The Prague Report

Four days might be too long, or maybe it was the wine. But the Prague memories are no longer fresh. (Note that "fresh" is a technical term in cryptographic protocol logics! Sorry.) Still, we have the photos to reinvigorate the recollections.

We (Joanna and I) walked out of the house last Friday morning, backpacks aloft, off to Prague. Well, across the common to the railway station, via a couple of trains to Birmingham airport, a pseudo train to the terminal, a plane to Prague, a bus almost to the metro line (we accidentally got off too early), a tram the rest of the way to the metro, and then the metro into the Centrum of town, and with a brief period of map orientation and re-orientation, we found our hotel. Quite easy, really, thanks to Brisbane friend Natasha, the guide book, and some Internet preparation.

Then we looked around Prague for a few days, then we came home by almost exactly the reverse route (except for the tram). A nice four days.

Well, maybe I need to give a bit more detail. The place was rather similar to Brugge - perhaps it was a little unfortunate that we visited one so soon after the other. There was architecture from spanning 10th to 20th (21st?) centuries, which was probably the main thing to see. The Vltava river and views from some of the parks were pleasant. The bridges, especially the Karlov Most (Charles IV Bridge) are a big feature. Our guided walking tour was interesting, informative, and humorous. Radek seemed quite bitter about the communist history, and was keen to describe how he had been standing just here in Wenceslas Square during the Velvet Revolution, and how the communists were such poor planners that the country would often run out of toilet paper for a month at a time.

We enjoyed trying lots of local goulashes: all the menus had standard international dishes - some with italian specialty (pizza, pasta), some with steaks, but they all had a Czech Specialties section, which contained variations of 3 main meals: beef goulash, roast duck with cabbage, and roast pork with cabbage. And they all came with various types of dumplings - either made from bread or some kind of mashed potato. I found the goulash much nicer than anything involving sauerkraut.

The castle differentiated Prague from Brugge. We were told it is officially the biggest castle in the world, according to Guinness (the book, not the beer). Joanna doesn't think it's a real castle - it has lots of modernish buildings and even an enormous gothic cathedral inside.

There's a famous clock with a skeleton pulling a bell-rope signifying "time's up", and various evil types shaking their heads - since they've been doing this for 600 years, they must be winning - various apostles who show their faces in a couple of windows, and a rooster crowing. All the tours stop to look at it, and every hour there are hundreds of tourists all pointing their cameras and videos at it. Yes, we did too.

There were Romanesque (round) churches, gothic, baroque, and even modern ones. The stained glass in St Vitus' Cathedral (in the castle, at the top of the hill) was quite impressive, especially with the bright sunshine beaming through.

We managed to hear some nice music. Just by chance, we peeked into a church where they were setting up for a free concert. The little program promised Morales, Agostini, Sedm zamlù kajících, Soriano, and more Morales, so (being a fan of Spanish Renaissance music, espcially Morales), even hunger pangs couldn't drag us out. We tried to choose a comfy pew, but it turned out to be right next to a chilly draught. We weren't exactly sure what a Postní pátky would be. The concert opened with a plainsong procession of 5 people (an ATBarB male quartet, and a priest). The musical items were glorious, the voices blending marvellously and resonating clearly through the marble building, but most of them lasted only 30-90 seconds. And between each one we had the privilege of listening to about 4-5 minutes of generic czech readings, prayers, meditations, or something, from the priest in the pulpit. It did dilute the musical pleasure somewhat. I think Postní pátky is a Lenten meditation.

On Saturday night, we heard a concert from the Royal Czech Philharmonic orchestra playing Smetana's Die Moldau (just the one movement) and 3 movements from Dvořak's From the New World. It seemed a little "mass produced", which is hardly surprising given they play it every second night for the whole month, and probably every month.

Sunday night we heard an organist, a saxophonist, and a soprano, performing various duet arrangements of well known pieces (Bach, Mozart, etc) in the Clementinum chapel. Quite pleasant, a good voice, and a nice venue, but again the music lacked sparkle. Again, these people perform the same program many times during the month.

On Sunday, feeling that we'd covered the major spots in the city, we decided to venture further out. The Karlstejn castle had been our preference, but like several other non-core attractions, it was closed for the winter. We ended up visiting the Troja chateau after a metro and bus adventure. We had hoped to be able to wander around, were led by a non-English speaking guide through one room at a time, given ample opportunity to admire the baroque/classical paintings in each room. It became a little tedious from my point of view. The brief time walking through the gardens and visiting the wine cellar (and paying for a tasting of some genuine Bohemian wines) ended up being the highlights. My choice for the afternoon was the modern art gallery. We saw impressionism, cubism, expressionism, and some really wacky stuff. Joanna enjoyed her conversation with this... sculpture? I can't say I understand a great deal of these periods, but my friend Maris seems to have taught me to enjoy looking at them.

It seems that Prague is popular as a destination for stag and hen parties - cheap booze is probably part of it. We noticed some of it, but it didn't seem to interfere with our tourism. And the weather was perfect too - it just started to drizzle as we headed home, but otherwise the whole weekend was bright and sunny.