Work trip to Plzen and Prague, Czech Republic - 22nd to 24th October 2008

After a ridiculously long day trip to the Netherlands, I spent a day in London - then got up absurdly early again for a trip to the Czech Republic. When the alarm went off, I spent a good few minutes wondering why on earth I hadn't just gone directly there. My first destination was Plzen (or Pilsen if you prefer), where my company has an office. A 40 minute or so cab ride from Prague airport, and we were there - a fairly small town, which looks in many respects like a mini version of Prague, at least in the central old town. One of the big things that Plzen is famous for is a massive brewery, so we sampled some of the produce during the evening we spent there. One other remarkable thing about the town is the synagogue pictured here - it is one of the 2 or 3 biggest in Europe, and has fairly recently been restored. Looks amazing and very imposing from the front - part of you wonders how a synagogue of this size managed to survive Nazi occupation, World War II, and 40 years of Communist neglect. Impressive.

After a day and a half in Plzen, we went to Prague for an evening out, before returning home. It never ceases to amaze me that, no matter the time of year, the centre of Prague is absolutely crawling with tourists. We were staying somewhere pretty central, so I took my colleagues on a walk around the old town. It was pretty freezing cold there already (a reminder of just how damn cold it gets in winter), so after a short visit to the Old Town Square, we retired promptly to the warmth of a bar. Just like the last time I was here, baked pork knee on a spit was very high on the agenda, washed down with plenty of lovely Czech beer.

You don't have to spend much time in Prague to appreciate what an incredibly beautiful city it is (which was lucky, as I was only there for about 12 hours this time) - but the sheer number of tourists do tend to affect the experience somewhat. All those glass shops and souvenir shops, and the establishments that "cater for tourists" (i.e. at vastly increased price and reduced quality) tend to affect the place, and not in a good way. I guess it it rather selfish and unreasonable to wish that all the tourists would go away, but the city could definitely do with a few less of them! A victim of its own beauty, I suppose.