The first steps in exploring any new town are exciting, and for us it was made even better by the cool air, something we were enjoying immensely. So cool in fact that I had to wear a jacket.

This all probably sounds a little mundane, but after having survived most of the summer in Abu Dhabi, and it's 46C+ heat, we couldn't get enough of it.

An aside:
We get quizzed all the time about the heat, and how we are coping with it. It seems that there is a common misconception that simply because we are Australian we automatically have nerve endings that are supposed to be quite adept at dealing with living in a sandy blast furnace.

For the record: We're not.

Follow up:

Yes it gets hot in Melbourne, bloody hot if you'll excuse the expression (a milder turn of phrase than I usually use), but Melbourne, even at 46 degrees, is do-able... kinda.

Sure, the airconditioning situation is laughable. I mean who really wants an evaporative cooling solution that reduces the ambient temperature by 8 degrees.. but INCREASES the humidity so much you could grow orchids in the carpet of the lounge room? Oh, and the issue of the train lines buckling because of the extreme heat, thereby ruining any chance of train travel that doesn't involve getting stranded for hours in a steel box with 200 new found friends...

What's do-able about it then? At least in Melbourne you know that in the next week there will be a cool day, not polar-ice-shelf cool.. but significantly cooler than 46. Unlike Abu Dhabi, where summer was 4 months of 40+ degrees with at least 2 of those months 44+.

Every day. With 80-90% humidity.

Brutal.

So finding ourselves on a beautiful old street below the castle in the cool afternoon air was almost worth the price of the plane ticket alone - and we were literally only 4 hours out of the plane.

Staying on the Castle side of the river had a few unexpected benefits, one of which was the need to cross the magnificent Charles bridge any time we needed to go anywhere other than the castle itself. A need I am grateful for, as just visiting it once wouldn't do it justice. We probably crossed it a couple of times a day during our stay - each visit bringing something new.

A new art vendor, or another busker or a different view across the Vltava River. Maybe something missed on one of the famous statues on previous crossings picked up.

We saw a water colour we liked at one of the stalls, and rather purchasing it right then and carting it around on our adventures, we vowed to take a closer look on our return.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4