Prague: The Other Experiences

Prague, Czech Republic - I’m going to run through the remainder of our Prague experience now in fairly short order, as we’re accumulating other experiences that you no doubt are eager to hear about and also, Prague is fading a bit in my memory.

Before I dive into new stuff, I want to apologize for neglecting a few features of the clock in my previous post that are worth pointing out. These features are somewhat less dense than the various time keeping and astronomical functions addressed earlier. They include the “Walk of the Apostles” and the calendar dial. First, the apostles: Most people show up to see the astronomical clock specifically for this (so it’s a bit odd that I neglected to mention it). At the top of every hour, two doors open above the clock and the apostles appear in pairs. They march out, and then depart, making way for the next set of apostles. Below the apostles are four other figures, the most noticeable of which is a skeleton striking time on the hour and I guess signaling our impending doom. Second: the calendar dial. You might have noticed that there are two large circles that make the astronomical clock. The one on top is the actual astronomical clock. The lower one is a calendar dial. It has 365 days on it and twelve disks which are allegories for the months.

Charles Bridge. This is bridge was completed sometime in the 15^th century and was the only means of crossing the river that bisects the city for some 400 years. Historically, it made Prague an important connection between eastern and western Europe. It provides lovely views of the city, but, like some of the other key historical sites in the city, its rather crowded.

A quick note here on the hordes that descend on Prague (“crowds” being an inadequate descriptor). In your effort to reach the most popular sites you will wait on long lines and wade through throngs of people. Many of these people will be part of tour groups, which are like massive human emboli moving painfully slowly through the streets. They will frequently lodge themselves in narrow alleys and sidewalks, obstructing others as they stop to gawk and take selfies and hear some trivial factoid from the tour guide. At times, reaching your destination and taking in the sites can feel like a Pyrrhic victory – sure, you saw it, but at what cost to your sanity?  Below, I try to relate our experience in verse, borrowing heavily from Lord Tennyson:

Tour group to right of them,

Tour group to left of them,

Tour group in front of them

   Aimlessly sauntering;

Confronted with selfie hell,

Boldly they strode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

   Strode the couple, Hannah and Mike.

Zizkov Tower. Zizkov Tower is a member of World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT). I wanted to pique your interest, so I thought I would start there, though I’m not entirely sure about how selective the WFGT is and – to be honest – the inclusion of Zizkov makes me a little suspicious that WFGT is something of a degree mill for large structures. To be fair, Zizkov is large - it’s the tallest structure in Prague. It’s also probably the ugliest and weirdest. It’s basically three massive polls arrayed in a triangle, with the tallest one rising about 216 meters (the other two being somewhat shorter). It was constructed in the waning days of communism to broadcast television signals. If this were all, it would be somewhat unremarkable. I mean, we’ve all seen ugly TV towers (though this might be the largest). But, Zizkov is so much more: in addition to television antennae, the polls also support nine enclosed ‘pods’. Three of these are used for the broadcast equipment, while the other six are open the public and include a restaurant, an observation deck, and a one room luxury hotel suite (great views). The base of the tower includes a park with an ice skating rink and, of course, a mini golf course. The ensemble of unrelated functions is strange, but the thing that makes Zizkov truly weird is the ten giant black faceless fiberglass babies crawling on it. In place of faces, the babies have bar codes. According to my mother in law, it's an allegory for the way that communism suppresses individuality.

Zizkov with Babies

Klementium. This is an old Jesuit complex that included a library, university, and observatory. At one time, Kepler worked at this facility, which is interesting because he was a Protestant and this was a Catholic institution. As mentioned in a previous post, Bohemia had a period of notable religious tolerance that roughly coincided with the time that Kepler worked here. The tour takes you to the facility’s lovely baroque library (which you can only view from the outside), and then up to the observatory where you can see various astronomical instruments (but no large telescope, as that has been removed) and a panoramic view of the city.

View from the Klementium Observatory Tower

Vysehrad. This is kind of like a smaller version of the Prague castle that sits on a bluff overlooking the river in the southern half of the city. Like Prague castle, it’s another complex of structures that included royal residences, a cathedral, etc. ringed by a fortifying wall. Through Prague’s history, there was some jockeying between this castle and the Prague castle for the royal seat, with Prague castle ultimately winning out. Anyway, there are some lovely views of the city and Hannah and I enjoyed our stroll along the ramparts and through the cathedral. There’s also a tremendous amount of history here, which I would love to relate to you, but Hannah and I had taken in our share of historical and cultural information at that point and weren’t ready to splurge on guided tours and glossy information packets for the city’s also-ran of castles.

Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul at the Vysehrad

Door to the Basilica

Letna Park. Speaking of great views and lovely strolls, we visited Letna park, a large park near Prague Castle that overlooks the city. Very relaxing.

Narodni Muzeum (or the National Museum of Prague). A magnificent building with stunning architecture. The building makes the ticket worthwhile by itself. That was good news for H and me, because unbeknownst to us, the museum had been largely emptied as it was undergoing renovations. Those renovations were mostly complete when we visited, so we didn’t see much in the way of scaffolding, etc. but we did walk through several completely empty galleries before reaching the few rooms with, you know, things. The most interesting exhibit described the Velvet Revolution and surrounding events, which resulted in the fall of communism in the Czech Republic.

A beautiful, empty museum.

Mucha Museum. A little gem if you like turn of the century art nouveau posters, for which Alphonse Mucha is famous. Relatively unknown today, he was a famous and commercially successful artist in his time. H loved his work.

Miscellaneous.

• Fireworks. The official, city-sponsored New Years fireworks display is on January 1, but H and I missed this because we departed on January 1. Fortunately, there are also fireworks on New Years Eve, though these are more of a decentralized, open-source project. Citizens of all kinds (large/small, young/old, drunk/sober) fan out onto the streets on New Years Eve with large boxes of explosives and proceed to light them off from whatever particular corner strikes them as most convenient. Just to clear anything up, these are not puny M-80s and bottle rockets. These are rockets that fly hundreds of feet into the air and create massive kaleidoscopic explosions (i.e., the real deal). The result is a sort of bizarre experience where you can walk anywhere in the city and see large and beautiful fireworks going off everywhere you look, sometimes uncomfortably close to you. In fact, H and I were warned by multiple sources not to visit Wenceslas square due to the density of people and explosives and liquor. Mindful, H and I decided to stay close to the hotel (not near Wenceslas). Upon exiting the building, we saw a middle-aged man gleefully unloading a bankers box full of large munitions on the center island of the street. Later, we observed cars ducking around boxes of fireworks as they were going off. Police are present, but I think their function is primarily to clear the wounded rather than to enforce any kind of rules.
• Marionettes. Marionette theatre has a long history in Prague and you can find artisan makers of these puppets around town. They are quite beautiful!