I’m reeling. We’ve seen so much these past few days. Of course, as it is Her Ladyship’s first ever visit to Prague and it is over 30 years since Himself has been here, we’ve had to visit a fair few of the obligatory sights. I knew we wouldn’t escape a visit to Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world. Her Ladyship, however, was almost more excited about the Cubist house we stumbled across on our way up to the Pražský hrad or simply hrad, as the locals call it. Hard for us foreigners … to pronounce.

Anyway, the Oldies were particularly gobsmacked by St. Vitus Cathedral in the castle complex. It is just huge, you could spend hours in there alone. My favourite part though was the Golden Lane, where tiny houses were built into the niches of the castle wall. Even Her Ladyship had to bend down to get through one or two of the doors. I told you they were tiny! Apparently the famous author, Franz Kafka, wrote his short story collection, ‘A Country Doctor’, whilst living in No. 22. The house is so small, I suppose there wasn’t much there to distract him from his work.

We later visited the Kafka Museum which the Oldies thought was an excellent presentation of the author’s life and works. They both said afterwards that it had given them the feeling of having got inside Kafka’s head. I, personally, am not sure that I particularly want to get inside his head. I’d be afraid I’d start dreaming of turning into a beetle or something…

      Talking about beetles, sorry, Beatles, we also went to see the Lennon Wall. After John Lennon was shot in 1980, an image of him was painted on a wall opposite the French embassy. The wall became something of a mecca for Czech pacifists, and was soon covered with political slogans and Beatles lyrics. Although it was repeatedly whitewashed, even the secret police couldn’t manage to keep it clean. When we arrived at the wall there were crowds of young people, busking and taking selfies. I think the Oldies were quite depressed when they realised that they were probably the only ones there who were actually around when the Beatles were still topping the charts. Imagine!

Another museum which was a must on the Oldies’ list was the Mucha Museum. At least this one was in no danger of giving me nightmares! Alfons Mucha’s beautiful Art Nouveau works are so well known, especially his wonderful posters of Sarah Bernhardt, there were few surprises, but the one thing that was striking was how prolific an artist he was. That was one busy man! He must have worked with incredible passion and dedication.

Thankfully, the weather has been great so we have been outdoors a lot of the time just strolling around the city centre. We’ve all enjoyed walking along the river Vltava and I have been meeting lots of birds at the water’s edge, while the Oldies are happily oohing and awing at the admittedly impressive architecture. It is not all ‘oldie’ architecture either. There are some mad looking modern buildings too. I particularly liked the ‘Dancing House’ Hotel. It looks really great alongside the grandeur of earlier eras.

And I loved these domes at the National Theatre. They made me feel as if I’d just walked onto the set of a Star Wars movie.

Of course the Oldies, being old, need plenty of breaks and feeding and watering. Or, as we are in Prague, I should say beering. The well-known beers from the larger brewers are great, but we have also found a few fantastic micro-breweries. They all have their own speciality beers and so far we’ve seen coffee beer, banana beer, sour cherry beer and even nettle beer. I was all for trying the nettle beer. Well, it’s green and would have been a good way to get into the mood for St. Patrick’s Day, but the Oldies passed on sampling it, the cowards!

It is quite interesting, but I’ve often noticed that, regardless how beautiful their surroundings, people eventually seem to end up looking at other people. Time and again, I catch the Oldies people watching as they sit in a café or stand in a busy city square. Of course, I prefer bird watching myself, but I am beginning to catch myself noticing faces – of all kinds – wherever we go. Here are a few faces of Prague.