On Wednesday we took the train from small town Cham to big city Prague. We didn't know what to do with 
Wenceslas Square
ourselves in Cham, so after an enjoyable breakfast we slowly packed up and walked to the train station, but we still got there at ten whereas the train was not scheduled until 12:35. So we bought some sticky buns to eat on the train and proceeded to track 3.
We followed a precise drill: we pulled our two suitcases on wheels to the top of the staircase (which goes down to the underpass beneath the train tracks). Bob started down with one suitcase and when he got half way down Elsa started down leaving the second suitcase alone at the top. Then Bob put the first suitcase at the bottom of the stairs for Elsa to watch and headed back up for the second suitcase which he carried down. To get up the stairs to track 3 we did the same procedure only going up instead of down. It 
Beautiful decorated building
took a while, and we felt we would remain on the platform at track 3 until it was time to board. We watched four or five trains come in and unload and load and go out, and then we watched another, because our train had technical difficulty in the locomotive (actually the overhead electric lines) and had to be 25 minutes late.
There was a lady waiting for the train to Prague who got quite nervous, and we tried to keep her relaxed, which eventually worked out OK. We're sure she would have difficulty as she had to change trains in Prague. But we got separated. We imagine others took over the responsibility of comforting her on the trip.
Two lovers in the landscape
Part of the time we had a six-passenger compartment to ourselves, and we sat by the window and ate our pastry. We could tell when we crossed the Czech border as there was a red white and blue sign by the side of the tracks. A lady who didn't speak any English seemed upset about what station was next and got off at the first stop in the Czech Republic.
About 3:00 p.m. we arrived in Prague. On the platform there was a man eager for a fare who spotted us as marks and said "taxi?" We knew our hotel was close so we said No. Then we followed the mass of people from the train to an enormous modern train station filled with stores, directions for luggage stowage, currency exchange, restaurants, transport offices, and the Czech equivalent of the Reisezentrum, 
Still life with a goblet
complete with people who would evaluate existing tickets and people who would provide maps and tourist info and help with local subways and trams. It was a super train station!
In Prague they sell bus and tram and subway rides by the minute, or rather, short rides up to 30 min, long rides up to 90 min, one day passes, and three day passes. So you can ride as much as you want, the price is the same.
But in one end of the station someone was having a fund raiser or something and anyway was blasting something called music at an ear-splitting volume to a large mob of young people, who were screaming and chanting. Bob had to get away from the din, which was OK because it was time to find our hotel.
National Gallery atrium
We missed the Maria Prag hotel the first time around because the sign is not facing the railroad station, but we eventually found it -- literally across the street. It's a very nice comfortable place and we settled in for a five-night stay.
We decided to check out the laundry but couldn't find the place so we gave it up, returned once more to the station which was so huge and staying away from the loud music we cased the joint some more. Then it was back to our room to tumble into bed.
In the morning Bob discovered he had walked the wrong way to the laundry so he left early to walk about three blocks and found quite a nice cleaner and laundry, and later we dropped off our bag. We 
Bubbles in Old Town
discovered some wonderful buildings -- the Opera House surmounted by large bronze sculptures, and the National Museum overlooking Wenceslas Square, actually a blocks long plaza located on the site of the former horse market.
Our tour book suggested riding the number 22 tram in order to get an overview of Prague and so we did just that -- from one end to the other and back again, seeing what Prague is like. It's not war damaged (the last big war in Prague was the Thirty Years War, in which one-quarter to one-third of all Germans were killed) and the nineteenth century buildings are most beautifully decorated and provide an architectural treat. Some of the more recent buildings built in the Communist era are drab and unlovely, though.
Elsa and Jan Hus memorial
We went in a restaurant and the waitress brought us huge book-like menu with prices about three times higher than what we had seen posted outside, so we asked for the smaller menu and had two nice (affordable but still too large) dishes -- a wonderful pot roast ( "I present your cow," the waitress said, smiling) with mashed and a chicken paprikash with a stuffing of some grain mixture.
Refreshed, we set out to the famous National Gallery, intending to see the Slav Epic, a wonderful set of giant murals by Alfonse Mucha, an early art moderne artist. This involved a delicate two-tram switcheroo, and we went in the wrong direction one time, but got it adjusted and found the museum, located in an enormous gallery. But oh, oh, the Slav Epic, so lavishly described by Rick Steves in his Prague 
Wenceslas; horse inverted
handbook, had gone on tour and was currently in Japan and wouldn't be back to the Czech Republic for quite some time, like maybe more than a year.
We started out disappointed but paid the museum admission anyway and walked around several of the six exhibit floors. But after a while we came to a wonderful series of galleries containing the French paintings, including a great many French impressionist paintings (imagine an entire room of Picassos) and sculptures which, of course, we'd never seen before. There were no barriers to keep visitors from getting close to the art, and non-flash photography was freely permitted, so we snapped many shots. When we finished with that floor we tried Modern Czech artists from 1930 onward, and were rewarded with some 
Prague tourist limo
talented but unknown artists. All in all, it was a great museum, even without the Mucha!
The next day's explorations began with a walk to Old Town square which already, by 8:30, was crowding up with people, including at least 6 tour groups and 6 hustlers trying to get us to sign up for a guided tour. A man made soap bubbles which sparkled in the morning sun. The large square is dominated by a monument to Jan Hus in heroic dimensions. This explains an important difference between Czechia and Slovakia, which we visited in 2006. Hus was, like Luther, a church reformer, while dean of Charles University. But Hus was born a century before Luther, and was burned at the stake for heresy, and so became a martyr for the Czech people, who left the Catholic church in droves during the Reformation, while the 
Art Nouveau door
Slovaks remained staunchly Catholic to this day. Prague reminded us, we said to each other, of Austin, with a young, fun-loving, progressive citizenry; and therefore Prague has pitched itself to younger visitors, with lots of night life (while we were sleeping!) Illustrative of this was the delightful statue of Wenceslas atop an upside-down horse, in one of the shopping arcades.
The most stylish tourist transportation in Prague is a fleet of open stretch limos built to resemble 1930s roadsters. We snapped a picture of one from a tram. We discovered that the churches don't open to tourists till 10 am or later but we enjoyed walking in Old Town, admiring the many charming architectural 
Hussite church ceiling
details, appreciating the fact that so little damage had been done to the city during WWII.
We walked into the old Jewish quarter which is filled with expensive designer shops and jewelers. But the crowds were increasing even here, so we took ourselves to another tram which runs near the river, taking a good long ride through town and up into the hills, then back down again.
We wanted more Czech cooking so we stopped for lunch at a brewery restaurant where we sampled dumplings and more sauerkraut and beef with cranberries, plus ham and potato pancakes. Wonderful!
Later we found ourselves in the Museum of Communism, a tiny, badly organized, amateur museum built 
At the Museum of Communism
with love and passion, which has survived for 40 years and attracts a steady stream of visitors. Many photos had captions clearly written by participants in the bad years of the 1960s to 1990s. We recommend this hard-to-find museum for a deeper understanding of Prague and Czechia.
In the museum we watched a video of the 1989 protests in Wenceslas Square, where we had walked. According to Prague legends, if the motherland is in terrible danger, the statue of Wenceslas will come to life; he will ride his horse into the mountains to waken the great knights there, and the horse will stumble upon a stone which will reveal the great sword with which he will lead them. Historically, Wenceslas Square is the place where public demonstrations are held. During our visit there was one small demonstration which was watched by a couple of policement but attracted no additional attention.