When we arrived at our hotel, (Hotel Juno), we were exhausted, so we went right to bed for a nap. I woke up a couple of hours later sick with a very sore throat and swollen glands.
And on top of that, it is pouring.
Oh yeah, guess where our rain gear is?
Right -- in the suitcases, in NY!
This computer in the hotel is ancient, and we tried for an hour and a half to get email and/or blog with no success. Finally we managed, but it is very slow. and the European kezboard is different = which explains all the tzpos in this editor§s writing....
We had dinner in the hotel tonight - LOTS of cabbage and carrots and potatoes and dumplings..
...with a salad of shredded cabbage and carrots.
And everything is garnished with... cabbage!!!!!
Not exactly health food....
I don't know about this Czech food -
it's not good Italian food, that's for sure.
Let me tell you a little about this place.
The Czech Republic is a small country in the heart of Europe.
It is also bounded by Poland to the northeast, Slovokia to the east, and Austria to the south.
Prague is in the north-central part of the country. The eastern half of the country is called Bohemia, and the western part, Moravia.
Before World War II, Czechoslovakia was one of the 10 most industrialized states in the world, and the only central European country to remain a democracy until 1938. Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germans after WWII, and lived under communist rule for 40 years. In 1989, a student demonstration in Prague was brutally stifled by the communist riot police, beginning the so-called Velvet Revolution. Within a matter of weeks, it led to the peaceful fall of the communist regime and the start of a shaky democratic system less than 20 years ago.
The Czech Republic used to be part of Czechoslovakia, but split in 1993 and became a separate country from the Slovak Republic, to its east. It entered the European Union in 2004.
Manufacturing is still a major economic activity, especially the production of automobiles, machine tools, and engineering products.
The language is Czech, which has LOTS of consonants.
It's totally beyond me.
There are tourist arrows everywhere, but they are all in Czech with no English translations. It makes you feel like you really accomplished something when you actually find where you want to go.
David was pretty good at it, actually.
But I just kept staring at them, looking confused.
Friday, February 29 -
Happy Leap Year!
Today we ventured into the city (in the rain with no raingear!) We figured out the metro to get there: there were reeeealllllly long escalators down to the trains.
Our metro pass cost about $30 for five days:
We emerged from the metro in Wenceslas Square (Vaclavske Namesti), one of two main squares in the city center. It is half a mile long and 66 yards wide, and full of hotels, restaurants and stores.
It was laid out more than 600 years ago during the reign of Charles IV, and was originally the main Prague horse market. Over the years it has been a parade ground and gathering place; it holds up to 400,000 people.At the top of the square there is a statue of St. Wenceslas (903-935) on his horse. ("Good King Wenceslas" of Christmas carol fame.) Wenceslas is a Czech national hero who was murdered more than 1,000 years ago by his brother. Behind his statue is the national museum.
I thought I should try the traditional Czech specialty - goulash with potatoes... tasty, but very rich and heavy. The small amount of meat was kinda tough, and the spices were very intense.It's not really my taste, and David REALLY dislikes it.
But our biggest complaint is that everyone in the dining room was smoking. Yuk.When we came back to the hotel, we found our luggage had arrived!
And it has stopped raining!!
And I got on the Internet in less than an hour!!!!
I just know things are going to turn around now!
More tomorrow, when I hope to actually have some adventures to report, instead of misadventures....
Saturday, March 1 - Muchos Mucha
The thing David most wanted to do was to go to the museum of Alphonse Mucha, one of his favorite artists. So that was our goal for today.Mucha Foundation website
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) achieved international fame as a master of Art Nouveau, the decorative style of sensuous and opulent decoration that captured the fin-de-siecle world. His poster art remains familiar over 60 years after his death.
Mucha biography
Our tickets to the museum cost 240 crowns - about $15.
The Mucha Museum, dedicated to the life and work of the world-acclaimed Czech Art Nouveau artist is housed in the Baroque Kaunický Palace in the very heart of Prague.A selection of over 100 exhibits comprising paintings, photographs, charcoal drawings, pastels, lithographs and personal memorabilia provides a privileged view into the universe of the artist.
The exhibits include countless artworks showing Mucha's trademark Slavic maidens with flowing hair and piercing blue eyes, bearing symbolic garlands and linden boughs.
Mucha is most often remembered for the prominent role he played in shaping the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the century. As a relatively unknown artist of Czech origin living in Paris, Mucha achieved immediate fame when, in December 1894, he accepted a commission to create a poster for one of the greatest actresses of this time, Sarah Bernhardt.
Though the printer was apprehensive about submitting Mucha´s final design because of its new unconventional style, Bernhardt loved it and so did the public.´Le style Mucha´, as Art Nouveau was known in its earliest days, was born.
The success of that first poster brought a six-year contract between Bernhardt and Mucha.
In the following years, his work for her and others included costumes and stage decorations, designs for magazines and book covers, jewelry, furniture and numerous posters.
Sunday, March 2 -
Tower of Power
When we were at the Mucha Museum yesterday, we saw this big tower down the street. So we came back today to explore it.It is called Jindrisska Vez (St. Henry's Tower) and it is the highest separate belfry in Prague at 217 feet high and has 10 floors. It was originally constructed in 1472, although has had several rebuilds and alterations since.
At the top, we climbed up to the belfry, and were there when the bells chimed on the hour. That was cool.
This is looking straight up at the bells through the original wooden rafters from 1879. The carillon plays 1,150 preprogrammed melodies, and also has a keyboard so can be played by hand.
And the views from the windows were beautiful.
Love the Pepsi mural!
We had lunch in a 22-seat restaurant on the 8th floor, set in the original wooden trusts of the belfry. It is built around the only existing original bell, St. Maria, from 1518, and is called the Restaurant Zvonice-Praha. (Click on that link to take a look at the very interesting menu, with its traditional Czech specialties such as wild boar, vension, and fallow deer.)
David climbed upstairs into the rafters and took this picture of me:
The menu says "Choose your favorite taste,
and we shall offer you dishes you would love to eat."
David had one of his favorite dishes: carpaccio - sliced raw sirloin with parmesan shavings and basil. It was a little pricey at 350 czech crowns, or about $22.
Because I still wasn't feeling tip-top, I just had a bowl of soup: "Old Bohemian potato soup with roasted real boletuses and marjoram croutons - 130 czc." I don't know what real boletuses are, but the soup was delicious. It was about $8.Absinthe
"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were.
After the second, you see things as they are not.
Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world." -Oscar Wilde
Everywhere we go, we see big displays in store windows of Absinthe - the potent liqueur that was so favored by artists and writers in the the Belle Epoque Europe, and blamed for the insanity and hallucinations of many of them.
It is the drink made famous by the likes of Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde and those who were inspired by the arts, a Bohemian lifestyle, and the elusive Green Fairy.
'Absinthe Drinker' by Viktor Oliva: it hangs on the wall of the historical Cafe Slavia here in Prague.
and has been banned elsewhere in the world as well.
The end of the Green Fairy (1910):Critical poster by Albert Gantner illustrating the absinthe ban in Switzerland.
But it is everywhere in Prague, and
they truly understand that it is a curiosity
(and a profitable opportunity) for Americans.
For me, it conjured up images of naughty green fairies, straight jackets, and mad googlie-eyed artists. After all, Ernest Hemingway used to toss back a bunch of these before running with the bulls.
The great French poet Paul Verlaine was a notorious absintheur. Verlaine began drinking as a teenager, and was already an alcoholic before he found absinthe. His disastrous on-again, off-again relationship with Rimbaud aggravated both his alcoholism and his mental instability, and culminated in a 5 year prison sentence for attempted murder. In prison he had sworn off absinthe, and for several years after his release drank only beer and worked steadily at his poetry. But by the 1890's he was drinking heavily again, and had become a well-known and pathetic figure in the Latin Quarter, sitting in a corner at the Cafe Francois Ier on the Boulevard Saint-Michel or at La Procope, nursing absinthe after absinthe.with fear of treason and if I drink it no longer, it is for a good reason."
-Verlaine
David was very curious. He said that since he was in high school, and read how it was to have inspired so many artists, he was curious about it. And now that he had a chance to try it, he wasn't going to miss the opportunity. So in one of the little stores we passed with a huge window display of Absinthe, we went in and bought two small bottles to try, and also a slotted absinthe spoon.
The idea is, you rest the spoon on top of your glass of absinthe, put a sugar cube on top, and pour ice water over it, which drips into the glass, sweetens the bitter brew, and causes a chemical reaction called "Louching" (looshing) - clouding up and becoming milky.
That'll make you see green fairies, right there.
Albert Maignan’s "Green Muse" (1895): A poet succumbs to the green fairy.
We took our cute little bottles back to the hotel. I was too sick to try the stuff (I was curious too), but David braced himself and took a sip. (Based on the look on his face, I'm guessing it was not very tasty.) We waited anxiously, but no green fairies arrived on the scene. It was kind of anti-climactic.
We poured the rest of the stuff down the drain, and took home the pretty little art deco bottles as souvenirs.
Monday, March 3: Bus-ted
I was still really sick today, so we decided to take a bus tour around the city. It was nice to just sit in the van and look at all the highlights of the city, and the tour guide was very informative. We got a chance to see many famous landmarks, like the "dancing" building, the Powder Gate, the Charles Bridge, and some of the churches.The "Dancing" Building
We were fascinated by the famous Dancing Building, built in 1996 by architects Vlado Milunič, who had the original idea for the building, and the celebrated American architect Frank Gehry, perhaps best-known for the stunning Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
The curved lines of the narrow-waisted glass tower clutched against its more upright and formal partner led to it being christened the 'Fred & Ginger Building.'
Powder Gate
Built in 1475 as a ceremonial entrance to the city, the 213-foot tall Powder Gate stands on the site of one of the original 13 gates into the city. The tower marks the beginning of the Royal Road, the traditional half-mile route along which medieval Bohemian monarchs paraded on their way to being crowned in Prague Castle's St. Vitus Cathedral.
The name comes from its use as a gunpowder magazine in the 18th century. Josef Mocker rebuilt, decorated, and steepled it between 1875 and 1886, giving it its neo-gothic icing.
Early in the 20th century, the tower was the daily meeting place of Franz Kafka and his writer friend Max Brod.
St. Nicholas Church is one of the most beautiful buildings of the "Prague Baroque" period with a dominant dome and a belfry. I would have liked to see the inside.
Charles Bridge
The Charles Bridge, begun in 1357, is the oldest bridge in Prague. Its construction was commissioned by Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV.
The bridge is 1,690 feet long and 33 feet wide, and both ends are fortified by towers. Gradually from 1683 to 1928, 30 sculptures of saints were set on the bridge piers.
(We walked across it later that night.)
It was founded in the 9th century and has been developing continuously in the 11 centuries since then. A national cultural monument, it is a huge complex of ecclesiastical, fortification, residential, and office buildings representing all architectural styles and periods.
It was originally the residence of princes and kings of Bohemia, and since 1918 has been the seat of the president.
It covers 111 acres.As part of the tour, we were to leave the bus and walk down to the castle to watch the changing of the guard. I decided that even though I was sick, I could manage to walk for an hour, so we set off with the group.
But in keeping with the "cursed" nature of the trip, as soon as we started walking, the skies opened up, it began pouring, and the winds kicked up something fierce. Since I was already having chills, I was pretty miserable.
As we stood outside the castle gate, we heard the sound of boots on the cobblestones, and turned to see the guards marching towards us through the rain. It was kinda scary.
There was a military band, standing inside so as not to get wet (you can see them in the windows), playing what sounded to me like a John Williams march, or the theme from Star Wars.
It was a flurry of ceremony, and then the soldiers left the way the arrived...
...and the band slipped out the back.
When we got back to the hotel, I was shivering so hard that David covered me with three down comforters.
We heard on the news that night that it was record-setting bad weather, with flooding and 100 mile-an-hour winds. The wind blew over a tram, and 10 people were killed.
Tuesday, March 3: The Cathedral
Today is our last day in Prague, so we decided the two things we most wanted to see were the cathedral and the astronomical clock.
It was pretty inside.
The highlight for us was an Art Nouveau stained-glass window by our boy Alfons Mucha.
The window depicts scenes from the life of St. Cyril and St. Methodius who brought Christianity to the Slavic area. It also shows St. Wenceslas kneeling next to his Grandmother St. Ludmila. This window was sponsored by the Slavic Bank (Banka Slavic).
It was spectacular, and so different from most stained glass windows.
I was also impressed with the the silver tomb
of St. John of Nepomuk with its draped canopy and cherubs...
Sarcophagus of St. John of Nepomuk
Saint John Nepomuk (1345-1393) is the patron saint of the Czechs. He became vicar-general to the Bishop of Prague in 1387. When John learned of King Welceslas' plans to reward an unworthy subject with an abbey, he moved quickly and organized the monks into electing a new abbot before King Welceslas' plans were even set into motion. Upon learning of this treachery, the king ordered John's death. He was burned, tied to a wheel and plunged into the River in Prague.
According to legend, when he was exhumed in 1721, his tongue was found to be not only preserved, but pumping with blood. This tale likely served a political purpose: the Church and the Habsburgs needed a new folk hero to replace the reforming heretic Jan Hus. A few years later, Nepomuk was canonized and buried with great ceremony in the present 3,700-pound ornate silver tomb. His tongue was enshrined in its own reliquary.
David loves this stuff.
Also beautiful is the ornate Chapel of St. Wenceslas, a masterpiece of Czech Gothic architecture. It is dedicated to the patron of Czech lands, St. Wenceslas, a Bohemian Prince from the Premyslid dynasty. Charles IV built the chapel as an honor to him.
The chapel was built on the former Romanesque rotunda where Wenceslas was buried, and now holds the relics of the saint.
The lower parts of the walls are decorated with more than 1,300 gems mined in Bohemia. The joints between them are covered with gold.
The ornate Gothic frescoes on the walls cover the area of more than 2,500 square feet and show scenes from St. Wenceslas’s life and from the Bible. Charles IV is immortalized on the picture depicting Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.
In the middle of the Chapel is the beautifully decorated tomb of St. Wenceslas. His relics can be found in a case on the tombstone.
This is such an important site that the Czech kings went to pray in this chapel before every coronation, and then went into the coronation chamber, behind a door in the southwest corner, which holds the Crown Jewels of the Czech Republic.
There also used to be night masses here when the Czech nation was in danger. Masses are still held here, but only on September 28, St. Wenceslas Day.
The chapel is not open to the public, but you can see it through the door.Astronomical Clock
Possibly Prague's most famous tourist attraction with it's 14th century animated clock. It is in the Old Town Square (Staroměské náměstí) on the side of the Old Town Hall (Staroměská radnice). 
There's a zodiac ring, a 24-hour clock, sun and moon indicators, and even a part showing "Old Czech Time," which starts at 1 every time the sun sets. In the top part of the astronomical clock, the 12 apostles appear every hour between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
On the hour, a big crowd gathers in front of the clock, which is located on the tower in the center of this photo, to watch the action.
The show goes as follows:
The Apostles come out in a procession in the top part of the clock, and then go back inside.
In the lower parts are the other fixed statues representing the four things which are despised - Death represented by a skeleton pulls the bell cord, and a Turk shakes his head. (I don't know the background on the Medieval bigotry involved there...)
But I was never able to tell what time the clock displayed.
only to come up more bewildered than before.
You can try reading about it here if you want.
Maybe you can understand it.
but I think they are secret pointers to the best pubs in town.
So I recommend studying the Astronomical Clock only long enough
to decide which direction to go for the next beer.
