3 pairs of socks, merino wool long johns, trousers, singlet, 3 long sleeve tops of varying merino wool warmth, fleece and down jacket, scarf, gloves and hat....and still cold. That was me on Saturday night in Prague. It was a cold weekend.....and yet no snow. That came this morning as we walked to the train station to leave for our next destination. Currently on the train to Dresden and it is another white winter landscape outside as we pass by. Probably the last snow we will see on our trip if the weather forecast is true for our next few stops.

Anyway, back to Prague. We left Seefeld at 9am on Friday morning and it had snowed all night so we woke up to everything finally covered in white..which is what we wanted when we arrived. The only problem with booking everything in advance is that you can't change your plans if you want. I would have quite happily stayed a couple of extra days here and skipped Prague if it meant having a good play in the snow but not to be. We had to change trains at Munich, where there was also snow on the ground. We arrived in Prague about 7pm Friday night so it was a long day.

After trying to figure out how much money to take out of the ATM and then figure out the metro tickets (who's smart idea was it to only have one machine that takes note or cards at the main train station. Most people would have just arrived and very few would have coins). Anyway we made it to our accommodation, a hostel called Miss Sophies where we had a private room. Even provided tea & coffee in the room and had a fridge...better than over very expensive accommodation the previous few days.

Saturday morning was time to adjust to a new city. Put the usual layer of clothes on and headed out to the old town area. Christmas markets were still open which surprised us, appear to be open till just after the new year. Smart I suppose, people still travelling. We checked out the statue of St Wenceslas statue in front of the national museum which is on a long street of what appears to be American & UK shops. There were at leat 2 Starbucks & McDonalds at either end, Burger King, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, H&M plus plenty of others. We also checked out the market before heading to Old Town Square to see the Astronomical clock do it's thing on the hour...a not so very exciting procession of the 12 Apostles. Glad we didn't stand there for ages waiting. Looked to go up the tower but the line was out the door. Joys of being in Prague on a weekend during holidays.

Some really beautiful buildings around, as there is in much of Europe. You get spoilt after a while and become a little immune to things sometimes which is a shame. We wandered through the cobblestone alleyways to find the famous Charles Bridge. I love the photos of the bridge with no one on them...I wonder what time of the day they were here to get them because there was no chance at 12noon on a Saturday. I was surprised by how dirty the statues were. They need a good clean. Always interesting to see the ones with a shiny point to them as that is where people have gotten the idea that if they rub them, they will bring themselves good luck, fortune, etc, etc.

On the other side of the bridge we jumped on a tram up to the castle, starting to feel the chill. We decided to buy a ticket for the long tour of the castle which included a whole heap of different things within the castle grounds. First stop St Vitus Cathedral which is the largest one in Czech Republic. It had a incredible tomb for one of their saints and a chapel for St Wenceslas (famous from the christmas carol). We then checked out the Royal Palace but as I said before you get a bit dismissive of things because you have seen them so many times before.

Early closing time of 4pm meant we would have to come back the next day to see the other places. I was really starting to feel cold now so we jumped on the tram home so I could layer up some more before we braved the evening. Back into town and we walked back across Charles Bridge so we could see it lit up and try and take some photos. I had to take my hand out of my glove to set up, and it went numb so quickly. I took a few photos and that was it. Continued walking back into the old town square and it was very pretty all lit up, the christmas lights all on that I braved my numb hand and took a few more photos. We found a restaurant to sit down for dinner, glad to be out of the cold. Sitting near the window, it was fun watching people to see how they were coping with the cold. Lots of scarves over faces.

Sunday morning we had booked to have the breakfast at the hostel which they did very well. Then, layered up appropriately we headed out to the Jewish Museum. It's not just one museum but a combination of synagogues and the cemetary. We also paid to join an english tour which I'm glad we did. There was only 4 of us and beat trying to listen to an Audio guide which half the time you don't use. It is said the reason so many of the synagogues survived WWII is because Hitler wanted to create a museum for an extinct race. The Jewish community had already started to collect artifacts during WWI to protect them and had started a museum and kept it all safe during WWII.

We visited a couple of different synagogues in different styles, one was the Spanish synagogue and it reminded me of Alhambra in Spain. One of the synagogues had a good exhibition on the Jewish culture and holidays which was interesting for me to read and learn about. We also visited the Cemetary which they say could have about 12 layers of people being buried over the years. Tombstones everywhere. In one of the other synagogues they had all the names of the Jewish written on the wall who were killed during WWII. Very powerful stuff.

We headed towards the castle again. Due to the machines at the metro only taking coins, we didn't have an all day pass today. We were going to walk up to the castle but mum had second thoughts and I said well we can always jump on the tram. Her desire not to walk up the hill won over her concern about being caught without a ticket. The only place we have had tickets checked is in Budapest.

Back at the castle we checked out the places we missed on Saturday, Powder Tower which had an exhibition on the Palace guards, Story of Prague castle which has chainmail & a helmet on display which they believe belonged to Wenceslas, St George's Basilica, an old church where St Wenceslas' father is buried and Golden Lane which has all these tiny cottages built during the 16th century. You wouldn't want to be too tall and work in one of them. By this time we were done and skipped the other palace we could have wandered around. Walked down to street level and back to the markets to get some dinner before heading home where it would be nice and warm.

Mum has complained so many times about being hot when she thought she would be cold. This weekend she has complained about being cold non stop. At least if it had snowed, the cold would have been worthwhile. So it is still snowing outside and we have passed some beautiful scenery. Fingers crossed it keeps up, but I doubt it.