Prague Ponderings and Dumplings

Unlike my friend Doorman Priest who has very conscientiously used the half term holiday to write an essay, I have been on holiday!

My wife and I have just come back from a very cold Prague. It was my first visit there and I was very impressed, its a very beautiful city with lovely friendly people. Apparently in the summer it gets very crowded but there were only a few hardy souls braving the freezing February temperatures so we were able to wander around a very quiet city. There are some beautiful buildings and the castle on top of the hill with its lovely cathedral is very impressive.

One thing that struck me was how quickly the city has shaken off the years of communist rule and is now a vibrant modern city. The communist era is clearly not forgotten though as we discovered when we made the mistake of buying a communist poster from a bookshop and were subjected to a rant from the bookshop owner on the evils of the communist system. (Its strange that even though he hated the communists so much he was still happy to make money out of communist artefacts!)

Dumplings are very big in Prague! Perhaps its got something to do with filling yourself up with stodge to ward off the freezing temperatures or maybe its a hangover from the communist era when there wasn't much to eat. Whatever it is you can have dumplings with your starter, dumplings with your main course and dumplings for your pudding. We did try some fruit dumplings as a pudding and they were, well, very interesting! Lets say they had a consistency that Goodyear would be proud of! You have to try these things, but perhaps just the once. Having said that the food generally in Prague was great and the service was really good everywhere.

We had a great trip and we would definitely go there again, but maybe next time in summer.