Prague is beautiful. It feels very relaxed. It’s steeped in history (isn’t everywhere on the continent?). There’s the old Old Town and the new Old Town, the Charles bridge where King Wenceslas (yes, that Kind Wenceslas) threw a priest off the bridge because he wouldn’t share his wife’s secret confessions, the Jewish ghetto that Hitler had planned to turn into a museum after he triumphed in the war (and we know how that turned out), and the castle. It would have been a great place for shopping if only we’d had the time.
Here are a few tidbits:
One of my default tv programs at the cottage is “Rick Steeves Europe”. He’s a travel guy that goes everywhere. I’m quite sure I saw a RSE about Prague and the astronomical clock. Kinda cool that I’m getting to see the stuff from the program. Prague’s Stare Mesto Clock was built in 1410. It works according to the movement of the stars and moon and measures sunrise and sunset, what day it is in the year (in Czech name days), phases of the moon, and the signs of the zodiac. Statues of the 12 apostles rotate through windows, and the skeleton rings his bell to remind us that time waits for no one (so profitez-en!)
We only had 1 day in Prague, so I signed us up for a 4 hour walking tour. Our guide Gaston (from Chile) was terrific and very knowledgable. There were 2 Indian ladies in our group – the wife of the attaché to the Defense Minister and her friend.
The Charles Bridge was built in 1357. Shortly thereafter, King Wencelas threw John of Nepomuck the royal priest and confessor off the bridge to his death because John wouldn’t tell the king what his queen talked about during her confessions. Prague was Protestant, then it was Catholic. Then the Russians moved in and no one practiced organized religion. Churches were claimed and re-purposed as living space, office space or storage space. After the Occupation ended in 1990, very few returned to formal religion although many churches remain.
There was a large jewish population in Prague. They lived within the walls of the Jewish Ghetto. Before the war, they numbered between 80 & 90,000. 77,000 were exterminated. Only a couple of thousand orthodox Jews live in the city now.
The reason we went to Prague was so that Peter could go to a ‘real’ Czech beer hall. We went to U Flecku. It originally opened in 1499. They brew their own beer (13%) on the premises. Waiters walk around with trays of beer or Becherovska shots (40%), happy to replace your empty glass as often as you'd like. Becherovska is smoother than you’d expect, kind of sweet, and cinnamon flavoured. We’ve become big fans of Czech dumplings and goulash.
After dinner, we did a ghost walk. This was our Halloween. For a bit under an hour, we wandered the streets listening to (invented but plausible-ish) stories. And we did manage to sneak in a bit of shopping – there’s a new pair of red gloves. These ones have fluff.
No comments:
Post a Comment