A day out in Prague

Today is Sunday, and we have an opportunity for some sightseeing. Marčela and Susan meet us at ten o'clock, and we drive into the centre of Prague and up to the castle. On the way, Marčela tells us that she finally left last night's ball at four o'clock in the morning.

We walk through the castle courtyards, admiring the variety of architectural styles built up over the centuries. There's a mass in progress at St Vitus' cathedral in the castle grounds, so we can't go in. Round the corner, a local Czech artist has created an open-air 'betlem' nativity scene from straw - Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus, cattle, wise men, everything. We walk down the steps from the castle to the street below, stopping to admire the view over the old city and the Vltava river which flows through Prague.

Marčela points out below the Charles Bridge the high point, way above the shop doorways, to which the city was flooded five years ago in 2002. Since then, flood barriers have been installed. We walk the length of the Charles Bridge, lined with artists and street performers, and find the spot where you have to put your hands and feet just so in order to make a wish.

Lunch - onion soup and goulash for me - is at a typical Prague restaurant, whose walls are lined with cartoons featuring a popular beer-drinking Czech cartoon character. Of course the words are in Czech, but some - mostly the very impolite ones - need no translation!

There's a bustling Christmas market in the old square, and we have an hour to tour all the different stalls, full of Christmas decorations and Christmas gifts. We manage to resist more of the hot mead and mulled wine, but can't leave without trying a trdelnik - sweet dough wrapped on large metal rods, barbecued over coals, slid off the rods so that they're about the size and shape of a wide bangle, and rolled in sugar.

On the way home, we're dropped for last minute shopping at Prague 15's shopping mall, about five years old now, with a large Interspar supermarket, and lots of smaller shops; and we take the tram back to our room.

In the evening, we're collected from our hotel just before six o'clock for the final event of our trip - a dinner at a restaurant a little way outside Prague 15 district, called, unpronounceably, U Srbu. I comment once again to Marčela that the Czech language seems to have only a passing relationship with the concept of the vowel.

The Mayor is hosting the dinner, and welcomes us once again to his district. I reply - in English translated by Marčela - thanking him for our Prague friends' hospitality, and for the opportunity to see so much of what goes on in Prague 15. There are thirteen of us round the table, including the Mayor and his wife, Prague 15's deputies and their partners, and their Chief Executive. Over dinner, Marčela and I have another opportunity to discuss new ways in which the relationship between Harlow and Prague 15 could move forward, to involve more residents and create opportunities for mutual understanding and learning, particularly for children and young people.

We exchange gifts with our hosts, wish each other a merry Christmas, and head back to our hotel for a good night's sleep before the journey back to Harlow tomorrow.