Prague, Day 6

On Thursday, our last day in the Czech Republic, we took a day trip to Kutna Hora. The bus picked us up at our hotel, then gathered a collection of other English and Italian speakers as well as our guide, Sharka (Sarah). The guide changed back and forth between three languages (speaking Czech with the driver) without any hesitation.

Kutna Hora is a small town about 70 kilometers east of Prague, famous in the Middle Ages for its silver production and mint. We traveled past brilliant green and yellow fields (rapeseed for oil).

Our first stop was the Bone Church, Kostnice, where 40,000 human bones form the decorations, from swags and candelabra to the Swartzenburg coat of arms. We declined to buy a reproduction skull souvenir.

We traveled further on to St. Barbara’s Cathedral (she is the patron saint of miners), dating from the fourteenth century and quite wealthy due to the silver in the town.

From there we could see the single, leaning tower of St. James’ Church, which is a bit off balance from the missing tower, with construction abandoned due to concern over collapse.

The mock bridge with statues was built to emulate Charles Bridge in Prague.

The Italian Court was the early mint, where groschen and tiny parve of the Middle Ages were struck by Italian artisans, 2000 each per day.

We also saw dollars, large silver coins from which our American money takes its name.

We saw the Royal Audience Chamber and the Royal Chapel, which was beautifully decorated with Art Nouveau paintings from the early 1900s, no photos allowed.

After returning to Prague, we ate dinner in the enormous Art Nouveau restaurant at Municipal Hall. Very ornate, with delicious food to match. Flaming tropical fruit crème brulee was the highlight.

Prague, Day 5

On Wednesday, we trekked back to Prague Castle to visit parts we missed previvously. We braved the stairs up to the Castle since the target location was on the near end. The Lobkowitz Palace is not part of the Prague Castle tour, but I read online reviews that suggested it was well worth the separate admission.

The Lobkowitz collection is privately owned, by the Lobkowitz family that left the country at beginning of WWII, with all their property confiscated by the Nazis. After the war, they regained their possessions, only to lose them again a few years later with the Communist take-over. After the Velvet Revolution, the family gathered records to claim their belongings again. The audio tour was narrated by the Lobkowitz heir, who was raised in the United States on stories of his familie's palaces. The collections were very interesting, ranging from personal items such as family portraits (including pets) and jewelry to more public items such as arms and musical instruments.

The Seventh Prince Lobkowitz was one of Beethoven's patrons, giving him an annuity free of control of the music to be produced. We saw music in Beethoven's own hand for the Fifth Symphony and a dedication for it to the Prince. Also on display were handwritten music from Handel and Mozart. After the tour, we joined a small group of listeners for a midday classic concert, with works for piano, flute and violin.

We returned to the balcony cafe for a late lunch again, this time with sunshine over the rooftops, then decided to take an alternate route down. The hillside below the castle is filled with terraced gardens, reached by winding narrow pathways and staircases. Espaliered fruit trees, wisteria, hydrangeas, roses and irises abounded. This was one of my favorite areas of Prague. I could go there with a sketchbook and while away hours.

In the evening, we wandered via a new path back down near the Charles Bridge for dinner at a restaurant which seemed to be rated highly for its adventurous food. We weren't very impressed however, despite the bill. The goat cheese mousse could have fooled me -- pretty flavorless. Joren's duck was very tough. Keenan and I could not have told that there were asparagus pureed in with the mashed potatoes served with our salmon, because a sweet, black olive sauce dominated over all. Perhaps we should have stayed with the more traditional Czech food or the omnipresent Italian options. Consequently, we walked back to Old Town Square, to park ourselves before the astronomical clock for dessert. The fruit with chocolate fondue and raspberries with ice cream were tasty, but the apostles forsook us at ten o'clock.

Prague, Day 4

First off today, we went to the Museum of Decorative Arts, begun the same year as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The resemblance ended there. While some of the items on display dated to the late nineteenth century, there was what I assume was a direct impact of Communist years on the collection. I wonder if many of the items from the museum disappeared, never to reappear. There was a substantial collection of wedding textiles, which perhaps didn't  appeal to the Communist elite as much as silver and ceramics. Overall, it was small and disappointing.

We used the extra time to search for interesting shops. Most of the stores on the heavy tourist streets sell standard Bohemian souveniers: miniarette puppets, colored cut glass, poor quality lampwork glass, T-shirts and tsochkes. We did finally find a few more modern glass shops, including a Kosta Boda shop with beautiful Bertil Valien boats and heads. A little out of my price range for a take home treasure, not to mention that it's Scanidnavian rather than Czech. Eventually we did  find Artel, which carries Bohemian (the Czech glass region) glass made in the traditional manner with a colored layer over clear crystal, but engraved with modern designs rather than traditional. I was captivated by the black work with cut birds and branches. Surprise! So a small bowl is coming home with me. I  wish I could afford the large bowls with that motif. Just beautiful! However, they packaged it up so carefully and beautifully to travel that you'll have to wait to see the details.

In the afternoon, we took a rest to allow for staying up later. We purchased tickets to see a marionette performance of Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni, which was premiered by the great composer himself in Prague at the Estates Theater. The puppet version was very tongue-in-cheek, with a Mozart conductor who got progressively more tipsy as the opera progressed. The puppeteers were part of the show as well. It was fun, although rather bawdy in places. The tiny theater was packed with Japanese tourists. In fact, all of Prague is teeming with tourists, and May is not yet the busiest season. We've heard lots of Americans, French, German, British, Australians, and of course Japanese, everywhere.

After the puppet show, we took the opportunity to photograph the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle illuminated at night. We walked back to Old Town Square for more photos and hot chocolate, and the streets and Metro back to the hotel were quite filled with tourists. So much for our adapting to an earlier schedule. It's very easy to stay up late since the body's time is seven hours earlier.

One of the interesting differences between Prague and anywhere else we've ever traveled is the subway escalators (and we've done a lot of them in different cities). These are FAST and extremely steep and lonnnnng. Not for those with fear of heights. We've watched with great interest as people load baby strollers and luggage onto them. The first few days, it was all we could do to load and unload ourselves safely, but after a few days we may be able to manage getting our luggage to the international train station on Friday.

Prague, Day 3

Monday we declared to be museum day. First we went to the Mucha Museum. Of course I knew his work, but I can't say that I knew much about him. His story is definitely an inspiring one.

He became famous almost overnight, when he was the only artist available over the Christmas holidays to design a new poster for the last minute demands of the French actress, Sarah Bernhardt. With less than two weeks to work, he innovated. Speculation is that because he had to work so quickly, he had to rely on training and instinct. Even so, he was successful in large part because he broke the rules successfully.

First, he made the poster tall and thin, using two of the standard printing stones together. Second, he used his trademark flowing style that became known as Art Nouveau. Third, although he tried the bright colors typical of posters of the time, such as those by Toulouse-Lautrec, during the trial printings he prefered the pastel, faded images of later prints, so he adopted that color pallette. Sarah Bernhardt signed a six-year contract with him to do posters, costumes and props, and he became a sensation for advertising and all sorts of household items. He was committed to bringing art to the masses via these mundane objects.

I collected a book of posters and some playing cards with images to study. I want to look for his Documents Decoratifs book that was a student primer for abstracting from nature and design.

After putting Joren through an art lesson, we went to a second museum of more interest to him, the Museum of Communism, detailing the history of the rise and fall of Communism in the Czech Republic. I can't say that I knew muczh about Czech history, tending to lump anything to do with Communism in with the Soviet Republic. We saw photos of the invasion of Prague by Nazi tanks during WW II. In 1948, Communist officials took over the elected government, supposedly with a more liberal agenda, but that soon gave way to the strict Soviet approach, eventually with Russian tanks for enforcement. The propaganda shown in the museum was rather too familiar, with a fear-based appeal to the uneducated. After many years of decreasing economic stability, in 1989 repeated protests in Weneslas Square led to the peaceful restoration of Democracy, known as the Velvet Revolution.

After a late lunch of pasta (carbonara and pesto) on Old Town Square, we finally strolled over the river via the Charles Bridge, dating from the 14th century. Lined with statues, street artists and performers, it provided a great view up the hill toward Prague Castle.

After crossing into Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter), we viewed the Church of St. Nicholas, with its green towers that we photographed the previous day from the castle. Then we found the Valstejnska Zahreda (Wellenstein Palace Gardens) through a nondescript door in a wall. Inside, we enjoyed searching for figures in the "grotto," an artificial dripstone wall that had puzzled us from the ramparts above yesterday.

We also solved the mysterious birdcall question when we spotted the white peacock that lives here.

Soon, our feet gave out and we returned to the hotel for the evening and a reasonable bedtime, after blogging.

Prague, Day 2

We committed the second day to Prague Castle, high on the hill above the river. We took the approach of going up past it on the Metro, then walking down, for the sake of my leg. Unfortunately, there are no guided tours or audio on Sundays, so we muddled through with a guidebook.

Most impressive was St. Vitus' Cathedral, started in the eleventh century but not finished until 1929. The stained glass was gorgeous, especially the window by Alfonse Mucha in his totally unique style, painted panels instead of mosaic.

Another highlight was the view from the Lobkowitz Palace Cafe balcony table, looking iot over the red-tiled rooftops. We ate tomato soup with basil and parmesan along with ham and brie sandwiches while thankfully sipping large bottles of hard-to-find iced tea. Afterward, we went through the National Gallery's painting and sculpure, the Royal Palace History Museum's relics from mammoth bones to crown jewels (with huge stones!), the Royal Palace with its immense ballroom with arched ceiling, and the Powder Tower with a history of the Palace Guards. The Golden Lane, supposedly the king's alchemists' location, was closed for renovation, along with all its shops.

Finally, we wandered down the hill, through Wencelas's Vineyard, stopping for a trdlnik snack. Dough was wound thinly around a wooden treadle, rolled in sugar, then baked while turning continuously, and finally rolled again in cinnamon sugar. The aroma was irresistable. We sat on a stone wall amongst the tiny, new grapes, listening to the bells and mysterious bird calls of Prague.

Eventually, we faced the steep decent down the hill (1400 ft vertically) to the Metro station, stairs and switchbacks with incredible views down into the hillside gardens. Once back to our hotel, we couldn't face walking any further and ate dinner on site. Asparagus risotto with rabbit for me, salmon and veggies for Keenan, a rib-eye steak and fries for Joren. We stayed up too late, having difficulty getting into the proper bedtime ritual seven hours ahead of normal schedule.

Arrival in Prague, Day 1

Overseas flights are always annoying, even more so when hobbled with a bad leg.  The day started with Keenan misreading the departure time, leaving us with an extra hour to kill in the ever so attractive Austin airport, which we spent consuming breakfast tacos and migas from Maudie's (not nearly as good as fresh at our local restaurant).

At Dulles we went from one end of the D concourse all the way to the far end of the C concourse, hobbling quickly on my bad leg, since there was less than an hour between flights. We needn't have rushed because the flight was delayed. Evidently the ticket scanner went on the fritz, causing United to do boarding by hand, the old-fashioned way, which then led to two Lufthansa passengers boarding the wrong flight. After that was all straightened out, with flight attendants repeated counting around the cabin in German to find how many empty seats were available, we were late to Germany.

Which meant we missed the already tight connection in  Frankfurt. United booked us onto OK airlines (otherwise known as Czech Air Lines). That necessitated a tram to another terminal, wandering around in circles asking German  airport workers where that plane would be (since the monitors only said D concourse, not which gate), then going out through customs and baggage claim and back through securiity to a distant gate. We stood in line to get seat assignments, then in line again to get those cards torn in half, then squeezed into  a tram to ride out to the plane on the tarmac. Small time operations don't get gate space in Frankfurt.

Overall, we arrived in Prague only an hour and a half late. We took a taxi to the hotel, where the room was not ready. So we had lunch in  the hotel restaurant, where Joren had his first shnitzel (loved it) and Keenan tried another Czech speciality, with meat in gravy topped with cranberries and whipped cream and accompanied by giant dumpling slices. I went Italian, with prawn and scallop risotto. After even more waiting, we finally got our room. We quickly dropped everything off and headed out to forestay the dreaded jet lag.

Across the street from our hotel (not in the tourist trap part of town) is a shopping mall with a metro station  beneath. We wandered in to ask about metro  passes, and Keenan went into a tobacco shop to purchase those. Then we rode several stops down to Old Town. Popping up there we walked amongst huge crowds of tourists, glad that we were staying elsewhere, to the Old Town Square. The attraction to see was the astronomical clock, shown above, which has 24 hours, the zodiac and doors at the top that open for the 12 apostles to  parade past on the hour. It was truly shoulder-to-shoulder standing to watch. We wandered around the square, looking at the beautiful buildings, the performers on stage, the street food vendors (Prague ham, anyone?), horse drawn carriages with ear bonnets, and innumerable sourvenier shops with "art glass."

When my poor bum leg couldn't take the cobblestones any longer, we rode back to the hotel for soaks in the long, narrow tub. Then we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, with Joren trying what Keenan had previously for lunch, Keenan moving on to goulash with potato pancakes, and me eating plain grilled chicken and veggies. At 8 p.m., we all fell into bed exhausted and didn't hear a thing until morning, 12 hours later.