Prague - Day Two

Friday, August 30, 2013

This morning we started at the Astronomical Clock, built in the late 14th century, since we didn't see it go off yesterday. It has a clock that tracks a number of different astronomical events. It chimed directly on the hour, and the 12 disciples did a little trip around the clock for us, and that was it. Not nearly as exciting as the Glockenspiel in Munich.


Afterwards, we climbed the Clock Tower and got some good views. It was an easy climb because it was a ramp the whole way. Some people still took the elevator.


Our Prague Card said we could get into the Stone Bell House for free. The house itself dates from the 13th century and was built as a town palace for King John of Luxembourg. It is the only house in Prague remaining in its original Gothic appearance. Being named Stone Bell House, I guess we were kind of expecting bells? Instead, it was home to a gallery featuring the photographs of Viktor Kolar, a Czech dude who exiled himself to Canada for several years.

We decided to walk down to Charles Bridge and see if we could catch a boat tour of the Vtala River. We got really lucky, one was leaving in a few minutes, and it was a really good tour. It was a small replica of a 1920's cruise boat, and it wasn't very full. The captain of the boat piloted from the center of the boat and gave narrative along the way, which is much better than a recording because you can ask questions.


The boat did not actually go very far along the river. He circled Charles Bridge, which was built between 1357 to 1402, and is 516 meters long. In 1890 the middle section collapsed in a flood so that section now looks newer (different coloured stones). There used to be traffic allowed on the bridge, and even had trams, but traffic has not been allowed since 1965. This bridge was used in the Mission Impossible scenes with Tom Cruise. Other movies filmed here include Amadeus, Harry Potter, and League of Extraordinary Men. Sean Connery's expensive 5000 euros a night presidential suite got flooded out in the 2002 flood.

The Vltava River is 430 km long. Vltava means The Wild Water, so called because it always floods.

This boat line (Venice Prague) is the only one allowed to go into the Certovka, or Devil's Canal, because the canal is only one meter deep. The reason it is called Devil's Canal is because once upon a time it was a smelly and poor area where people dumped whatever they wanted into the water. There is a giant metronome on top of a hill, signifying freedom from communism. There used to be a giant statue of Stalin up there that took 6 years to build and only stayed up for 7 years. The sculptor was so unhappy about his commission that he committed suicide when it was finished.

After our boat tour, we went into the Tower Museum and then climbed the Old Town Bridge Tower, which is the entrance gate to the Charles Bridge.


After a quick lunch, we went back to the Astronomical Clock to find Keith, the "free" tour guide from yesterday. Today we knew he was doing a Castle Tour at 2 pm. In fact, of the 7 of us on the tour, 6 of us were on his city tour yesterday.


He started by walking us to the tram stop so we could catch the tram up the hill to the castle. He gave us all tram passes and told us to validate them on board, because there are "controllers" who randomly check tickets and fine you $40 if you don't have a validated one. Then Keith pointed out that the guy standing behind us was probably a controller, and the guy smiled, Keith was right. Keith also warned us that trams were the worst place for being pickpocketed. He said they are so good, they should have magic shows in Vegas. Anyways, when we got on the tram, we were packed in like sardines so that absolutely no one could have moved, let alone pickpocket.


We got off the tram and stopped at a memorial of a ripped up flag with the dates 1938 - 1945. He said WWII really began in 1938 at the Munich Conference, where Hitler was granted permission to enter and take Czechoslovakia (who were not invited to the conference). Chamberlain walked out and declared, "Peace in our time," thinking Hitler would be satisfied, but of course he was not. So even though the area was "granted" to Hitler, the Czechs have always felt invaded and this is why they say WWII started in 1938.

We stopped for a "break" at Strahov Monastery, even though we hadn't really gone very far into the tour. Strahov Monastery was founded by a drunken priest named Strahov, when lightning struck in front of his horse and he was paralyzed for an hour (probably drunk). This caused him to reform his ways. Strahov Monastery is very famous for the beer they have been making since 1628. Apparently monks make the best beer. Keith had reserved a spot in their restaurant (I won't call it a pub), and the 8 of us sat around the table and some ordered the beer. We just filled up our water bottle.

We continued on the tour, and Keith showed us Petrin Tower in the distance. It was built 2 years after the Eiffel Tower to model it, and is the same height as the Eiffel Tower IF you include the hill it is on.


We had a stop at Loreta, built in the 1620's in the baroque style, in the hope that its beauty and treasures would lure everyone back to Catholicism. We heard the bells ring the hour, very pretty, but they don't ring at night. Apparently they bothered the astronomer Tycho Brahe when he was stargazing.

The Capuchin Monastery (built 1600 - 1607) was interesting to look at because there are cannon balls still embedded in the walls from when it was attacked in 1757.

We walked down a 600 year old street which is architecturally protected. The walls of the houses are curved to follow the shape of the street. It was nice that Keith took us here, there were no other tourists here. Apparently there is a similar street in Prague called Golden Lane that charges 8 euros just for the privilege of being there.

We saw the 1543 Schwarzenberg Palace, the outside has a 2 layered effect done with a plaster pattern called postal.

There was a Plague Column built which was supposed to ward off the plague, but didn't.

There was a professional protester outside the palace gates. Keith explained that the guards outside the Matthias Gate are actually Czech army guards, not hired kids.


We got another look at St Vitus Cathedral, which we saw yesterday on our own. The Gothic archways are pointed to resemble hands folded in prayer. The flying buttresses may look imposing, but are just being used as supports.

Vitus died in 303. Later when the church declared him a "saint", they dug up his remains and distributed his limbs as holy relics. When the arm got passed down to Charles IV, he decided it was so holy that it needed a cathedral to house it. The cathedral is lovely, but the arm was looted long ago. The front doors of the church tell the history of its construction. It was begun in 1344, mostly in the Gothic style, but the main tower was finished in the renaissance style, because Gothic had by then gone out of style. The church was not finished until 1929. On the side of the building are attached statues of the builders. It is funny to see statues in togas beside statues wearing business suits.

The bell in the St Vitus Tower is named Sigmund, but it is too large to ring because it could damage the cathedral.


There is a mosaic on the side of St Vitus Cathedral that they were having trouble keeping clean, so they called in NASA who applied a special epoxy to it, the same one they use on space shuttles.

Keith showed us a statue of a young boy built during the Communist regime. The Communists felt that the "dangly bits" of the boy were indecent and ordered them removed. When the statue was unveiled, the people thought it was horrible that the young boy was missing his "dangly bits", and organized protests in the street. So the "dangly bits" were reinstated, and that part of the statue is very shiny where everyone has been rubbing it. The statue now has the nickname "Gold Member." No, we didn't take pictures.

The tour ended at a nice panorama spot, and the two of us wandered into Wallenstein Garden, where he had a stalactite wall with demons built.


We tried to buy tickets for the organ concert, but were told we had to come back half an hour before the concert because we had the Prague Card. Makes no sense to us, and we didn't actually end up going back because we went to the hotel and were too tired to go anywhere. The restaurant at the hotel was full (they probably took one look at us in our tourist shorts and didn't want us). We tried a restaurant down the block but it was too loud, so we eventually gave up and went to the market to buy a few things (they were selling cannibas but we passed), and ate in our room.

There was a lot of excitement tonight because of a vital soccer match being played between Chelsea and Munchen, apparently 2 of the best teams in this league. There was a lot of rowdiness, and stronger than ever police presence, and even helicopters flying overhead. We wanted to go back to the Old Town Square to experience it all and to see the buildings lit up again, but we were too darn tired!

This is our last blog for this trip. Tomorrow we are flying Prague to Dusseldorf, Germany, and then home to Toronto.