During the last
summer (August 2002), Prague fell victim to the
floods which occured all over
Eastern Europe. I was there at the time, on
holiday with two friends. We were only staying 3 days, and arrived on a
Monday. That evening, the river level started to rise. We were actually on
Charles Bridge, the most famous
bridge in the city, taking
photos of the rising water, when the
police came to close the bridge, and move everybody off it.
We were staying with some friends who lived in Prague, who had a house
north of the
river. After being moved off
Charles Bridge, we were pretty much
stranded on this side. Most of the
tourist attractions in the City are
South of the river, which was a little unfortunate for us. The
zoo was closed (several animals
drowned there, unforuately), so the only place we could go was the
castle. The castle in Prague is fantastic. It is at the very top of a huge
hill, so the
views from up there are absolutely stunning. The castle itself wasn't huge, but had an amazing
Cathedral built into it, as well as a large plot of
gardens. All three of us were and are keen
photographers, so it was fortunate that the grounds were so beautiful.
Other than visiting the castle, there was very little left to do. The shops were mainly closed, as were the restaurants, as
deliveries could not cross the
river to get to them. The electricity was turned off on Tuesday, for safety reasons, so we were left trying to see our way round the house by
candle light, with very little to eat.
We did manage to find an open supermarket, after a long
tram ride and a reasonable walk. The
trams in Prague are one of the main tourist attractions. They run almost perfectly on time (which is amazing to someone accustomed to British public transport), and can take you anywhere in the city.
Our journey home was on Thursday, although not from the
bus station we expected, which was underwater at the time. We set off on time, and arrived home slightly early. Although it was an
interesting experience, it certainly wasn't the one we were expecting! We plan to repeat our visit, this time without the excess of
water, to enable us to actually see all the sights to be seen.