Do not cross a road when the traffic light is RED! and other Prague, Czech Republic Warning Or Danger Tips

Or you will get fined... :-(

They call it 'Jaywalking' in the US, I haven't a clue what else to call it as in the UK doing this is not a crime.

Anyway, there I was waiting to cross the busy road from the Old Town (Stare Mesto) across to the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) and I was being a bit impatient seeing as I had just missed the lights...

So I waited until nothing was coming so that it was safe to cross just by walking without hurrying and crossed - in full view of a policeman.

OK, so perhaps I was asking for trouble but other people were doing it just a few metres further down the road, but I was the one that he decided to stop.

He told me of my 'crime' and said that the maximum fine was 1000 crowns, he then asked for my passport which I didn't have on me. Now here I am thinking that he could take me down to the police station or something because I don't have any ID, thinking that this was going to ruin my day I thought to be as cooperative as possible...

In the end he only fined me for 200 crowns, which is only a few pounds for a cool souvenir, and I was on my way again.

In hindsight it is a fair enough punishment as it is quite a dangerous crossing with many trams passing through a narrow street at speed and you don't want hundreds of tourists being mown down by speeding vehicles...

So watch out at the Charles Bridge/Old Town crossing unless you want your own dubious souvenir... ;-)

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One of the occupational hazzards of visiting Prague during winter is that you may face long delays due to the high probability of blizzards closing the airport...

Still, seeing Prague under a brilliant white carpet of snow definitely makes it worth the risk!

I remember arriving at the airport for my night time flight back to Cardiff and seeing about half an hour before we were due to board that it had started snowing. Great I thought - I love seeing snow fall!

It did also occur to me that the snow could cause problems for taking off, but the snowfall didn't seem that heavy. Also I thought that an airport such as Prague would be used to dealing with situations such as these...

So we boarded - and waited. Then after some sundry minor delays of the usual faffing around variety it suddenly occurred to them that they needed to de-ice the wings.

So we waited for about half an hour until a truck could come and de-ice our wings - which took about half an hour!

All this time the snow was falling...

Then they realised they needed to clear the runway - but by this time so much time had elapsed that it had frozen over!

So we disembarked with promises that we should be underway in another hour or so...

Yeah right! Now about 11pm the outside temperature was only going to get worse and at the back of my mind I had a bad feeling - but off I went to grab a bite to eat.

Anyway, at about 1am they finally admit that we won't be flying this night - just in time for the airport to have closed so that there is no transport running to or from the airport anymore!

All it would have taken was a little bit of initiative! "Look it's snowing, we'd better de-ice the plane and the runway while the passengers board". Simple really... :-(

So we are stranded at the airport to sleep the night on benches without knowing exactly when we are going to depart (almost 24hrs late in the end)...

Still, I got to practise my French with a Guinean Croupier in the 24hr Casino for much of the night! ;-)

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After a snowfall, of which there are many during winter, compacted snow can quickly become icy and extremely slippery...

When I tried a short cut from the Strahov Monastery up the Petrin Hill to the Observation Tower, I was greeted by the scene pictured below...

It was completely impossible to walk on the path due to its icyness and the only way to maintain progress was by literally hauling myself up the path by using the railings which was fairly hard work.

I would avoid this route if snow is on the ground if you are in any way infirm or have young children - for me it was a fun if tiring detour! ;-)

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