Prague

Prague enjoys the reputation of being the most beautiful city in the world. It is certainly one of the most photogenic and my poor old camera had a right workout as I took hundreds of snaps. I had to stop taking pictures a few times as I could feel the body of the camera starting to overheat. Here's a few favourite snaps:

Autumn leaves.


How much is that doggie in the window?


Rooftops of Prague.


Enjoying a laugh with the witches.


On the Charles Bridge.


Still life with beer; last moments waiting for the bus to the airport.

A Walking Tour of Prague

On our first morning in the city our intrepid group got the tour bus from the hotel to the Cechuv bridge at the top of the Old Town and split into two groups, each with a guide, for our walking tour. Cechuv bridge is the tourist rendezvous for Prague, it's the only place where you can park and all the tour buses congregate here. You could probably find a new tour group if you were fed up with the one you were currently with.

The tour guides carry flowers instead of umbrellas. This is our group's guide, Anna. She looked familiar; I was sure that she reminded me of someone. The backdrop is Prague castle on the other bank of the Vltava river.

Here we go off to Josefov, the old Jewish Quarter. The Town Hall with the famous clocks is in the background just after the Old-New Synagogue. You get a lot of this New-Old, Old-New business in Prague as the city was divided into two main adminstrative areas, the Old Town (Stare Mesto) and the New Town (Nove Mesto) but the New Town was established in 1348 so most of it is quite old. Josefov is very old but most of it was demolished and rebuilt at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century most of the Jewish population was dragged off and murdered by the Nazis.

Meanwhile, we were preoccupied with dodging the street cleaners. This is a very clean city but if you want clean streets then you have to put up with trucks buzzing around spraying jets of water everywhere. You are expected to get out of the way.

We thought we had dodged the water sprayers when the Kamikaze street cleaners came round the corner and caught us again. Banzai!

Here is one of our groups outside the Old-New Synagogue and afraid to cross the street.

Entrance to the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest working synagogue in Central Europe. All for the tourists, there is no local Jewish community.

You have to pay to enter any of the historic buildings. Old-New Synagogue Tour, a snip at 200 Czech Crowns.

Entrance to the Old Jewish Cemetery, the gate is locked and guarded. Buy your tickets at the cash desk to the left. The building to the right is the Ceremonial Hall of the Jewish Burial Society, now a museum.

View of the Old Jewish Cemetery from the street. We were too mean to pay the astonishingly high entrance charges. For over 300 years this was the only burial ground permitted to Jews and due to the lack of space people had to buried one on top of the other, as many as twelve layers deep.

Dead pigeon on a roof. Josefov has the same feeling as Kazimierz in Krakow, a museum piece set in aspic. Its busy, the streets are full of visitors but the only Jewish people here are tourists.

The Spanish Synagogue, built in the flamboyant Moorish style.

It's great to be famous in Prague as you get so many things named after you. Franz Kafka never lived in this district but he is a favourite son and even on my short visit I managed to spot the following: Franz Kafka Restaurant, Franz Kafka Bar, Franz Kafka Museum, Franz Kafka Gallery, Franz Kafka Kavarner. There's probably a Franz Kafka sandwich, I wonder what it would be; Gammon and Bitter Leaves on Wry? That is my attempt at rye humour and this is the Franz Kafka statue near the Spanish Synagogue.


Close up of the Jewish Town Hall showing the famous clocks, the one in the clock tower is conventional and the hands move clockwise. The lower clock in the gables has Hebrew figures and the hands move anti-clockwise as Hebrew script reads from right to left.

Detail of the Hebrew clock. I think that you have to view it in a mirror to see what the time is. Oh, of course, it's twenty past twelve. Obvious really. I cheated and looked at the other clock.

Towards the Charles Bridge

Off we tramped through the Old Town towards the Charles Bridge. Cobbled streets, tram lines and old apartment houses give this area a typical Mitteleuropa feel.

The pack leaders march past the back of Charles University on Jan Palach Square. I have now realised that our tour guide reminded me of that well known Hungarian actress, Katalin Vad.

Past the huge Rudolfinium concert hall. The Prague Autumn International Music Festival was in full swing when we were here but being boring old buggers too mean to go out at night we did not attend any events.

The Old Town bank of the Vltava is dominated by the view of Prague Castle on the far bank, it's always there and you get used to it but now and again you catch a glimpse and think "that's a fine view but where's the castle?" The enclosure is the castle and the fine building in the middle of it is St Vitus' cathedral.

And finally, the Charles Bridge. This medieval bridge connects the Old Town and the Lesser Town. It is lined with Baroque statues, there are towers standing at either end of the bridge which is constantly thronged with tourists, souvenir stalls and street musicians.

My group this way! The intrepid band approach the bridge across the Knights of the Cross Square, Church of the Holy Saviour in the background. It's very hard to remember the names of the places where you've been; Knights of the Cross Square in Czech is Krizovnicke Namesti . How do you even start to pronounce it? Czech is not as impossible as Polish but it's enough to render me tongue tied, "Krisov.. Krishov.. Krishovnicky..."

The diacritics help you make the sound correctly. The little "moustache" or háček placed over a letter softens and lengthens the sound; a 'Z' becomes a 'Zh' sound. It's no good, I can't say any of it.

Where's the bridge? Look hard, it's there somewhere behind all the tourists.

Trad Jazz band tootling away under one of the statues. The best known statue is down the other end of the bridge and marks where St Jan Nepomuky was chucked off the bridge having been tortured to death. You are supposed to touch it for good luck. Right!

Charles IV statue in front of the Pilsner Urquell advertising hoarding. This is so well done that we thought the building was real. You have to look twice.

Charles this and Charles that. Who was this Charles? That was Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, the most diplomatically skillful sovereign of his time. Prague emerged as the intellectual, economic and cultural centre of central Europe during his reign and many famous buildings were completed under his patronage; New Town, Prague Castle, much of Saint Vitus' cathedral. Several buildings bear his name, Charles University, Charles Bridge and Charles Square.

Amazingly, for a Czech hero, he did not come to a sticky end. He was neither drowned, stabbed, burned, poisoned or thrown from a tall building; he died of old age.

View of the Vltava weir from the bridge, that's the National Theatre on the left hand side with Children's Island on the right.


Lesser Town Towers on the far bank of the Vltava. Hils and Astrid are strolling towards us.

Gateway through to the Lesser Town.

Back at the Old Town end. It took me ages to get this photograph. I was determined to get a tram picture but the blessed things are not very frequent on this route and they don't stop, you have to catch them as they trundle across. Miss it and you have to wait another five minutes for the next one. This is my forth or fifth attempt. The street to the right of the church is Karlova or Charles Street, the route through to the Old Town Square.

View of the Charles Bridge Old Town Tower looking back along Karlova.

Old Town Square

We trooped through the narrow streets in the heart of the Old Town to reach the Old Town Square for an orgy of photograph taking. After the Charles Bridge this is the next most popular spot on the Tourist Trail.

Entering the square, the Gothic spires of the Týn Church dominate the square, the Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall is seen to the left with various wedding parties in front.

Looking back on our route; wedding parties and Old Town Hall entrance to the right hand side.

Looking across to the North side of the square from a coffee shop on the corner opposite the Old Town Hall, the Jan Hus monument is across the square over to the right.

The square is lined with cafes and watering holes packed with tourists.

Another view of the Church of our Lady before Týn, the Gothic spires and multiple steeples are completed with a fine selection of celestial granny flats.

View across the square from the South side, showing the Jan Hus monument with the Church of St. Nicholas behind.

A view of the square taken from Pařížská (see how I am trying to do my moustaches) on the North side showing the East side with the Kinsky Palace on the left and the Týn church.

Yet another view taken from Pařížská showing the Gothic and Romanesque houses which line the South side of the square. The white cars in the foreground are vintage Skodas and Pragas which you can hire and tour the city. No, we didn't. We walked.

The most sumptuously decorated house on the South side is the Storch house. The shop sells glassware and souvenirs like so many other shops in the area. I hope they don't pay a huge rent, it's a bit pointless going in, all the action is on the outside.

Detail of the Jan Hus monument. Jan Hus was a religious thinker, philosopher and reformer, the inspiration of the Hussite movement. He was stitched up by his enemies, convicted of heresy and burned at the stake but not here in the Old Town Square. Another Czech hero, another sticky end. Jan Hus was responsible for introducing diacritics into Czech orthography and our tongues have been tied ever since. Burning seems an extreme punishment for this, mere censure would have been sufficient.

Prague Astronomical Clock

The Orloj is a medieval astronomical clock mounted on the Old Town Hall. According to the legend, it was built by the master clockmaker, Hanus and the city fathers had him blinded so that he could not build another. Silly buggers, now how are you going to get it fixed?

There are three main components; the top dial is the astronomical clock, the lower dial is a calender. There is a presentation of statues of the Apostles at the doorways above the clock, with all twelve presented at noon.

As noon approaches, the square empties...

The crowds are drawn to the clock for the great show, not this one you twits, the one round the corner.

Excitement mounts...

After a few bell tinklings, some of the statues twitch a few times and then the assembled multitude respond to the call of the Golden chicken and await the 'Walk of the Apostles'. Avid clock-watchers. I could have offered to help them with a few tips, I've been clock-watching most of my life.

The figure of Death (the skeleton on the right of the clock) pulls the rope in his right hand, then the top two windows open and the 'Walk of the Apostles' starts off, led by St. Peter. Now, I don't want to sound cynical and I am sure that this really was a wow in the 15th century but at this stage I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

The clock shows the supposed orbits of the sun and the moon around the earth, which is fixed in the centre (this was the 15th century, alright?) The hand with the sun records three, different types of time. The other ring of medieval Arabic numerals is Old Bohemian time, where a day of 24 hours was measured from the setting of the sun. The inner ring of Roman numerals is time as we know it, Jim and the blue part of the dial represents the visible part of the sky to show Babylonian time where the period of daylight was divided into twelve hours the length of which would vary according to the season. The clock also shows the movement of the sun and moon through the signs of the zodiac. So, what time is it?

The four figures flanking the clock are set in motion at the hour, they represent (reading left to right in the photograph) Vanity, shown as a figure admiring himself in a mirror. Next, a Jew holding a bag of gold represents Greed or Usury. On the other side of the clock stands Death, a skeleton that strikes the time upon the hour. Finally, the infidel Turk, symbolising Lust, wears the Turban.

The calendar dial with medallions representing the months. Ignorance precludes my identifying the statues.

The rest of the time this corner of the square is just fair to middling busy with gawping tourists and weddings going full blast at the Town Hall.

Up the Old Town Hall
Defenestrations of Prague. A snip at 70 Crowns and undoubtedly the best ride in town.


You will not regret a climb to the top of the Old Town Hall tower - the view of the square and beyond is spectacular. that's what it says in the guide book. It's actually a lot easier if you take the lift.
Wander the streets leading off the square - the grand Pařížská, the charming Týnská that leads to Ungelt, the ever-busy Melantrichova that will take you to Wenceslas Square... Walk down Celetná to the Powder Tower, one of the historical entrances to the Old Town. Connected to the tower is the exquisite Municipal House, Prague's Art Nouveau gem.

Gothic spires of the Tyn Church. Celetana to the Powder Tower, historic entrance gateway.





Parizska. Tynska. Melantrichova. Jan Hus monument.

Wenceslas Square

This square is famous in Czech history. More a rectangular boulevard than a square, it marks the boundary between Prague's Old Town and New Town. Lined with shops, hotels, offices and restaurants. Demonstrations and gatherings.
National Museum. Museum Metro. Saint Wenceslas.
Every visitor to Prague, after visiting the castle and the Old Town, also visits Wenceslas Square. Very few people realise that in the old days, it was called Horse Market and that another statue of St Wenceslas was positioned further down the square.

My travel mates posing by the Soviet tank commemorating the events of the Prague Spring in 1968.

Fatboy and Hils posing by the tank.

View towards the Czech National Museum. My dear friends have now buggered off as they are already fed up waiting for my constantly taking photographs. Little do they realise that I've only just started.

The present statue of St Wenceslas at the top of Wenceslas Square. St Wenceslas is surrounded by four Czech saints: Agnes, Ludmila, Procopius and Adalbert, who is hidden behind the statue. his grandmother, Ludmila's castle, with surrounding estates, but she was murdered there by assassins hired by her daughter-in-law, Drahomira his mother, Drahomira Happy Days.

Wenceslas's life ended in 935, when he was murdered in front of the door to the church of Sts Cosmas and Damian.

King Henry the Fowler of Saxony from whom he received the relics of Saint Vitus

Wenceslas is known from the carol 'Good King Wenceslas' by John Mason Neale, for delivering wood to the needy, as shown in one of the paintings in Stara Boleslav.

John Mason Neale was born in London in 1818 and gained his university education in Cambridge. He became a lecturer there, but later studied for the priesthood. As a result of his radical stand at university, he was not able to find a job as a priest and thus became a warden in Sackville College in East Grinstead, England. It is here, where he wrote the famous carol, 'Good King Wenceslas', as well as many other carols and Christian songs. Sackville College still stands today, and during the summer months, visitors are invited to view the study of John Mason Neale. For a tune, Neale picked up a spring carol, originally sung with the Latin text ‘Tempus adest floridum’ or ‘Spring has unwrapped her flowers’. This original spring tune was first published in 1582 in a collection of Swedish church and school songs.

The words to the carol "Good King Wenceslas" were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853, the music originates in Finland 300 years earlier. This Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity. Good King Wenceslas was the king of Bohemia in the 10th century. Good King Wenceslas was a Catholic and was martyred following his assassination by his brother Boleslaw and his supporters, his Saint's Day is September 28th, and he is the Patron Saint of the Czech Republic. St. Stephen's feast day was celebrated on 26th December which is why this song is sung as a Christmas carol.



Who was King Wenceslas anyway? Wenceslas was the Duke of Bohemia who was murdered in 929 AD by his wicked younger brother, Boleslav. As the song indicates, he was a good, honest, and strongly principled man. The song expresses his high moral character in describing King Wenceslas braving a fierce storm in order to help feed a poor neighbour. Wenceslas believed that his Christian faith needed to be put into action in practical ways. Wenceslas was brought up with a strong Christian faith by his grandmother St. Ludmila. Wenceslas’ own mother Drahomira, however, joined forces with an anti-Christian group that murdered Wenceslas’ grandmother, and seized power in Bohemia. Two years later in 922 AD, the evil Drahomira was deposed, and Good King Wenceslas became the ruler. He became Bohemia’s most famous martyr and patron saint. His picture appeared on Bohemian coins, and the Crown of Wenceslas became the symbol of Czech independence.

He was the son of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia from the Přemyslid dynasty. His father was raised in a Christian milieu through his father, Bořivoj, who was converted by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the "apostles to the Slavs". His mother Drahomíra was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief of Havolans and was baptized at the time of her marriage. Wenceslaus himself is venerated as Saint Wenceslaus and is the main patron saint of the Czech state.

In 921, when Wenceslaus was thirteen, his father died and he was brought up by his grandmother, Saint Ludmila, who raised him as a Christian. A dispute between the fervently Christian regent and her daughter-in-law drove Ludmila to seek sanctuary at Tetín castle near Beroun. Drahomíra, who was trying to garner support from the nobility, was furious about losing influence on her son and arranged to have Ludmila strangled at Tetín on September 15, 921.

In 924 or 925 Wenceslaus assumed government for himself and had Drahomíra exiled. After gaining the throne at the age of eighteen, he defeated a rebellious duke of Kouřim named Radslav. He also founded a rotunda consecrated to St Vitus at Prague Castle in Prague, which exists as present-day St Vitus Cathedral.

Early in 929 the joint forces of Arnulf of Bavaria and Henry I the Fowler reached Prague in a sudden attack, which forced Wenceslaus to pledge allegiance to the latter.^[clarify] This resulted in resuming the payment of a traditional tribute which was first imposed in 806. One of the possible reasons for the attack was the formation of the anti-Saxon alliance between Bohemia, Polabian Slavs and Magyars.

In September of 935 (in older sources 929) a group of nobles allied with Wenceslaus's younger brother, Boleslaus (Boleslav I of Bohemia), in a plot to kill the prince. After inviting his brother to the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Stará Boleslav, three of Boleslaus' companions--Tira, Čsta and Hněvsa--murdered him on his way to church. Boleslaus thus succeeded him as the Duke/Prince (kníže) of Bohemia.

According to Cosmas's Chronicle, one of Boleslav's sons was born on the day of Wenceslaus's death, and because of the ominous circumstance of his birth the infant was named Strachkvas, which means "a dreadful feast".

A statue of Saint Wenceslaus and other patrons of The Czech Republic (St Adalbert/Vojtěch of Prague, St Ludmila, St Prokop and St Agnes "Czech") is located at Wenceslaus square in Prague.

The historic Malentrich building, now Marks and Sparks. Alexander Dubcek and Vaclev Havel made their famous appearance on the balcony during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

Death mask of Jan Palach on wall of Charles University in Jan Palach Square.

Pivnice U Pivrnce

Whilst out cruising with Astrid and Brian, our other new-found friends, we, quite by accident, discovered our favourite Prague restaurant/beer hole, the Pivrnce. No, I can not actually pronounce it either but most things are like this in Czech. Just nod and smile. Words that you can not even guess the meaning; like "Kavarna" means coffee shop and "Pivnice" means ale house.

Bohemian Specialities it says. We are all a bit Bohemian, Prague is the capital of Bohemia so what are we waiting for? Let's go in.

The cosy interior is covered with humorous and satirical cartoons.

Honestly, this is hilarious. It just loses something in the translation, so I won't. Alright?

Miss Hilary Edwards admires the cartoons but ponders the artist's obsession with body parts and vomiting. Being of a delicate disposition, she does not really understand it.

We feel that some of the cartoons are a little smutty. Not sure but it's just a feeling that we all got.

Ah well, enough gawping. Let's get down to the real business of life which is getting some lunch organised. Two large beers, please. We rather liked Pilsner Urquell and found it most refreshing.

And this is very typical of Czech nosh. Smoked pork with potato dumplings and sauerkraut. It was very nice, dumplings can be a little dry or chewy at times but these were nice and light and with the sauce and the sauerkraut went just nicely with the pork.

Brian and Astrid get tucked in to goulash and dumplings. Delicious.

Chucked out. Bloody tourists; drank their beer but could'nt finish their dumplings. Pathetic. We'll be back.

Cruising down the River

Vltava River




The good ship 'Valencia'



When the good ship 'Lužnice' hove to

This is Miroslav who played us some tunes on his accordion during the voyage, very nice too. They offered us a glass of Becherovka as we came on board, which I thought was rather a nice gesture until I tasted it. They were obviously trying to get rid of it. Becherovka is the stuff in the green bottle on the counter and it is a bitter-sweet, herbal brew tasting somewhere between parsley and Nitromors.

The rampaging hoards have at the buffet


Czech food can be a little repetitive. This is no place for the vegetarian.
















Music, Maestro, please!
Prague Autumn International Music Festival.

Blind accordion player. I'll swear that's Miroslav off the boat in disguise. Maybe this is his other day job. Anyway he's got a nice doggie so I bunged him a couple of Crowns and took his picture.

Rudolfinum. Beethoven and Mozart. The Nazis were keen to remove the statue of the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. However, none of the statues were named and they picked the one with the largest nose - which turned out to be that of Richard Wagner, the favorite composer of Hitler. These stories are beloved by Czechs.













Trams
I don't when the tram thing started but who cares? This place is a tram lovers delight.


So very Mittel Europe.
















Tram bars in Wenceslas Square. I was not allowed to go in. Curses!

Out and About

Just a few bits and pieces that caught my eye. Fraid rather a lot of things caught my eye. Sorry, this really is the last bit on Prague.

Cakes as art. Drag me away, please.

Street corner philosophers. Czech geezers are usually pretty scruffy so sometimes it's hard to tell the regulars from the derelicts. But I think these are the genuine article. Czech women go about dressed up to the nines.


Franz Kafka causes angst and alienation amongst the masses.





Enjoying a good yarn. These are regulars rather than derelicts (I think).


Boing, Boing, Boing. Puppets down the market. World Festival of Puppets.

Yummy! Little selections of Fruits of the Forest down the market. Don't they look lovely? Yellow raspberries too.

Art Nouveau decoration on the side of an apartment house in Josefov.

Hello, dear. I've brought you your warmer knickers.

Sight-seeing tours in a vintage car are quite the thing to do in Prague. These are'nt Skodas, they're Pragas. I think the one on the right is a Praga Alpha. Like I knew, I'll be on 'Top Gear' next.

Everywhere you go, hoards of tourists all taking photographs. Snap, snap, snap-happy snap. I'm not a tourist, I'm just visiting.

Sculpture over the entrance of the Cafe Gaspar Kaspar.

"No, actually my end's heavier than yours". So many Prague balconies are equipped with the most fantastic classical atlantes. I would love a pair of these round our front door.

Anna Chromy. Mozart. Don Giovanni.

Toasted Piglet! I never partook of toasted piglet but I sampled some Hot Wine at another place. Fab-u-lowso! Mulled wine with a slice of lemon and a cinnamon stick on a chilly day is so nice that I wonder why I don't drink more of it. Probably because I have already glugged the whole bottle at room temperature.

Tramlines, cobbles and a crossing. Says it all.


Boat on the river. I do like a nice boat on the river.

Self portrait. Fatboy caught in the reflection off the fuel tank of an ancient Czech CZ motorbike.

"No, actually I would say that my side was heavier than yours."

Ancient and modern. A carriage and pair (with lovely ear-warmers) go past a group of vile tourists mounted on Segways. Are they crippled, can't they walk or are they Americans?

So many otherwise ordinary buildings are encrusted with curious and unusual carvings and mouldings. The problem is you keep walking around looking up at the buildings to spot the decorations and then walk into trees and lampposts or trip over the kerb. A small price to pay as I do this anyway.

This is where the credit crunch started. The Narodni Banka Vin borrowed millions on the promise that those bottles were full but any damn fool can see that they are empty. I had a bottle of Moravian red wine, now that's empty too. Nice vino though.

Entrance to the Don Giovanni Marionette Theatre on Karlova.

Such a Gay Bohemian Day.

A selection of hand crafted wooden toys from Moravia. I love these guys; though they do remind me of certain people who I have to work with.

And if you have any Czech Crowns left, buy a bottle of Slivovice at the airport. It comes in two flavours, a clear one which tastes like paint stripper and a golden one which tastes like paint stripper. It's an acquired taste and I regret to say that I am starting to acquire it, it's going down nicely.

Na Zdraví!