blue skies over Prague

The weather has been unbeatable. Blue skies, warm sun, 28 but not hot. I'm so glad I'm taking this trip now, while it's still summer.
Prague is gorgeous. Like all those romantic German cities thrown together into one bustling, time-testifying working metropolis.
Cobblestones absolutely everywhere. Layers and layers of architecture: romanesque, gothic, renaissance, baroque. I have never seen so much Renaissance architecture outside of Italy.
I'm here visiting my friend Yvonne, a Czech-Canadian friend of mine from McGill. It is so good to see her, one of those people I have such a natural connection with. Today we walked everywhere, and sat at a cafe in the old town hall square for dinner al fresco.
Afterwards we went up to the rooftops to get a look at Prague in the golden evening light. Looking down into the square, Yvonne pointed out how 15 years ago, when she was first there, the only thing you saw was people queueing to buy bananas. Now it is absolutely thronged with tourists, worse than the crowds I've seen in Florence and Venice. Much worse. It's pretty much intolerable. And can you imagine the change for the Czechs?
Prague is now littered with restaurants, where before it was virtually void of them -- you could not go out to eat under Communist times.

On another note, there's some sort of commercial British connection going on in Prague. Of course EasyJet flies here so Prague is second only to Riga for the dubious honour of hosting the sex-touring Stag parties of raucously drunk Britons. But dammit, there's a Tesco's! and Debenham's AND Marks & Spencers. What is going on? Did British capital alone rebuild the tourist industry in Prague?

Most moving sight of the day: Alfonse Mucha, one of my favourite artists, contributed a stained glass window to St.Vitus' cathedral, the massive gothic centrepiece of the Prague Castle (and palace). This cathedral is what gothic is all about: sunlight from the upper windows bathing the entire nave in daylight. A miracle in action.
Anyway, the window. A Crayola box of Art Nouveau: vivid purples and greens and crimsons and golden yellows, depicting a dozen scenes. Every single scene a moving, character filled moment of drama where age and agony and religion are etched on the faces of the players. A colourful fantasy of deep moving humanity. Unbelievable.