Blue church, Berlin

Right next to the remnants of a bombed-out church, a new one has been built using blue glass walls that give the entire sanctuary into a luminscent blue glow. You'll find the church near the Berlin Zoo.

Berlin colonnades

Berlin is a conflicted city, trying to decide which parts of its history to erase from memory and which parts to preserve. These colonnades are the subject of public debate over whether to patch over the bullet holes from Russian/Nazi fighting at the end of World War II, or leave them there for their historic value. I vote for leaving them there.

Berlin graffiti

Berlin was front and centre in the graffiti movement, and it shows. The city's got graffiti everywhere, but it adds more of an artistic touch than the usual urban scrawls. Graffiti-watchers will especially enjoy the views from the metro.

Jewish memorial at Berlin

Building a Jewish memorial in Berlin was obviously something of a tricky proposition. The artist created cement slabs of varying sizes and had intended for people to right their thoughts about the Jewish Holocaust on the slabs, but that plan was scrapped when everyone realized the disastrous potential of something like that. So the slabs are blank, creating shadowy corridors for wandering in and out of.

Bone Church, Kutna Hora

Back in the late 1890s, the church at Kutna Hora gave the OK to a local woodcutter to get creative with the bones of 40,000 people buried there. The result is a fantastical array of weird bone sculptures, including a chandelier featuring every bone in the human body. Kutna Hora is 66 kilometres from Prague and makes a nice day trip, but pick your train carefully so you don't endure too many stops.

Cemetery at Prague

Headstone in the Prague cemetery where Dvorak is buried. Tradition here seems to be to plant graves with great masses of flowers.

Easter in Prague

We visited Prague in the week before Easter. Temporary market stalls were set up in the main Old Town square to sell food, crafts and various Easter treats. The square was jammed with people eating, drinking and catching some of the live entertainment on a nearby stage.

Vltava River view, Prague

Prague is a beautiful city, with bridges spanning the Vltava River every few kilometres and fabulous buildings that run the gamut of styles from 10 centuries of architecture.

John Lennon Wall, Prague

This wall can be a bit tricky to find in the winding streets of "Little Venice," across the Vltava River from the main part of Prague. It began decades ago as a protest of a Communist ban of rock music, but is now just a colourful mass of graffiti with a vague John Lennon theme. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Prague Castle

The castle in Prague is visible for miles around, and it's gorgeous from all viewpoints. Walking the Charles Bridge to the castle will put you in the middle of the tourist crush - try coming at it from the back side of the castle, up in the hills around Prague.

Tower view, Prague

View from the 60-metre-high "Eiffel Tower" in Prague, built in the 1890s as a replica of the real thing. Take the funicular to the tower for the equivalent of a buck and wander back through any of a dozen walking paths.