with the service on Czech Railways. A very nice and reasonably priced pot of coffee is served at my seat, announcements are in Czech, German and English and the restaurant car is very comfortable with a good choice of fare. I select ‘Grandma’s hearty vegetable soup’, followed by some pork medallions and roast potatoes, washed down with a glass of Pilsner Urquell. Good value at around sixteen pounds. We have crossed yet another international border and I have not been asked for my passport since leaving Spain on the overnight train. Why, then is there such a hassle at airports over the matter?

The train arrives in Prague forty minutes late, which may well be down to a major rail accident the previous day in which 10 people were killed. But, I am not even clock watching, it’s been a nice journey and I am totally relaxed.

At Holesovice Station, being used because Hlavni station is undergoing a major refurbishment, here are signs to the taxi rank, I check the guy has a meter and he hurtles to my hotel. He drives like a complete madman and I am somewhat flustered, to say the least, by the time I get to the hotel. Maybe that’s part of the con.

It’s the first time on the trip we’ve moved out of Euros. The meter says 600 Czech Crowns, he gives me a receipt and I get to reception. Then it dawns on me. I ask how much the 9 kilometre trip should have cost. I have paid twenty five pounds for a trip which should have cost about eight. My Time Out Guide says ‘Taxis have a well-deserved reputation for rip-offs. You are just about guaranteed to be overcharged’.

I am angry. More at myself than anything. I am a very experienced traveller.

The lovely Alexandra and Marketa at reception do their best to cheer me up, but it is several hours later and a lot of walking before I regain any sort of composure.

It’s not the money. It’s the fact I should have known and the absolute scandal that Prague Town Hall do very almost nothing to stamp it out. I think I am as wary a traveller as anyone, but when you see a price on a meter, you think it is right.

Anyway, that off my chest, I am determined I will go out tomorrow and see the better side of an architecturally awesome city which has, in the main part, really nice and friendly people.