Prague planetary smack-down

If you haven't been there, you should visit Prague. Even though all the places that you should see will be clogged with people just like you, i.e. tourists, it's still a wonderful city. Aesthetically and geographically, Prague is a hit. Castles, churches, cobblestone streets, the Vlatva river, museums-- and you can walk to all of it. An even better idea is to buy a transit pass so you can take the metro, trams and buses anywhere. This allows you to get out of the center of town and see areas without all of the tourists. Like giant Soviet-area housing blocks with nice greenways running through them, or wide boulevards with shops and apartments mixed in with the old cemetaries and churches. Also, astronomers like to gather here periodically to vote on who gets to be a planet. Last week, while I was just a few km from the big convention of sky-watchers, they decided that Pluto no longer has what it takes. Take that Pluto, you and your weak gravitational force. I took the subway out to the convention on Friday just to witness the carnage, but I was a little too late, the convention's closing ceremony was Thursday night and there was only the "historical astronomy" group still presenting, with some papers on things like "Mayan observations of the transit of Venus," so I didn't get to witness any fistfights. Maybe next time.