Update from Prague, Czech Republic.

It’s been two weeks since our last update, and many miles/kilometres under the wheels since then.  1,900 km coming south from Helsinki, and 8,000 km since we left the UK at the end of June.

Highlights from Helsinki (Finland), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech republic:
Helsinki – lovely city, spread out and clean & tidy.  Great inner city and waterfront (daily markets) and very lively.  We also took a day trip by 100 year old steamer to the old town of Porvoo along the coast – very quaint but touristy.

Tallin, Estonia – a really lovely old town on a hill, surrounded by the old walls, and the newer city spread out around it.  Probably the nicest old town we’ve seen since Ribe in Denmark.

Riga in Latvia also had very nice old town, but the rest of the city was pretty dilapidated – in need of a coat of paint at least, and much renovation required to upgrade all the old communist era buildings.

Kaunas in Lithuania was very similar to Riga.  Capitalism has taken hold very strongly, evidenced by Starbucks, McDonalds & Burger King outlets proliferating, but so much shabbiness still evident.

Warsaw in Poland was an eye-opener.  The old town was 90% destroyed by the Germans in WWII, and it has all been restored to its 17th and 18th century splendour.  We probably enjoyed this city as much as Tallinn.

Wroclaw in south west Poland was very similar to Warsaw, but on a smaller scale. We had a fun time hunting down little statues of dwarfs scattered around the city and photographing them.  There are around 80 to be found in the greater city area, and we found 18 of them in the central old town, although some are very hard to spot and others we couldn’t find, even though they were marked on a map.

Prague, Czech Republic this last 2 days has been hot and crowded.  We were more impressed by Warsaw old town, but the buildings in the city centre of Prague are outstanding nonetheless, with many decorated in art nouveau style of the era when they were built or restored.  Many palaces, churches and large buildings crowd the streets and alleys, most with terracotta tile roofs, so a panorama view of the city from the Castle on the hill is quite spectacular.

We were surprised to see Marks & Spencer and Debenhams department stores in the main shopping area, together with C&A, H&M and more brand stores than can be listed.  Poland and the Czech Republic are certainly more westernised (i.e. integrated into the EU) than the Baltic States we have travelled though recently, and the countryside villages and towns are also looking more neat and prosperous.

The exception to this last comment is the endless graffiti we saw in the outskirts of Prague, as we came in on the train.  Obviously a disaffected youth culture prevails still.  The government must find it really difficult to spend so much money on restoring the old buildings and to have to deal with a graffiti plague as well.

Notes – all these old towns have very good tram systems, which run in conjunction with the buses and trains.  NZ & UK could learn much from this, especially those towns that short-sightedly ripped out the tram tracks in the 50s and 60s.

We’ve had enough now of old, crowded capital cities, and we’re heading south into Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, avoiding cities and visiting smaller towns instead (perhaps with the exception of Salzburg and Ljubljana, but they are on a much smaller scale).  It is also getting much warmer as we head south – 25oC today, and forecast 29oC thru to 32oC next week.

Next stop is Cesky Krumlov – a small, old, medieval town in the south of Bohemia.