Day 10 – 5/30/2022 – Off to Prague

Up a bit earlier than normal, suitcases out in the hall by 7:00 and off to breakfast where we had one last shipboard repast and said good by to Chef and our favorite waiter Vladimir.

Last night during the Captain’s fairwell party we crossed into the Czech Republic and docked overnight in the town of Decin.

A castle is always handy if you want to extort tolls from passing ships.

We ran the gauntlet of senior officers wishing us a good journey home and headed over to the bus that took us to Prague.

Some time later – and after a pretty good nap, we arrived at our hotel, took just long enough to use the facilities (WC and ATM – the Czech Republic, even though a part of the EU, still uses their own currency) and were back on the bus to drive into town for our intro walking tour.

Along the way we passed the museum of natural history (that’s on our itinerary for Wednesday)

And the Frank Gehry designed monstrosity called ‘the Dancing House’ but affectionately known as ‘Fred and Ginger’.

Eventually we left the bus and started walking. Here’s a bit of what we saw.

On the hillside you can see a section of the old city wall.

There’s a canal that runs thru the center of town. At one point there were 75 water wheels operating on the canal. Only 2 are left.

We stopped to view a traditional graffiti wall (their version of Freak Alley in Boise).

In front of the wall they had strung up poetry about the invasion of the Ukraine.

Every time you turn a corner there’s another great old church

This is ‘The Hotel at the Three Ostriches’

The story goes that the building was originally owned by a hat maker – who used ostrich feathers in his hats, and in his marketing.

…we crossed the famous Charles Bridge. The bridge is lined with religious statues. Here are a few:

From the bridge we had a view of the whole castle. It extends from the square tower in the upper right to the two towers on the left of the trees. It’s the largest castle in Europe by far.

We were here. Incidentally, the river is the Vitava (or in German, for all you Smetana fans, the Moldau)

Crossing thru this gate at the other end of the bridge we found ourselves in the old town.

With narrow curving lanes and the (obligatory) ‘smallest house in the city’ – this one’s a hotel.

People in the Czech Republic consume the highest quantity of beer per capita of all European countries.

Rounding a corner we came face to face with the famous Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. We didn’t go inside.

Rather we took up position in the main market square to view the noon chiming of the astronomical clock.

Note, particularly the chicken squawking at the end.

Then it was time for lunch. The group dispersed and Cheryl and I found a rather nice place to eat way too much Chicken Schnitzel. We did a bit of shopping (got our 2022 Christmas ornament) and rejoined the group under the statue of Jan Huss – a church reformer who was saying the same things Martin Luther said – 100 years before Luther.

And got himself burned at the stake for his heresy.

Before meeting our group we stopped inside the city hall (remember the clock) to check out these murals (and use the free WC). The one Cheryl isn’t looking at shows the Celts arriving to establish the first settlement on the river. The Czech heritage claims many sources, but the first is Celtic.

Which makes this bench leg pretty interesting.

Mark, our guide, was a wealth of information about practically everything to do with Prague, its people, its history, its buildings.

This is the house where Franz Kafka lived when he was young – and where he visited with his friend Albert Einstein.

This is the oldest synagogue in continuous use – some say anywhere in the world.

We took a short turn thru the Jewish quarter where Mark talked about the history of Jews in Prague – both the good and the bad. Note that this lock has Hebrew letters rather than numbers. Also, being Hebrew the hands move backwards.

At the end of the Jewish quarter our bus picked us up and hauled us up the hill to the castle, where we passed thru the metal detectors and had our bags checked. The story goes that recently someone (remember the bit about per capita beer production) snuck onto the castle grounds and climbed up to the roof of the President’s office (lots of people don’t like the president) and hoisted a pair of red boxers up the flagpole. Since then we have to pass thru metal detectors and have our bags checked.

Inside it looks pretty much like a palace.

The courtyard across the street may look familiar. It’s been used in several movies.

Then there’s the church. St. Vitus Cathedral was begun in the 14th century and finished in 1929. Work was not continuous. Most of the time the building sat half finished as wars and such raged.

Mark directed our attention to the Rose window above the main doors.

If you look at the figures below the window you see that they are in modern dress. They are the architect of the newer section, the general contractor and a couple of benefactors who helped raise funds to complete the project.

To the side of the church is all the gold.

Particularly impressive is this mosaic (currently being cleaned). Note the two small windows. These open into the chamber where the Crown Jewels are kept. The Czech Republics is said to have the largest collection of Crown Jewels in Europe.

Of course no European courtyard would be complete without the obligatory statue of St. George killing the dragon.

Once we were done with the court we were bussed back to the hotel where we received our room keys and settled in for a bit of a rest.

Dinner was on our own so while one of us rested the other did a bit of research. I found a restaurant not far from the hotel that serves Pad Thai (good). Turns out it was a Viet Namese restaurant and Pad Thai was something foreign to them (not so good). So sorry. I’ll try to offer something better next time.

After dinner everyone else was ready to crash. I was ready to explore. So I hopped the tram and did just enough touring to feel confident getting around.

I rode downtown to Wenceslaus Square – the site of massive demonstrations as part of the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.

At the top of the park is the statue of King Wenceslas – the one of Christmas Carol fame – who is remembered as the first person to unite the Czech people (around 900 AD).

My missions accomplished (figure out the tram system, get to Wenceslas square) I returned to the hotel to sort thru pictures and put together a blog post.

Tomorrow will see us relaxing (maybe even catching up on some email) in the morning and partying in the afternoon and into the evening.

Seems these posts are going to be getting later and later. Sorry.

Till then,

TTFN,