I'm an Australian, based in the Washington, DC, area of the United States. I spend a lot of time there with Jasmine, Australia's best-known speedsolver of the Rubik's Cube. Prior to the US, Jasmine and I were based in London, UK. We have also lived previously in the United States and Australia.

I have worked for an Australian business rules and compliance company since 1999 in Australia, the US and the UK. I have also lectured in IT and Law related topics at King's College, London, and at The Australian National University.

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[/Travel/Europe] permanent link

Czech Republic, and return visit to Australia

I'm typing this entry on a laptop at 30,000 feet, on Qantas Flight 2, somewhere between Bangkok and Sydney. Jasmine and I have just spent five days in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and now it's back to Australia for three weeks to catch up with family and friends. After that, we'll be heading back to the airport and returning to London.

We had a fantastic time in the Czech Republic, and it's definitely a place to which we would return, given the time and the opportunity.

The following are some photos I took during our stay, with some comments about what they show.

Above: The view across the Vltava River to the Lesser Town, featuring Prague's famous Charles Bridge in the foreground and the Castle and St Vitus' Cathedral in the background.

Above: The view across the Vltava River at night, taken from a similar viewpoint to the photo above.

Above: The famous Astronomical Clock in Prague's Old Town Square.

Above: The view across the Old Town Square at night, showing the Town Hall building.

Above: The view across the Old Town Square at night, taken looking away from the Town Hall Building, and looking up at the turrets of the Church of Our Lady Before Týn.

Above: Jasmine and I went on a day trip to the UNESCO-listed town of Kutná Hora. The most unusual thing we saw there was the Ossuary, in which the bones of 40,000 people are stored and displayed. The bones were collected in this way after an old cemetery (which had been very popular as it had been sprinkled with soil that pilgrims had brought back from the Holy Lands) had been closed. They were initially displayed in six pyramids, but in the 19th century, bones from two of the pyramids were fashioned into an array of decorations, including a famous chandelier, around the Ossuary building. The display of human remains in this way is meant to suggest that in death all people are equal. This photo shows the main view of the Ossuary just after entering, including the famous bone chandelier.

Above: This is one of the four pyramids of human bones that are still stored in the Ossuary. Note the decoration with a coat of arms fashioned from bones.

Above: These words are a memorial to the creator of the Ossuary in its current form.

Above: This is Prague's Television Tower, shot with a telephoto lens from Prague Castle. If you look closely you can see giant baby-shaped sculptures scaling the tower!

Above: This giant metronome sits on a hill overlooking Prague. It replaced a statue of Joseph Stalin that stood in this location during Communist rule. It's meant to demonstrate the passage of time, but Jasmine and I noticed that it seems to be switched off at night.

Above: Cookie Monster, who has accompanied me on most of my travels over the past couple of years, followed us to the Czech Republic. His biggest disappointment was not being able to pose for a photo in the Ossuary, where I had to tell him that discriminatory attitudes to Cookie Monsters might lead people to think he was being disrespectful!