We arrived on Christmas Eve although in the Czech Republic they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.

After a hair raising overly expensive taxi ride to our hotel right in the centre of the old town, Josh realised he left his passport on the plane so after a few frantic phone calls he went back to the airport and luckily managed to get it back. In the meantime, the rest of us went into town. When a relieved Josh turned up, we headed out to the Old Town Square which was bedazzled in Christmas stalls selling mulled wine, beer, hot dogs, trdelnik (chimney cake) and various crafts and kitsch souvenirs. It was pretty chilly though no colder than London, and alas, no snow.

The square was as we remembered it, absolutely stunning with the spires and the buildings lit up. Christmas decorations and carols playing plus a huge beautiful, real Christmas tree. Very chocolate box. Several mulled wines were sampled while watching the clock strike the hour as you must do when in Prague. I don’t think Emma and Connor were too impressed though with the all of 45 seconds it lasted. Then we strolled over the iconic Charles Bridge to have dinner at a restaurant l had booked months ago. Just as well because of the multitude of tourists, the most we have seen since Morocco.

We had a traditional Czech dinner and l had Beef Goulash along with the ever present red wine.

Christmas Day felt decidedly unChristmasy which was fine as it was nice to be together even if we weren’t doing the traditional things. The day involved lots of eating, drinking, window shopping and checking out the sights before a Medieval dinner at a cavern-like restaurant which had the whole Czech Medieval thing going on with long benches, five courses, unlimited beer and wine (which Connor was particularly delighted about), the whole costume thing and live entertainment of music, sword fighting, belly dancing (Medieval?), fire breathing and jesters.

It was a fun, debauched night. So glad we did something a little different for the big day.

On Boxing Day we went to Prague Castle (dating from the 9th C. and the largest in the world) and admired the various buildings including the Cathedral while trying to stay warm (the reoccurring theme of mulled wine helped).

We checked out the John Lennon Wall. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles' songs. In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of Gustáv Husák. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism" and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism. The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of global ideals such as love and peace. On 17 November 2014, the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the wall was painted over in pure white by a group of art students, leaving only the text "wall is over". The "Wall is Over" bit has been changed to "War is Over". Quite an impressive wall I must say. We then passed by Lovers’ Bridge, which is covered in padlocks as in many bridges around the world now. The padlocks are intended to be a romantic gesture. Couples attach the lock, kiss the key and toss it into the river below. Many also write or engrave their name and date on the locks. We then finished the day off with some pretty good pizza.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Connor the next day as he was heading back home via Tokyo for a couple of days.

Before we knew it was time for us to go too. We had another sad goodbye with Emma and then hung around until our flight to Munich where we were meant to overnight before going to Mexico via Frankfurt. An annoying detour, but Lufthansa decided to change our flight, so we had to overnight. However, once we got to the service desk in Munich after a lot of drama they decided to send us on that night to Frankfurt and overnight there instead, which made more sense. Although in their wisdom they gave us 15 minutes to board (plenty of time they said) which meant we had to sort out our now lost luggage and get to the gate in another building after taking a shuttle! Grrhh but we did make it, just.

We spent the night in an airport hotel which wasn’t bad as it included free dinner, breakfast and transfers then off to Mexico!