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Prague Czech Republic: a video and audio tour. Listen to my thoughts on Prague and join me on this 10 minute sightseeing tour of this amazing city seeing all the major sights (including Charles Bridge, Old Town Sqaure, Castle complex etc) and with many tips and suggestions. For more visit my blog at http://www.tipsfortravellers.com
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in this particular episode prague
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in the czech republic and what an
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amazing place
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prague is it's absolutely perfect
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especially for a weekend visit i've been
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to prague
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as i mentioned the capital of the czech
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republic twice
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over the last 10 years or so and
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realized that both times i'd only ever
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seen the airport to the hotel to the
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meeting room
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and back to the hotel so decided it was
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time to change that
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and arranged a three-night long weekend
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visit and having done it
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i wish i'd done it an awful lot sooner
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prague in recent years has had a
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reputation of being a bit of a tourist
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nightmare in some ways renowned at one
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time for rowdy
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stag and the hen weekends largely people
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from the uk arriving
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on low-cost flights and in summer being
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rammed full
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especially with u.s tourists who have
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added prague as a must-see
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destination in the european schedule
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along with paris
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let's clear that prague is still a very
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popular destination it's apparently the
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sixth most visited city in europe
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which i read somewhere not if that means
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anything
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but as the heart of the old part of the
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city is is quite compact and small it
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does feel
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incredibly busy as tourists all walk and
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work
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a fairly small route in a very small
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area as all the must-see attractions
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are in that kind of very intense area so
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it does probably feel a pretty
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busy city to be in now the city center
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itself
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is quite remarkable it's very ancient
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undisturbed and almost fairy tale-like
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now this is helped by the fact that it
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was it was occupied by the germans in
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the second world war and it wasn't
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bombed during its liberation
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and it seems then that all the
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development of you know sort of new
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residential and tower blocks
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has actually been made well outside of
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the center
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and if you go up the hills which are
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sort of within the old city
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you can see looking further out what
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appears to be rather unattractive
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developments out of the city
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and i'm also wondering whether during
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the soviet years so after the russians
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famously sent tanks into
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1968 to crush a move to great democracy
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if there
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had not been a lot of investment in
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upgrading and so the old buildings were
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kind of retained
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ready for the kind of the post iron
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curtain revival and
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an investment now i know that's true for
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example of the petron tower
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which was closed in 1979 for over a
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decade
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as it had fallen to disrepair and has
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only in recent years been sort of
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restored and reopened
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it's noticeable how the local population
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even the attractions across the area
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make almost no reference
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to the soviet era in the history of the
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country in the history of the city
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itself and it's something i'd actually
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noticed years ago when i first visited
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for work
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and also in talking to local colleagues
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people seem uncomfortable talking about
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that particular part of their history
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they seem to prefer to forget it and
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focus on the very far past which is very
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rich
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the now and the future and that is
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possibly understandable
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now the old part of prague as i've
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already mentioned is
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just incredibly remarkable it's very
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magical
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and it is like stepping back in time
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even though the streets are cobbled
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throughout much of the old town
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the other thing that struck me is how
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small
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in relative terms the historical and the
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more tourist area of the city is
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now this is great as a tourist because
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it's very easy to walk around the city
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and very easy to see pretty much
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everything that you
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may want to or need to it does though as
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i've already mentioned make it quite
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busy as all the tourists and sightseeing
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visitors
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are in this fairly compact area
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but the good news is it also means that
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in a weekend visit you know two three
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day visit you can comfortably visit
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and see the major attractions you need
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to and should see without kind of
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rushing around too crazily now the
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center of prague was incredibly neat and
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incredibly clean
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it was something i noticed and you don't
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seem to see a lot of people constantly
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cleaning
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but the city is really absolutely
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immaculately
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maintained it's clean it's neat it's
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quite remarkable
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now as i mentioned the city is packed
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with sightseeing crowds and it was
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interesting that there seemed to be a
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lot of
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young visitors of college sort of
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university young travel age as well as a
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lot of school trips actually
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that may have been part of the the time
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of the year but it really stood out the
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city seemed to attract and appeal to a
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fairly young crowd and i'm not sure if
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that's its history
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whether it's a trendy place to visit at
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the moment or if there's a lot of sort
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of inexpensive
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traveler friendly accommodation and and
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whatnot
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one of the bizarre observation is the
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amount of glassware shops that are dot
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around the city selling these sort of
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little blown glass ornaments and vases
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they seem to be like a constant flow of
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them through the through the area
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and also i'm not sure why but i'm sure
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there's a very good reason i didn't
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quite get the bottom of that
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there were also a lot of shops selling
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puppets you know marinette kinds of kind
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of
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strings again they seem to be all over
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the place and i guess
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both of these have emerged to serve the
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the tourist trade but both felt a little
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bit tacky to be honest now easter is a
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big thing in prague which is when i was
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there
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there's a large market in the old town
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square and all over town they sell
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easter eggs but unlike in the uk these
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are not kind of
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chocolate treat eggs they're actual
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physical
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eggs that are hollowed out and then very
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intricately designed and they're quite
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something
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though you soon realize that this must
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be a very large commercial enterprise as
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although there are many designs pretty
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much all the shops and even the stores
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are selling the same ones
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so they're very impressive but they are
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not that personal or individual but
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it did make me wonder what they first of
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all do with huge amounts of egg they
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must suck out of the shells because i
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assume you can't get the whole yolks out
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through the tiny holes
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and then also how they managed to
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actually carve and decorate them on such
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a scale
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i've never quite worked that one out but
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and maybe i don't really need to
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so what then are my tips for travellers
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visiting prague
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tours and what to see to us it's better
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to do it yourself now unlike
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most other major tourist cities you
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don't have the usual open
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air bus tour now this is partly i assume
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because the main things that you need to
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see
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uh you can't get you on a bus and you
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need to walk to anyway
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now there are some tours that drive you
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to some of the key places and then
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escort you on foot into the various
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areas
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so they may be worthwhile if you're not
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up for walking or you can't walk
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or you don't work at the trams but
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that's walking around is so key
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there are also many walking tours and
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walk into companies
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that i think you could pretty much do
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this by yourself and we saw loads and
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loads of people
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walking around clutching a prague
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guidebook so they could get some of the
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history in the background
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but just doing it themselves and this
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for me would be the best recommendation
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assuming of course that you can handle
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the walking now the must-do
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sites and routes to see would be say on
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day one or on route one you'd
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walk across the charles bridge a very
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famous bridge i'll talk about in a
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second
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you then follow through the old streets
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into the old town square
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and the second route or the second day
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would be to go up to the castle explore
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that for half a day
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come back down the hill catch the tram
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and visit the petron tower so let me
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tell you a little bit more about
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those attractions so the charles bridge
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it dates back to
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the 14th century it's one of the most
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famous landmarks of the city it's
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probably
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one of the things that it's most famous
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for it's a magnet for tourists
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there are these very beautiful barricade
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towers
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on both sides of the bridge and then
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there's very old and very complex
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statues
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dotted along it and there's small artist
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stands selling pictures jewelry and such
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like
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the views on the bridge are great
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they're stunning and there's great photo
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opportunities
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and actually on one side of the bridge
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you also have the tourist office you
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find it more about tours and leaflets
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and that kind of
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stuff the old town square so after
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you've crossed the bridge you follow the
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crowds
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literally follow the grounds and they
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weave through the narrow streets it's
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beautiful
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buildings shops etc you eventually come
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to the large
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old town square now just as you enter
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the square is the famous
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astronomical clock this is very famous
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you can actually pay a fee
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uh you know to climb around the tower
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and it's quite amusing to watch
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at the top of every hour when it sort of
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performs as it were and chimes out
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because huge crowds gather around the
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tower and they all stare at it
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and they all point the cameras in and
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you actually probably get as interesting
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pictures taking pictures of people
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all staring at the tower now in easter
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in the square
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there's a very large fare as i mentioned
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selling food drink there's a small stage
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of entertainment
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and around the square though there's
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many restaurants of varying quality and
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price because it is again
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a very popular part of the city now
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because it's such an old attraction
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there are not only restaurants but
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there's many shops another
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smaller sort of interesting little
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destination so for example
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one of the more popular ones is the
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chocolate museum and there's a sweet and
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chocolate shop attached to it
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now the museum itself has a fee to enter
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but in the shop they do demonstrations
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on making this kind of
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the rock and the sort of hard sweets and
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that attracts a really big audience
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actually
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it's quite entertaining to watch how
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they do it all
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the castle now the castle is a huge
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complex
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it looks over the city from the top of a
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steep hill
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and this complex is just quite something
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it's it's a city within a city it's very
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impressive and not surprising it's very
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popular
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we actually strolled up the steep hill
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from at the glacier town square and that
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was very nice of those little
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shops and restaurants up the hill and
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once you get the top of the hill there's
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great views now you enter through these
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really impressive gates and their guards
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that of course people inevitably try and
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make laughs when they're posed with them
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but very impressive gates very striking
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beautifully crafted buildings and then
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you come to this large square
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uh which is all surrounded by the
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buildings and you have to get tickets
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and the ticket thing is not very
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efficient to be honest it's um
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it's a little bit shambolic and part of
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the problem is they take almost any
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currency
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and so they keep having to work out
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rates and things now the problem is if
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you want to hire an audio tool you have
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to go to a different line for that
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but anyway that's uh you just have to
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put up with that the two main
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tickets you can basically buy one which
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lets you do pretty much all of the
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buildings in the complex that are open
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to the public
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and one which is a slightly smaller one
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where you go to five different buildings
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that's the one that we actually chose
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and that was probably plenty
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