Prague - Part 1

 We arrived in Prague late on Saturday - our train was delayed 55 minutes due to a collision with a car on the tracks.  It was not our train that hit a car, nevertheless we were impacted and delayed.  What started out as a 7 hour trip took almost 8 hours - and THERE WAS NO DINING CAR ON THE TRAIN.  There was a very nice man with a cart, selling drinks and snacks so we managed, but it was not the greatest!

As you can imagine we were quite hungry when we arrived - but of course we had to go straight to our apartment and meet our hostess.  There was a LOT of explaining to do and paperwork to complete as well.  By the time we wandered out to eat we were all quite hungry. 

The place we are staying is nice and has a good location - one block off the river near several streetcars and a metro stop.

Yesterday we walked around the Old Town, taking in a lot of the major sights and just enjoying the pedestrian areas.

A few highlights:

This is a statue of Sigmund Freud - he is not hanging himself - rather, he is just hanging on...

The Astronomical Clock. 1400s. The clock face represents Earth and the sky. The outer ring shows old Bohemian time, while the astronomical dial charts the movement of the Sun and planets around the Earth (which of course, at that time, was considered to be the center of the universe!). The third dial charts the movement of the Sun and the Moon through zodiacal signs. Around the edge, another pointer shows what month and day it is.

The biggest attraction is the hourly show of wooden statuettes (including Christ and the Apostles) appearing in the little blue window at the top.  

We saw the statuettes from behind (inside the building) in a tour of the Old Town Hall.

St. Nicholas Church

Church of Our Lady before Tyn

Sights inside Old Town Hall

This is (now) the basement of the Old Town Hall.  When constructed it was at street level but over time the streets were raised and this ended up below ground.  Back in the day, people would just through their garbage into the streets and then occasionally add sand on top to quench the stench.  Over the years, the streets rose up.

On Franz Kafka square there was a statue of me .... or someone with their nose in a book....

Old Town Bridge Tower which stands at one end of the Charles Bridge. 14th century.

There are statues on either side of the Charles Bridge.

Is she contemplating something more serious than the bird on her head?

Several spots on the ornaments along the bridge are supposedly "lucky" - you can tell where the metal is more worn.

This statue of a jail was a bit alarming - the prisoners appear in pain...

... while their jailer is quite bored....

I love streets like this - so much to discover!

Like these - "Chimney cakes". It is basically just a simple dough wound around a form, baked on this rotating grill/oven, rolled in cinnamon, smeared with chocolate on the inside, and filled with ice cream!

Sorry I did not manage a picture of the one that Carsten and I shared - it was delicious!

This is the Lennon Wall.  Started in 1980 after the assassination of John Lennon (before the fall of the iron curtain), this wall has been decorated with lyrics and pictures attributed to Lennon (and the Beatles).

Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

It shows six bronze figures descending a flight of stairs. The statues appear more "decayed" the further away they are from you - losing limbs and their bodies breaking open. It symbolizes how political prisoners were affected by Communism.

There is also a bronze strip that runs along the center of the memorial, showing estimated numbers of those impacted by communism:

• 205,486 arrested
• 170,938 forced into exile
• 4,500 died in prison
• 327 shot trying to escape
• 248 executed

This was a powerful memorial.  We felt that it also spoke to the fact that in Communism uniqueness was not valued and therefore, people were reduced to be less than what they could potentially be (or become).

We saw a lot on Sunday, walking over 15,000 steps!  

This is the view from our place.

Today we tackled Prague Castle.

Parts of the Castle district date back to the 9th century.  This was the seat of power of the Bohemian Kings, Holy Roman Emperors, leaders of Czechoslovakia and is currently the Czech President's official residence.

St. Vitus Cathedral

Changing of the Guard (with a military band)

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral

Back outside -

This is the famous room in the Old Royal Palace where, in 1618, the Thirty Years War started when two Imperial Catholic Governors were thrown out of the window.  Apparently the Catholics and the Hapsburgs were discriminating against the Protestants.  A rather funny thing about this piece of Czech history is that the men did not die when they fell from the windows because they fell onto the Royal Stable muck-heap below the window.

St. George's Basilica at Prague Castle. This church dates back to 921.  It is far less flashy than younger churches but the idea of being in a church that old is amazing.

Of course, no trip to Prague is complete without some sort of torture exhibit.  Here is a comfortable chair we found....

Entering the dungeon.

The scenes from the wall around the castle show you the beauty of Prague, especially with the leaves changing color.

There are several different styles of streetcars - this is one of the older ones. Based on our journey on the streetcar today we decided that our driver was the cousin of the Formula 1 bus driver in Budapest.

The Dancing House.

It has been a long, cold day - a bit windy and never much above the 40s.  We will wander out for food and then try to warm up.

We have big plans for tomorrow and Wednesday so stay tuned!

Take care,

Sheri & Carsten