Holidays, Prague By Nicholas Boldock

With the current predominance of budget airlines, the choice of cheap holidays available to the average punter is larger than ever. If sun, sea and sand are your fetishes, then the Spanish coast or the Greek islands will suit you fine, just like they always did. Only they'll be even cheaper now.

If, like my wife and I, the idea of spending a week on a beach with the same bunch of British lager louts you went on holiday to get away from doesn't fill you with joy, you might not be so keen on jetting over to Ibeefa or Ayia-bloody-Napa. And you won't have to. The ever-expanding list of budget airlines can take you to a whole variety of less-obvious places, many with a whole lot more to offer than overpriced nightclubs and packed beaches.

Earlier this year my wife and I decided to go away, just a short break (six days in the end) and we set ourselves the challenge of booking the whole thing via the Internet. We quickly found some absurdly cheap flights to Prague with Easyjet (I won't quote prices, because it's boring, but it was cheap), flying from East Midlands Airport, which is less than two hours down the M1 from Hull if you drive fast enough. Finding accommodation, however, wasn't quite the same cakewalk. We set ourselves a tight budget - ideally no more than 25 quid a night.

That might seem unrealistic, but Prague is teeming with low-cost, reasonable quality accommodation, so it seemed feasible to start low. It took me three days of searching before eventually booking a cheap and cheerful 2-star hotel by the admittedly crap name of "Hotel Tourist". It was slightly over our original budget, but still reassuringly cheap, partly because of its location well away from the City Centre - we gambled here, having been told by numerous websites that the public transport system in Prague is excellent (and it certainly is). One further foray into the depths of the Internet booked us a taxi from Ruzyne airport to the hotel, at a guaranteed price. All sorted. And with a day and a half to spare (no, really - it was a close run thing).

So off we went. On arrival at Ruzyne airport, my main worry was that our taxi driver would not be there. For some reason this was the thing I was most concerned about. My fears were unfounded. Once we'd wended our way through passport control and reclaimed our luggage, we found a smiling taxi driver, smartly dressed in tie and blazer, holding aloft a neatly printed sign with our names on. Relief.

The weather was sweltering. As we sat in the back of our taxi, headed for our hotel, we passed through some of Prague's less affluent areas, all high-rise flats and crumbling concrete, and I was hoping and praying that our out-of-town hotel wouldn't be situated in the same kind of run-down area. Again, I needn't have worried. The area around our hotel was almost exclusively residential, made up of fairly old housing, but pleasant on the eye.

The hotel itself, from the outside, looked far from accommodating - the odd cracked window, desperately in need of a paint job, and looking generally dishevelled. Inside, though, it was clean and smart, with a marble-floored foyer which led off to a brightly-lit bar. Only when I strode to the reception counter and produced my printed-out booking confirmation, did things threaten to go slightly awry. The receptionist conveyed, in very broken English, that they didn't have our reservation, and that they were full. I protested, saying we had already paid for it by credit card, and therefore they must have it. Whether or not she understood me, I know not. But all's well that ends well - after initially telling me they were full, she made a call to the manager and then said that they did, in fact, have a room for us. This time, relief, my friends, was not the word.

Once settled in, we headed off to find the nearest supermarket, to buy some supplies for our newly plugged-in fridge. The "supermarket" was more of a Spar than a Tesco, but with prices to die for. Firstly, beer. Beer, of course, is a part of life in the Czech Republic, and the quality of this country's beer is world-renowned. The best thing about it, though, is the price. We picked up some half-litre bottles of Staropramen for the princely sum of 19 pence each. Heaven, it seems, is a supermarket in Prague. Central Prague is trapped in a time warp, in the best possible sense. Every area, every street, every building, oozes history. The "city of a hundred spires" actually has ninety-nine of them, as well as more statues and sculptures than you can shake a Pentax at. It's a photographer's dream.

Much of the so-called New Town (Nove Mesto) dates back to the 14th century, which would be hilarious if this wasn't Prague. The most famous part of the New Town is the famous Wenceslas Square (Vaclavske Namesti), which is something of a misnomer since it isn't a square at all, but a long, wide street flanked by high street stores on both sides.

Strangely, for all its renown, Wenceslas Square is the only part of Prague which fails to inspire, although at the upper end you will find the impressive St Wenceslas Monument and the National Museum. The New Town also has museums dedicated to the celebrated Czech artist Mucha, and the composer Tomas Dvorak. The centrepiece of the Old Town (Stare Mesto) is the astronomical clock in the Old Town Square. Every hour, as this remarkable clock strikes, a procession of mechanical figurines representing the 12 Apostles (actually, 11 Apostles, plus St Paul) can be seen parading past two windows at the top of the clock, as the figure of Death rings the bell. An astonishing sight. The rest of the square is a must-see in its own right, from the Jan Hus Monument in its centre, to the Church of St Nicholas and the awe-inspiring Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, which has two enormous multi-spired Gothic steeples which look over the square like official guardians.

The Old Town is separated from the Little Quarter (Mala Strana) by the picturesque River Vltava, spanned by Charles Bridge (Karluv Most), one of the most captivating parts of Prague. The pedestrianised bridge is book-ended by two magnificent Gothic towers. For a nominal entry fee you can climb to the top of these towers for a spectacular view across the whole of the city. Along the bridge itself, both sides are lined with statues of various Saints, the most famous being the statue of St John Nepomuk. He was arrested in 1393, after displeasing King Wenceslas IV over the election of a bishop. John was killed under torture, and then his body was bound and hurled off the bridge. His statue stands in the place from where he was thrown into the river. Plaques at the base of the statue illustrate his martyrdom - they are polished bright from the hands of tourists, as it is said that touching St John's monument brings good luck.

Next Page - Holidays, Prague by Nicholas Boldock continued.

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