Time's Up.

Clocking in at more than 600 years old...

Prague, Czechia – In a hazy heat, history seems to melt off the stone walls of the city's 12th-century old town square.

It's 35 degrees and packed.

Golden rings shimmer on the old town hall as a grinning skeleton strikes 11 o'clock. Bells chime with a thin tinkle.

In unison, the crowd casts eyes upward for the hourly show at The Orloj, which has no doubt been a sight to behold since it was first installed in 1410, making it the world's oldest operational astronomical clock. 

Small doors open above the clock face, beginning the parade of apostles.

The city has a great palette.

Colourful buildings framing the square are no short of stunning. From Gothic to Art Nouveau, it's like flipping a glossy magazine's pages of architectural styles throughout the ages. 

Admiring details on the facades, I trace a delicate 18th-century mural of St. Wenceslas down to the doorway. A red-lit message ticks along a simple LED sign hanging above.

"Thai massages," it whispers garishly.

Prague's sophisticated cultural history seems to have been usurped.

Bare-chested bros two-fist tallboys of lager, their shoulders charging at abstract angles past a Starbucks nestled between marijuana and trinket shops. Stag parties sport matching t-shirts, except the grooms, who stagger along in tutus and rabbit ears. Nearby, young women tug on vape pens with shrugs of Botox-lipped indifference, as though they're nibbling on Twizzlers.

History is being melted away by more than the heat.