Saturday 24 June 2023

Czech out what I did in Prague

Hello and welcome to my travel blog that stubbornly refuses to modernise and become an Instagram or TikTok account. Apparently the peak blogging era ended around 2012 so I'm only a decade behind. Keep it going for another decade and maybe this blog can become a retro curiosity. 

For the first time in several years (and definitely this side of the pandemic) I went on a solo trip, something  that felt slightly odd at first. We had a child nearly 18 months ago and so all trips away have been as a family. Now, that is all well and good and very enjoyable but so is the odd bit of solo backpacking. This blog is called the Inane Babble of a Backpacker after all, not the Inane Babble of a Man Clinging on to His 30s Who Goes On Nice Family Holidays. Maybe that can be the Instagram/Tiktok account.

Prague is somewhere I feel like I should have been before now, it's almost remiss of me not to have been there. The flights there were cheap and cost of accommodation, eating, sightseeing was very reasonable too. Around £2-£3 for a beer was fairly common. And it's very walkable if you're concentrating on the main sights either side of the river. 

My accommodation was in Praha 2, just outside the Old Town area about five minutes from the National Museum. It turned out to be a great location for food and drink options without paying the inflated prices of the Old Town. In fact, I was staying just around the corner from the gothic Church of St Ludmila, the first picture below. And then below that you'll see the first mistake I made...



The Church of St Ludmila.


I'd seen someone raving about these ice-cream filled doughnut cones online and made it a priority to try one for myself. Unfortunately I wrongly chose a cream-filled rather than ice-cream filled option, complete with strawberries and chocolate sauce. It was a LOT of cream and the regret kicked in long before I'd finished it. 


Prague's Astronomical Clock beside the main square in the Old Town. Been telling the time since 1410 – that's a lot of time.


This was just outside the Franz Kafka museum and is a sculpture of two men urinating at each other. Didn't find out why, just took the photo and enjoyed the scene. The base looks like the outline of the Czech Republic and I could google it to find out more but I'm not going to.


Sunset over the Vltava River, which runs through Prague. Prague Castle is on the hill in the distance. 


The National Theatre, with one of the local trams going past.


Praha means Prague in Czech, which is why I took this photo. And a tram just happened to be passing to add a bit of extra je ne sais quoi to the picture.


The Dancing House in Prague, designed by architects Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry. You know what? This building was a bit underwhelming. There, I've said it. I expected more, walked a fair way to see it and it was just a bit 'meh'.



The Electric Sheep Book Bar - great cocktails and live music, delicious chocolate covered pretzels, plus a three legged dog wandering around looking for all the attention it can get. What more could you ask for? 



One of the 30 Baroque statues that are dotted across the famous Charles Bridge. Also one of the earliest known examples of doing bunny ears over someone who doesn't know it's happening, captured in stone.


Aerial view of Prague from the tower of St Vitus Cathedral in the grounds of Prague Castle. Climbed about 250 steps to get to the top of that tower but the views were spectacular.


I suppose there has to be a photo of me in there somewhere to prove that I actually went. A few more grey hairs since the last solo trip, hoping to one day attain 'silver fox' status. Prague in the background again, taken from the top of St Vitus by a passerby who looked like they knew what they were doing with a camera and wouldn't steal my phone.


Part of the Waldstein Garden, next to Malostranka Station.


Water-level view of the Charles Bridge from a little boat tour I went on. Ice cream and a beer included in the ticket price, lovely stuff. Need to update their audio tour though, still referencing Queen Liz, gawd bless 'er.


Front door goals.


Sculpture of Sigmund Freud suspended over a road. Easy to miss when you're walking by at street level, let me tell you.


I loved the design of this Metro station so I made a little video and it turned out very well. Almost looks vaguely professional.



Czech stew and dumplings. Very hearty Eastern European fare - probably not first an obvious pick in the middle of summer but I was determined to try some while I was there.


On my final night I walked up the hill into the middle of a park called Riegrovy sady, where loads of people gathered to watch the sun set over Prague with a drink or two. Castle in the background again. Fire juggling guy in the foreground, low-key smell of weed wafting about, you get the idea.



Interior of the Spanish Synagogue. Very impressive and blingy.


My flight leaving Prague was delayed by two hours so I had some time to kill before I went to the airport. And just so happened to be near the Prague Ghost Legends Museum. I kind of hoped it was going to be one for the enjoyably shit category of museums and it did not disappoint on that front. Although it didn't kill much time before my flight either as I was done in about 25 minutes. This exhibit accurately demonstrates what I would look like if I were a ghost.




Monday 30 May 2022

Canals and apple pie: a long weekend in Amsterdam


I’m dusting off the blog as I’ve just been on a very new kind of trip – the first time abroad with a child! That child is Vita, she’s nearly four months old and has now been to Amsterdam.


Going on a city break with a baby is a big change but it doesn't completely alter the way you travel. For example, you can still spend the afternoon walking around the canals of Amsterdam, you just need to factor in a few more rest stops and have a ready supply of nappies and outfit changes for all eventualities. 


Most of the weekend was spent exploring the city, including taking the ferry across to Amsterdam Noord, a formerly industrial area undergoing major regeneration. Think large apartment blocks peppered with interesting bars and restaurants at street level – it’ll be unrecognisable in a few years’ time. It’s already very different to when I was last in Amsterdam three years ago. 


One of the culinary highlights of the trip was apple pie in Winkel 43, in the city’s Jewish Quarter. There was a queue outside the door but it moves along pretty quickly as everyone is going in for apple pie, which doesn’t take long to eat when it tastes this good. I asked the guy behind the bar how many pies they get through on a busy Saturday and he said up to 120, which is more than 1,000 pieces of pie.


Whenever I visit a city like Amsterdam I get very jealous of all the cycling infrastructure. London isn’t a bad city to cycle in but it’s got a long way to go before it gets anywhere near the likes of Amsterdam or Copenhagen. Cycling is second nature to the people who live there and it shows how much more liveable a place is people are prioritsed over cars.


This trip was also the first time I've ever received a passport stamp from an EU country. It was a lovely reminder of the fact the UK is rapidly travelling backwards, cutting itself off from its neighbours and generally making a tit of itself on the world stage. C'est la vie.


I love a new passport stamp but would have been happier to not need them from EU countries...

Harriet and Chloe (one of our hosts for the weekend) enjoy a 'Peep Show' in a creative space/warehouse in Amsterdam Noord

Some street art outside the warehouse containing a very nice restaurant called IJver

The canals of Amsterdam. You get all kinds of boats on the canals, from dinghies to houseboats to a boat full of drunk guys (only saw one of these to be fair)

Some of the very aesthetically pleasing homes of central Amsterdam

This street looked like it had been reclaimed for pedestrians and cyclists. Hardly any parking space for cars, loads for bikes and mini-gardens all the way along

Apple pie close-up in Winkel 43

Harriet and Vita with a piece of pie the size of Vita's head in Winkel 43. I graciously gave Harriet the biggest slice and definitely didn't say "oh it looks like I've given you the biggest piece" when I did

Another shot of Amsterdam looking rather pretty in the sun. I feel like I could definitely live in Amsterdam although I suspect the rent on any of the places in this photo would make Elon Musk do a double-take.


Thursday 6 August 2020

A week in Pisa and Lucca that we didn't think would happen

Somehow, despite all the travel restrictions, cancelled flights and general covid-induced chaos, our trip to Italy at the end of July was still possible. A couple of months ago I was convinced it would all get cancelled. But fast-forward to a two weeks before the trip and our plans were still intact, so we packed our bags, put on our face-masks and headed for Pisa and Lucca.

You've probably heard of Pisa, it's got that big wonky tower in the middle of it. Lucca is another city in Tuscany, about half an hour from Pisa by train and a great place to eat yourself into a pizza/pasta induced coma if you fancy it. It's packed with great cafes, restaurants and bars scattered throughout its old town area.

Pisa was probably a lot quieter than usual at this time of year because of coronavirus, which meant Piazza del Duomo where the Leaning Tower is located was less packed with people than it would be normally. Climbing the stairs of the leaning tower cost a slightly exorbitant €18 but it seemed foolish to visit one of the most iconic buildings in the world and not go up it.

Lucca is Pisa's quieter, more laid back cousin and you can spend hours just walking round it, losing yourself down various narrow streets and seeing which part of the city you re-emerge in. All while eating delicious gelato or stopping off for a coffee, of course.     

While travel is certainly possible at the moment, it's different. It was very noticeable in Italy how much more on the ball they are with wearing masks than we are in the UK. Walk into a shop, museum or hotel and you put your mask on straight away or you're not allowed in. Same goes for airports and train stations. Yes it can be uncomfortable in the heat of summer but if it means businesses can stay open because people are following the rules, then that's fine by me. 

I suspect this won't be the only trip abroad I take that requires a face-mask until the magic vaccine comes along and sorts out the coronavirus situation. Ah, what a strange time we are living in right now. The keys, wallet and phone check before leaving the house has become keys, wallet, phone and mask. Well, if that means we can travel more safely then it's a very small burden.

Stay safe, help each other out and remember things will get back to normal eventually. And in the meantime, why not gaze admiringly at the photos below. 

It does lean a bit doesn't it? Someone should probably fix that.
Who knew holidays in 2020 would include wearing a face-mask everywhere? The Leaning Tower of Pisa decided to take it one step further, by issuing visitors climbing the tower with a buzzer you wear around your neck, which goes off if you stand too close to someone else. But that included people in your party, so it went off all the time and was probably a bit of a waste of time and money for the tourism board if you ask me. 

I was challenged to take an 'ironic' leaning on the leaning tower picture. I rose to that challenge.


Keith Haring went to Pisa in 1989 and painted this huge mural on the side of a building near the train station.

Rose and Harriet in front of a door in Lucca that's clearly much too large for them. Or perhaps they are too small.  

A view along the waterways of Lucca. Can't really call it a canal as you couldn't fit a boat along it, more of a walled river I guess.

Lion statue that watches over Lucca. 

The church of San Michelle in Lucca dates back to the 795AD and was rebuilt in 1070. So it's pretty old. And just behind it is an excellent pizza place called Pizzeria Pellegrini that has been going since 1972. Not quite as old but still pretty good going. 

Touristing hard around the walls of Lucca on a four seater bike/wagon. Fun way to spend an hour. 
That's Manel on the front, he is Portuguese but also speaks Italian and English because other countries are much better at learning languages than us British and Irish folk.

The gardens of Villa Garzoni in Collodi. Collodi sounds more like it should be a rural town in Ireland but is in fact a town near Lucca which also contains Pinocchio Park, an attraction much-loved by the Irish contingent on our trip.

A section of Piazza dell Anfiteatro in Lucca. The buildings go all the way round it like a large amphitheatre, hence the name.  

I think this building is the Institute of Botany in Lucca but don't quote me on that. It's in the botanic garden anyway so it's got something to do with plants. 

Ate a lot of gelato on this holiday. I'm not normally one for getting ice cream in a non-edible container but I wanted to pour some coffee onto the ice cream and do a DIY affogato. Because I'm classy. 

Back in Pisa and a view along the Arno river. It's only now, writing this caption that I have realised this is the closest we came to seeing a sunset in Italy. And I bloody love a sunset. You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn for it like a sunrise and you can probably have a drink too. 

We walked the walls in Pisa and once you get beyond the main square you don't actually see much. However I did like the staircase at the exit, so that exposed walk in baking sun was probably worth it.

Piazza Cavalieri (Knight's Square) in Pisa. 

Saturday 14 March 2020

Cape Town and The Garden Route

South Africa had always been one of those places that I imagined would be great to visit but wasn't necessarily top of my list, with the likes of Japan or Colombia. However, once we decided we were going and I started doing some proper research it was quickly apparent that the country has a LOT to offer.

For a start, food and drink costs half of what it does in the UK. You can go to some very decent restaurants for relatively little money. Then there's the scenery. Once you're out of Cape Town and into the wine region or Garden Route, there's no shortage of stunning views, rolling hills, green forested mountains, endless plains, that sort of thing.

That isn't to say South Africa doesn't have its problems. Poverty is very visible, from the large townships on the edge of all major towns and cities to the homelessness in Cape Town. Or the advice (which we followed) that you should get taxis after dark in the capital. I wouldn't say we ever felt unsafe but the streets did become completely empty after sunset in a way I'd find strange in any other major city.

But every country has its own problems (cough Brexit cough) and to focus too much on them would do South Africa a disservice. I loved it there and would happily go back again. It was always sunny and warm, the aforementioned food was excellent, the people were friendly and there was loads to do and see. There was tons of stuff we didn't have time to do in both Cape Town and on the Garden Route.

Our trip began with three days in the wine region, staying in a homestead on a vineyard near Wellington, followed by a road trip along the Garden Route before heading back for four days in Cape Town. It was 10 days altogether but we could have easily spent much longer there and detoured from the Garden Route a bit more, or spent more time checking out the many amazing beaches dotted along the coast.

If you made me pick some highlights, they might be:
  • Climbing Table Mountain
  • Cape Point Nature Reserve
  • Driving along the Garden Route - beautiful scenery all the way
  • National Art Gallery of South Africa, in Company Gardens (much better art and cheaper entry than the Zeitz Museum, which was a bit pretentious in my opinion)
  • The Stack - restaurant in Cape Town
  • The food in general
  • Monkeyland, near Plettenberg Bay

 Stellenbosch is worth a visit, to wander round and check out the university museum/art gallery and its various cafes and shops.

 Obligatory holiday sunset photo, from the vineyard near Wellington.

The vineyard's homestead and our home for three nights. The bell in the foreground was known as a slave bell, used to signal the start and end of the working day for slaves back in the times of slavery.  There are a lot of these bells still standing in rural areas, acting as reminders of history.

On our way to the Garden Route we stopped at a great example of the 'weird roadside cafe' genre. The menu was exclusively things with chips (or just chips on their own) and it had a barn that contained the world's biggest knitted jumper, complete with certificate from Guinness World Records.

Near Plettenburg Bay was Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. Monleyland is a "free roaming" monkey sanctuary, largely for monkeys that have been abandoned or suffered some kind of cruelty. They are rehabilitated here and some are released back into the wild. I'm not really a fan of zoos or anything resembling them but this was more like a giant forest you could walk through (with a guide).

 One of the lemurs in Monkeyland. It was an odd sensation at first, walking through a forest with loads of monkeys completely ignoring you and running/climbing about but it was a memorable experience and I would definitely recommend.

When you buy a ticket for Monkeyworld you can double up and see Birds of Eden too, which is the biggest bird enclosure I've ever seen - it was vast. Plenty of room for birds of all kinds of species to fly about. Or as these two seemed to prefer, just perch on a walkway and watch people go by. 

Taken from a viewpoint called Map Of Africa, near Wilderness on the Garden Route.

The entrance to the museum just off the central courtyard of the Castle of Good Hope. It was built in the 17th century and changed hands a few times between various colonial oppressors (largely British and Dutch) before it was declared a historical monument in 1936. We went on the guided tour, which was much better than the 'key ceremony' - essentially a bunch of people in old fashioned military uniforms faffing about handing a key back and forth for 10 minutes.

 Some might say this is a metaphor for going on holiday with me for 10 days, but they would be liars because I am delightful company.

One of the colourful buildings in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town. It was formerly known as the Malay Quarter and has a largely Muslim population.

 More brightly painted houses in Bo Kaap. It was very photogenic, as you can tell from my top notch photography skills and was an absolute scorcher that day.

  This restaurant in Cape Town is called The Stack and dinner here was one of the culinary highlights of the trip. Big recommend.

Penguins on Boulders Beach, south of Cape Town.

In Cape Point Nature Reserve, looking down at the sea from the cliffs near the lighthouse. This is somewhere I could have happily spent a couple more hours, but we got there a bit late after spending longer than expected at Boulders Beach. 

Trying to take an arty shot of the beach at the Cape of Good Hope.

And here's us doing the tourist photo in Cape Point Nature Reserve. Had to really.

View of Table Mountain just before we started climbing it. When the clouds roll in over the top like that, locals call it the 'table cloth'.

 Cape Town below from somewhere near the top of Table Mountain.

Visiting the District Six Museum was a good way to try to get an idea of the kind of ordeals and hardship people went through during Apartheid because of unchecked racism.

A view of the mountains from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which you can happily spend a few hours wandering about in or even take a picnic with you.

Thanks for reading and there's a few more photos from the trip on my Instagram if you're really keen.