April 19, 2019
Day 32: Prague
We had not really prepared for a Grampies tour of Prague, because the plan had been to intersect here with Aunt Sophie and family, on their own Eastern Europe tour, and so we would have harmonized with them on what to see. Unfortunately Sophie (age about 92) fell on a plane on the way here, and ended with a broken hip. She is recovering well, but obviously not into a walking tour of Prague right now.
The most reliable guy about European city walking tours is Rick Steve's. So we quickly fired up his video, in which he does the walk, and downloaded his walking map. The map looks like this:
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As you can hopefully see, Rick has about a dozen key things to visit, although he does not actually include the Jewish Quarter in this proposed track. Mindful of Dodie's past walking problems, I proposed dropping not only the Jewish Quarter, but also the hyper famous Wenceslas Square. Dodie felt she could do the whole Rick thing (which is actually double, because our hotel is right at his start, so it would be an out and back), so our start (and end) would be Wenceslas Square.
With this bold plan in hand, we gathered up our stuff, carefully deciding on what clothes to wear and to bring, what devices, what back pack, and with spring in our step, off we went. We got about 1/2 block or less, when Dodie reported some kind of pain or abrasion in her shoe. Maybe friction? We went back to our room for some bandages and set off again. After 1/2 block, Dodie reported that the maps had been left behind on the last return. I got to run back for those. But the foot was still not right. Further research turned up a small thorn, a remnant of rural Czech. So here, my first photo of this artistic marvel of a city, is of my own finger, showing thorn.
Wenceslas Square was not so far from the hotel and soon we were at the top it. It is not really a square, but a huge rectangular mostly car free boulevard space, with a giant museum and statue of King Wenceslas at one end. The square was magnificent, and also filled with Easter market stalls. Many of these had wonderful foods, many cooked on open beech wood fires. But hang on, before we get totally lost in twiddling around all the aspects of this amazing place and City, here is the plan for a slightly organized presentation.
First, let's walk the walk, just generally commenting on what is in each of the main spots, from here to the Charles Bridge. That's pretty simple. Then let's take it by categories, looking at our shots of the food, the architecture, the people and crowds, and the souvenirs and specialties that we ran in to.
Back to the Square, here is Wenceslas, and the museum. Wenceslas was a 10th century duke who became the first Slavic saint. He is the guy in the Christmas carol, and also the spiritual symbol of the Czech republic. The Square itself has been at the heart of past political events, like the independence of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi takeover, and of course the Velvet Revolution.
With the Velvet Revolution, in 1989 the playwright Václav Havel announced the end of the Communist government, from a balcony opposite the Grand Hotel Europa. Here is the hotel:
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In the square we found an Easter market, one of at least three spotted around our walk. Some of this is no doubt permanent, but Easter is an extra special time here. The market featured lots of foods, many cooked on wood or charcoal fires, and high quality toys and souvenirs. Well duh, who was it that suggested skipping this section?
Along the sides of the square were many souvenir shops, and I dove into the first one. There were of course a myriad of things, and I immediately went for my favourites - stickers (saying Praha) and keychains, saying the same. Dodie sagely advised not buying the first thing in the first shop (there were dozens and dozens of shops, ok hundreds, like this in town), forcing me to pull out my own wallet. I got a chuckle when Dodie went beserk in pretty much the next shop. To be fair, she did end up spreading around her Korunas in a variety of places. Dodie also points out that each and every purchase she made in the day was stuff for grandkids, while my thing was strictly for Steve.
We found the map fairly easy to follow, and successfully cut across from the bottom of Wenceslas to the Powder Tower. With all the people around, we wanted to take care not to lose each other. Our yellow garments help a lot, but we found we also had to hold on to each other. At the Powder Tower, though, I left Dodie in order to cross the street for a better angle. But from that position I spied the facade of an opera house. To get a better angle on that, I shifted down the street a bit. Fortunately, I came to my senses in time to find Dodie again!
We wandered in to the Opera House and found that it also contained a cafe and a pub. I peeked into the cafe, whose food services are presided over by some sort of celebrity Czech chef, and wondered if I could drift in for a photo, not thinking that a humble cyclist could actually sit at a table in there. But wait, they had a torte and coffee special! Soon we were seating in ultimate luxury!
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The heart of the fun in Prague is really the Old Town Square. It's here that you find the Tyn Church, with its fanciful towers, the City Hall, which houses the playful astronomical clock, and the memorial to Jan Hus. Together they make up the most iconic of the famous Prague postcard type views.
Jan Hus was a guy that predated Luther by 100 years in challenging the authority of the Catholic church. He was highly educated in Prague, and even had a big influence on the Czech language and spelling (with all those diacritical marks, that replace double and triple letters). He attended the famous Council of Konstanz, famous from our visit to the Imperia statue there. However in Konstanz they burned him at the stake and scattered his ashes in the Rhine, to prevent any veneration. Unpleasant folks!
In this section of Prague, and of the Old Town Square, the greatest concentration of people is in front of the clock, when it is about to perform its thing. This includes a skeleton pulling a cord, a rooster crow, and then a parade of Apostles, followed by the chiming. To pass in front of the clock, either to get through to the road to the Charles Bridge, or to sneak a peek at the performance yourself, you need to part the crowds. I am rotten at this - too meek and polite - but Dodie, while polite, is more definite. So she took my hand in tow, and off we sent through the crowd. It was wonderful. I just floated though with no buffeting and to side stepping, right behind Dodie! It looked like this:
Next stop, the Charles Bridge. Named after Charles IV, he is the one portrayed in the statue I spotted yesterday. It's a bit of a struggle to go on the bridge, because of the crowds. Or actually the struggle is to get a photo, any photo. The bridge is lined with statues, but it is not possible to shoot them, due to so many people. If you really wanted to do this, you would have to appear at first light, while the tourists are all still at their provided breakfasts. (Dodie has noted that I did not describe our own breakfast, the one that helped to have us here so late. It was in fact worth it - with all sorts of cakes, vegetables including shredded beets, Prague frankfurters, hash browns... ok, snapping back to the bridge!).
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We did not continue across the bridge, to the Little Quarter there, the Castle, or the monastery. Next time! So now we'll more or less retrace the route, back to the hotel. But on the way down here, and on the way back, there has been tons of architecture, food and other stuff. Let's have a look:
Architecture
On our walk, all we had to do was to look up, or sideways, or straight, to see something unique. That could include a glance along a side street, or a closer look at something that we already were focussing on, like a church. Here is just a selection, but in principle the views are endless. Not only that, if you know what you are looking at, you will see Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Art Nouveau.
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5 years ago
Food
One of the main things, seen throughout town, has been the Trdelnik. It's a coil of dough, cooked on a special rotating pipe above coals. The resulting cylinder is then eaten plain. or filled with ice cream, in ever fancier decorated or flavoured versions. We of course tried one, with plain ice cream. The price is 125 Korunas - 5 euros! But oh, the one we tried! - the Trdelnik itself was very flavourful. Now in our case the ice cream was just in a paper cup jammed into the cylinder, and was one scoop. But this ice cream was truly the best I can remember. It was so obviously a simple frozen custard of cream, eggs, and sugar, fast to melt back to something like cream. No fillers, no milk by-products, no butter oil or other North American dreck. I could have just kissed those Trdelnikers!
In other forms of the Trdelnik, the cyclinder seems to be filled and piled high with ice cream - like 4 inches above the top! But maybe this is not quality ice cream? Don't know, because we were just too full with other stuff to try another version.
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The next big thing on offer today, was all sorts of meat things cooked on charcoal, or wood fire BBQ. There were sausages, and notably, big hams. We saw people who had bought some of this, and seemed to be walking away with 1/4 pigs on their plates. Then there were also traditional dishes - like potatoes, or peppers, prepared in large woks. Have a look:
People
Of course the most dramatic people thing going on was the size of the crowds. Lot of people like that add greatly to the excitement of the whole thing, but of course it is also annoying when they get in your way, or in the way of your photo. Despite the huge crowds, we somehow found that we always could find a seat, or place in a cafe, or a washroom. And when seated in a cafe, you felt a sense of calm and that you could put your order in and be served quickly. That really went a long way to erase any problems about the crowds.
We also managed to make direct contact with a few people. For example, we went into a number of shops selling garnet, which is a special Czech thing, mined in the north of the country. Despite the crowds outside, you were welcomed into each shop, and received very personalized service. We talked to three young men who were running one shop, and found that two were from Moldova. We really learned a lot about cycling there and in Romania, about the culture and behaviours, economy, and so forth. Dodie explained to them about e-bikes, sharing her hard won knowledge about what are the best designs. And when they learned that Dodie's Mom was born at Kishinev - family reunion!
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One of the cafes we sat at had carried the notion that they have tables outside, but the real cafe and kitchen are inside, to an extreme. We really could not at first figure out where the cafe was whose table we had set down at. A family at the next table were wondering too, both to help in tracking down or encouraging the waiter, and in finding where the toilet might be. So we began to chat with the family, finding that they were from England. They flattered us by being interested in our bike trips, in how as a couple we stuck together through them, and by being surprised at our ages. So we ended with this nice group photo:
By the way, at this cafe I ordered a double chocolate milkshake - 8 euros! Dodie thought I was nuts. But it is thirsty work walking all over town!
In tourist towns you get street performers, and of course people will interact with them. It was particularly fun to see the kids enjoying this. For example, in these two scenes:
street musicians were also part of the scene. The ones in this video invited the public to dance too.
Souvenirs
A lot of craft items were on display in the markets, and almost universally they were of high quality. The Asian economies seem to have not penetrated here, so there was little or no evidence of plastic knock offs. At this season, painted eggs are a big thing. They are intricate and hand painted. I asked one vendor whether the designs were somehow appliques, and if not, how could they be so cheap. He assured me that the eggs were hand painted, but as for how come so cheap? - they were done in Ukraine. Go figure.
Another category we noticed was puppets. These are referred to by Rick Steves as "kitchen witch" marionettes meant to hang in your kitchen for good luck. Here are some hanging at a stall:
The last souvenir category we'll talk about is the garnets, or granat as it is called here. These often look edible - like pomegranate!, but really together with Bohemian crystal, they are the elegant high end of things one can bring back from here. It's hard to get a good shot, because jewels are normally behind glass, but here is a small hint of just how much garnet is on offer in shops around Prague:
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We had really been looking forward to some of the great street food on offer in Wenceslas Square, when we knew we would be swinging back around, toward evening. But when we got there, we were still full from all the things we had found downtown. Even so, we "forced ourselves" to get some of that great shish kebab, and a potato and cheese dish from one of the woks, and arranged it as well as possible as a take out. By the time we were back in the hotel, we were glad to be able to pull it out.
The GPS claimed we had walked just 10 km, but it sure felt like more. It differed from simply doing a 10 km race or walk because of all the stop and go, and people dodging. 10 km any which way is still a big achievement for Dodie's new knees, and now a few hours later she has some swelling. It's sort of good to know that my legs are quite sore as well. By tomorrow, we expect Dodie's will have returned to normal.
Every which way, this day and the walk was worth it. But we know we have only scratched the surface, so we will mark Prague down for a return visit!
Here is our crazy spin around Prague. It somehow does not resemble Rick Steves' very sane dotted line! If you are looking for amusement, you can zoom in and see us not even leaving the hotel at all effectively!
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