Prague

June 6-7

So our adventures with Sarah continue in Prague. We took a bus from Munich to Prague on the 5th. A quick picture from the bus ride – we found German hops growing along the side of the road!

The bus was scheduled to arrive at 10:40pm but was running late, so we got dropped off at the bus station in Prague after 11. Now, Michael and I have taken quite a few buses on this trip and bus stations can be a bit seedy or located in a tough part of town. When we arrived in Prague, it wasn’t that the neighborhood was scary. It was empty. I usually worry about our surroundings when it is empty. When there are a lot of people around, you might get pickpocketed, but you’re not getting mugged. And we are mostly in a good position to avoid the former (knock on wood).

We had a mileish walk to pick up the keys for our airbnb and then half a mile walk back to the airbnb. This was not a moment where we were going to sit alone with bags while Michael went to get the keys. We all walked it together. First we had to cross under the overpass.

Nothing like a dark empty tunnel to get your adrenaline rushing. Then, add in the four random people hanging out down there in the dark that our imaginations assumed were up to no good. We were on edge.

Next, we had a group of jerky 20 somethings who had probably been drinking who started yelling things at us as they approached and then one jumped in Michael’s face. Ugh. Get us out of here. Another issue? In Prague, they use two sets of street numbers for each location that climb in opposite directions. After a few days in the city you get the hang of it, but it added a ton of anxiety and uncertainty to our walk that evening.

We found the apartment and by some act of God got into the building. Then we found this hallway ahead of us:

Now, that is the hallway during the day. I wish that I had captured it at night. It was dark and shadowy and we were definitely going to be murdered. I was freaked out. The directions from our host told us it was the first door on the right down the hallway. In a last ditch effort for things to not be as bad as they seem, Michael tried the door immediately on the left instead of following the directions and heading down that hall. Boom! Our key worked there too. Now there was another door immediately on the right. And just like that we’re in the nicest apartment we’ve seen in a few weeks. Unreal.

Straight to bed. There was no way that we were going back out that night.

As is the case with most things, it looked much better in the light of the morning after a good night’s sleep. The neighborhood we were staying was a very normal neighborhood, but a bit out of the touristy area, so the apparently it shuts down on week nights by midnight.

We started our day at Cukrárna Mysák which is a renowned sweet shop opened in 1911 that serves traditional Czech pastries and cakes. It was a really cutesy space that reminded me of the ice cream shop right when you enter six flags… but fancy.

We popped in for breakfast and it did not disappoint. The center items are open faced sandwiches – delicious beet and goat cheese on the right. Michael has an apple strudl on the left and Sarah has a cake with some cherries in it? We had a harder time getting a translation for that item.

Next we were off to walk around the city. To give you an idea of how much we walked on this day, we got somewhere around 29,000 steps in. Sarah has a Fitbit and Michael has a Garmin which both calculate steps. After much analysis, we think Sarah’s might be off a bit or she doesn’t swing her arm while walking. There’s no real way of knowing. But the important thing is that we walked about 29 thousand steps on that day. That is a ton. If you’ve never counted your steps before, for reference, most people try to get 10,000 in a good day. That is a fairly standard goal. Since Michael and I aren’t working right now, we try to get just under 15,000 in a day. Twenty-nine is a lot. So here’s what we saw…

Very quickly we were informed that people in Prague drink and sell Absinthe, a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage with an anise flavor. (Shout out to the random dude sitting next to us at lunch who told us that’s what it tastes like).

We left our fancy breakfast and headed to Old Town Square which is famous for its Astronomical Clock. The square has a handful of other historic buildings including Old Town City Hall, St. Nicholas Church and Tyn Church.

This is the Jan Hus Memorial which was put in the square in 1915 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of the religious reformer, you guessed it, Jan Hus.

Mostly the town just had a bunch of really cool Baroque and Renaissance buildings including this one. We overheard a tour guide say that Einstein use to hang out in this building, at the bar, when it use to be a pharmacy (a pharmacy that apparently also had a bar).

Then on to the big event! The Astronomical Clock!

You may notice in the above picture that there is scaffolding around the clock. Not good. The Astronomical Clock was built around 1410 and is amazing. The clock face represents the Earth and the sky, a part for day and another for night. The clock’s outer ring shows old Czech time. The astronomical dial shows the movements of the sun and the moon and a third dial is for the zodiac signs. Apparently the clock is really difficult to read and understand. It was especially difficult to read since it was blocked entirely by scaffolding and is being refurbished.

Most people just come for the hourly show of the statues of the Twelve Apostles who process out of the clock one after the other. We watched the show. They did a video version on a screen which was on top of the scaffolding.

On the right hand side you can see a skeleton who represents death that strikes the hour. There are also small statues on either side of the clock that represent vanity, greed and hedonism.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/img_0584.trim_.mov

I have to assume that the real thing is way more cool.

Also, it was noon and apparently they do an test of their emergency alarm system at noon on this day of the month or something, so halfway through our video show there was what sounded like an air raid siren that went off. Even with the loudspeaker warning that it was just a test, it was a bit disconcerting hearing an air raid siren go off while standing in the main square of a European city.

Just off the main square is the Powder Gate which is one of the main symbols of Prague. It is a gothic gate that leads into Old Town dating from 1475. It was built as one of 13 gates to the city and was built to connect to the royal palace. However, before construction was completed, the King moved his residence to the Prague Castle.

And also an absintherie (we did not go in):

Next we were off to visit that Prague Castle.

In order to get to the castle, we had to cross the Vltava River.

We crossed at the Charles Bridge which is a super famous bridge ordered under construction in 1357 by King Charles IV. It was originally the only means of crossing the river Vltava which made it an important trade route between Eastern and Western Europe. The bridge is decorated quite elaborately with 30 baroque statues.

https://youtu.be/xJMtGhqPCW0

Here is a church that was turned into a hotel. How bizarre is that? I would have at least expected someone to take down or move the elaborate religious symbols.

Next we walked up to the Strahov Monastery. Said to have beautiful buildings, beautiful views and a brewery, this made perfect sense for us.

We grabbed lunch and a few beers, including one of the better salads I’ve had in my life and a deliciously refreshing blueberry beer. After lunch we hiked up to the Perrin Tower which is a replica of the Eiffel Tower, but smaller.

And then finally we got our beautiful view of the city:

No – we didn’t pay to go up in the fake Eiffel Tower. We just kept walking until we found an overlook that got the job done.

After more walking, we finally made it to the Prague Castle.

I didn’t think the Prague Castle was that cool. However, St. Vitus Cathedral, which sits inside the Prague Castle was quite incredible. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Prague and both the exterior and the interior are quite stunning.

The church had elaborate mosaics throughout:

And these windows! The pieces of glass used were incredibly small – more like the mosaics than stained glass windows.

And this tomb. There are thirty or so people buried at this church including Vitus, himself, Wenceslaus I, Wenceslaus IV (not sure which one was the Good King and which one was just Wenceslaus), Ferdinand I, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Charles IV (Holy Roman Emperor), among others. I’m not sure who is being represented in this tomb. Maybe Cardinal Friedrich Schwarzenberg because of the hat? You’d think the words would make it more obvious to me, but they don’t.

Some more pictures from outside the Cathedral:

And then that was about enough of the Prague Castle. Great Cathedral, but the rest of the castle leaves something to be desired.

There was one more place that we wanted to see in our whirlwind tour of Prague: the Jewish Quarter.

Josefov was formerly the Jewish ghetto of Prague. Jews started settling in Prague in the 10th century. Starting in the 13th century they were ordered to give up their homes and move into a small area between Old Town and the river. In 1389, some 1500 Jews were massacred on Easter Sunday in Prague. I don’t think that’s the Easter message Jesus was hoping for.

The ghetto was most prosperous towards the end of the 16th century when the Jewish mayor became the Minister of Finance and used his wealth to develop the area. Then their ability to leave the quarter and do business outside grew increasingly more difficult. According to legend, things were so bad in the 17th century that Rabbi Lowe created a beast out of clay called the Golem of Prague and brought it to life to protect the Jews from persecution. Apparently the Golem ran amok and Rabbi Lowe had to destroy it.

In the 1850’s the quarter was renamed “Josefstadt” (Joseph’s City) after Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor who emancipated Jews with the Toleration Edict in 1781. Around this time Jews were allowed to settle outside the city, leaving only orthodox and poor Jews living within the ghetto.

Most of the quarter was demolished in the early 1900s when Prague was trying to remodel itself after Paris. This left only six synagogues, the Jewish Town Hall and the Old Cemetery.

When Prague was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1939, the Jews were sent by the thousands to concentration camps. However, their buildings were not destroyed. Apparently Hitler decided to keep Prague’s well-defined Jewish sites intact to be used as a future memorial to a race of an extinct people. After the war, Josefov became an inspiration for Jews around the world.

These days, the area is mostly used for tourism and also houses upscale stores and hotels.

While walking, Michael was reminded of another thing we had to see in Prague so we headed off to Stavovské Divadlo, or the Estates Theatre which was built in the 18th century.

It’s motto inscribed above the entrance: Patriae et Musis or To the Native Land and the Muses.

Also at the theater is this statue in honor of Mozart who conducted the world premiere of his opera, Don Giovanni, here in 1787.

We thought about trying to see a show, but the one that was playing looked really bizarre with a bunch of actors running around with hoola hoops. That is not really the kind of show we’re looking for.

So that was our huge day of walking. We went back to the Airbnb for showers and naps and did head out to dinner, but we were dragging a bit by this point. Nothing a few beers and a few sips of absinthe can’t cure! The beers were fine. The absinthe was horrible. That is a once in a lifetime mistake to make.

The next day we had an afternoon train ride to Vienna, so we dropped our bags off at some lockers in the train station and went out looking for place to relax for a few hours. We started at the James Dean restaurant for breakfast. True story. I just wanted “real breakfast” (eggs instead of a pastry), so Michael found us the most amazing touristy diner this side of Europe.

It got the job done. Then we walked back to the far side of the river again to see the Vrtba Gardens. It’s famous for being the most important baroque garden in Prague. It is different than normal gardens because of its terrace floor graduation.

The garden was nice and at the top of the garden you get this view:

But mostly I just enjoyed laying on a bench by myself for an hour or so, enjoying some music on my headphones, reading about Schrödinger’s cat, and alternating between a view of this trellis over my head:

And this view to the left of me:

After the gardens, we took a long stroll back to the train station and THANKFULLY remembered one final thing we had to do in town before leaving. Eat this:

This is a Trdelnik which is made by rolling out dough, wrapping it around a metal stick, sprinkling it with sugar and spice mixture and setting it over flames to cook. When we ordered ours, the woman just cut it off the stick and handed it over. It was good, but I wanted it to taste more like funnel cake or an old fashion donut.

Michael went in a different direction with his snack:

And now we’re off again. Thank you Prague for a great visit. Things started pretty shaky, but we had a wonderful time!