I have spent a couple of days wandering around Prague wondering why I haven’t really warmed to Prague. Perhaps Linda said it best when she said it reminded her of an ‘untidy Singapore – it lacks heart.’ Prague was the first European city we visited ten years ago when we came here with our children. It was the first time three of us have ever seen snow – but it still can’t inspire the depth of passion that many first-time experiences tend to evoke. The presence of so many tourists (like me) hasn’t helped – Prague hosts SIX MILLION visitors each summer in a city that numbers just 1.2 million.
    

There have been experiences I have loved of course. We saw a photo exhibition of the photos of Erich Lessing. Lessing was a colleague of Robert Carpa – both were displaced Jews, both worked for Magnum Photos, both were photojournalists, both photographed the seminal events that occurred in Europe during my lifetime. Lessing left Vienna when the Fascists took power – his mother stayed and died in Auschwitz. After the war Lessing photographed the effects of the war on Eastern Europe, capturing the plight of Poles, East Germans, and Austrians as they struggled to regain some sense of normality – sometimes maintaining, sometimes showing the complete loss of dignity that goes with deep poverty. Carpa stood on a land-mine in Vietnam and died at the height of his fame while Lessing , now 92, went on to become one of Austria’s living treasures.

Despite the prevalence of Tesco and Sainsburys we have found farmers’ markets with wonderful food. (Tip for travellers – when you see a queue of people linking up to buy sausages and ham, it is a queue well worth joining.)  Tonight for dinner we had ham, sausages and farmers’ cheeses, the most beautiful strawberries and cherries, and real bread. I hereby reaffirm my vow to give Coles and Woolworths the least amount of my income possible.

We probably won’t return to Prague. I fear it may become wealthier, busier, more crowded. The things we love about travel in Europe – talking with locals, the markets, the great food,  will be even harder to find in this cleaner and tidier ‘Singapore’. Pity really.

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