The Vltava River and Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

A really pleasant sight here in the Czech Republic is to see children, some probably no more than seven years old, making their way from home to school and back again on their own! They do this on foot or combine it with the use of public transport. It is such a throwback to my own childhood when I too nearly always took myself to primary school either by walking there or travelling on the bus. Yet now in the UK, (and I gather also in the USA and many other western countries), hardly any parents allow this to happen because of fears regarding their children’s safety.

It isn’t just to school and back. Here in Prague, I often see children and young people in the late afternoon or early evening, making their own way back home . . . → Read More: The sensible Czech attitude to children and their safety