Prague Saturday

My first adventure of the day was visiting the appropriate police station to report my stolen wallet. It was tucked into a corner of Prague railway station, two rooms defended by forbidding metal doors with a slidable peep-hole and by four closed-circuit TVs which when I visited were disconnected. I told my story to the English-speaking officer on staff, who was perfectly courteous and concealed whatever contempt he must have felt. It took an hour, on and off.

The rest of the day was spent adventurously visiting Prague Castle, and wandering the streets and riverbank of Prague. All over Prague are these old big blocky buildings that do little things to their windows or their proportions and manage to look The Incarnation Of Elegance. Somehow Prague seems to have much less trouble than New Zealand's towns in stopping the owners of historical buildings from bulldozing them and in making them keep them in repair. Maybe they're old and well-known enough that it's financially worth their while.

The castle was high enough up to let me see looking down that the rooftops of the buildings in Prague are just as beautiful as their facades. St Vitus' Cathedral inside was I think my first giant church, and succeeded in making me feel insignificant (and insufficiently decorated) in comparison.