walking tour in Prague
I only have one week left of teaching-oh my God!
On Saturday, February 19, after Leslie and I purchased our train tickets to Vienna, we took a walking tour of Prague. Our guide, who was Czech, spoke very good English and even managed to be quite funny, despite the fact that it was not his native language. His name was Mikhail.
The city of Prague was separated into four parts until the 18th Century. On the right bank of the river, there's Old Town (which is obviously older), and New Town (I won't insult you with an explanation). On the left bank, there's Lesser Town (so-named only because the left bank is lower than the right bank) and the Castle District (again, no explanation needed). The sections used to be divided by city walls, and each had it's own main square and town hall.
Our tour began in Wenceslas Square (as in the good king who went out on the Feast of Steven), which is the main square of New Town. There we saw the National Muzeum, which was nearly destroyed by the Russians during the communist occupation of Prague. They thought it was the radio station, which it was not. When the communist tanks moved in to occupy Prague, the Czechs tried to deter them by removing all the street signs, counting on the Russians to get lost. Apparently those clever communists had considered this possibility and mapped out their route before leaving Moscow. We also saw a small memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajik, both of whom burned themselves to death in 1969 in protest of the Soviet occupation. The Wenceslas Square is the one in which all the Czechs gathered during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The fall of communism in the Czech Republic is known as the Velvet Revolution because there was no violence involved. Mikhail pointed out the actual balcony from which Czech leaders declared the end of communism. The last thing we saw in New Town was a really interesting Art Deco Hotel. Apparently Art Deco was a big deal in Prague in the beginning of the 20th Century. New Town seems to be the major shopping district of Prague; chic chain stores line the streets and large advertisements adorn the walls of all the buildings. It seemed like capitalism arrived in Prague and then exploded, leaving behind bits of consumer culture on every available surface in the city.
Next we walked into Old Town, where our fist stop was the Estates Theatre Prague Opera House, where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in 1787. Next we walked to Old Town Square. There we saw the Old Town Hall, which is one of the only buildings in Prague to have been bombed during WWII. The Czechs surrendered to the Germans without a fight, thus there was no reason for the Germans to bomb the city. There was no reason for the Allies to bomb it either, as the Czechs weren't aiding the Germans but rather being subjugated by them. The buildings which were bombed in Prague were bombed by mistake. The part of Old Town Hall which was destroyed was not rebuilt; there's an open space where it used to stand serving as a memorial to the dead. A portion of the building survived, the bomb, however. It's still there, though it no longer performs any government function. On the side wall of Old Town Hall is a large Astronomical Clock. Every hour, little figures come out of the clock and perform, kind of like the Glockenspiel in Munich but on a much smaller scale. Unfortunately, we missed the performance. Also in the Old Town Square we saw a St Nicholas Church (one of two we saw on our tour), Our Lady Before Tyn (another church), the Kinsky Palace (converted into an elementary school; Kafka attended class there), and the House of the Stone Bell. Hundreds of years ago, before the Czechs had the novel idea of numbering houses, they adorned each house with a symbol. That symbol became the house's unique address. The House of the Stone Bell had a small stone bell attached to the side of it.
We left Old Town Square and emerged on to Parizka, a street constructed to look like the Champs Elysees. The Czechs also constructed a tower much like the Eiffel Tower; it's called the Petrin Tower. Mikhail told us that because it's built on a hill, it's actually taller than the French one, making it superior. He did admit, though, that the French do have the "Louv-RA," (lovely pronunciation) so it was still worth visiting Paris. From there we walked to the Jewish Quarter. It was preserved during the Nazi occupation because Hitler wanted to create a museum there dedicated to the "extinct race," the Jews, after he had exterminated all of them. I found that extremely disturbing. In the Jewish Quarter we saw the Old-New Synagogue, which Mikhail told us was the only functioning medieval synagogue in Europe. We also saw the old Jewish cemetery. It was very small, so people had to be buried in layers-up to 11 of them! What's even more interesting is that these layers were actually created above ground; dirt was built up into a huge mound on top of the coffins.
Old Town was extremely beautiful; all the buildings were painted in soft pastel colors, and the old architecture was wonderfully preserved.
After the Jewish Quarter, our tour took us back though New Town. There we saw the House where Kafka was born and the New Town Hall. New Town Hall is obviously the former town hall of New Town, and it also serves as the town hall for the united Prague today. Mikhail pointed out a statue of a woman built at the town hall who, in his opinion, looked very masculine. He had decided she must have been a swimmer from the South.
Next we went to the Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River. A huge tower guards the entrance to the bridge from the right side of the river, and a statue of Kind Charles stands just to the side of that. The bridge itself, which is only intended for pedestrians, is lined with statues. The most significant of these is of a priest who was tortured, then thrown off the bridge into the river hundreds of years ago. Supposedly rubbing this statue brings you good luck. Once we reached the left bank, we walked down the same staircase that Tom Cruise used in Mission Impossible and thus arrived in Lesser Town. There was terrible flooding here in the lowlands next to the river in 2002.
Lesser Town, located just below the Castle District, is filled the former palaces of Czech aristocrats. The majority of these now house restaurants, stores, and foreign embassies. Like Old Town, almost all of the buildings are painted in soft pastels, and it's quite beautiful. One of the first things we saw in Lesser Town was the John Lennon Wall. Shortly after John Lennon was assassinated, people began painting portraits of him and writing song lyrics he'd written and other, personal inscriptions on the wall of a building. It was done as a memorial to the musician, and while it certainly wasn't approved of by the communist government, it was tolerated. Also in Lesser Town, we saw the second of the Saint Nicholas Churches featured in our tour. The tower of this church actually belongs to the city of Prague rather than the church itself. The architects misjudged the proportions of the building, and thus it was larger than the piece of property purchased by the church for it's construction. The city of Prague refused to sell the land on which the tower was built to the church. The only other sites Mikhail pointed out in Lesser Town were several more houses with symbols, including my favorite, "House of the Red Lamb."
As we made our way up an enormous hill from Lesser Town to the Castle District, we stopped in a pub for a glass of Czech beer. The Czech Republic is famous for it's beer, and apparently people in that country drink more beer per person than in any other country in the world. The pub also served goulash, which is a traditional Czech dish.
We arrived at Prague Castle just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was interesting, though not nearly as impressive as the changing of the guard in London or in Athens. After observing that spectacle, we walked through the castle, which was actually not a single building but an enormous compound. Inside is a massive cathedral; construction began on it in the 900's but wasn't completed until 1929. A huge bell hangs in the bell tower of the cathedral, and, according to legend, when the bell cracks it means something terrible is about to happen. Interestingly enough, the bell cracked just before the flood in 2002. Also inside the castle, we strolled down Golden Lane. The lane is just a narrow passage between the old and new fortification walls of the castle. It's lined with what look like tiny little elf houses; castle guards used to live in them hundreds of years ago. Supposedly they used to perform experiments in alchemy there, and that's how the passage received it's name. Today all the elf houses are painted bright colors, and most of them have tiny little shops inside.
As we were leaving the castle, we noticed there was a special Barbie Doll exhibition going on in one of the buildings inside. Leslie made a joke about wanting to go. An Australian girl on the tour responded that it wasn't yet 5:00, and so she still had time. Leslie looked at her with a shocked look on her face and replied, "You mean now? I'll only have 30 minutes to go through; you need a whole day." At that almost everyone on our tour (including me) piped in, saying "It's like the Louvre!" We said it in nearly perfect unison; it was quite funny. The Barbie Exhibition joke marked the end of our tour.
On Saturday, February 19, after Leslie and I purchased our train tickets to Vienna, we took a walking tour of Prague. Our guide, who was Czech, spoke very good English and even managed to be quite funny, despite the fact that it was not his native language. His name was Mikhail.
The city of Prague was separated into four parts until the 18th Century. On the right bank of the river, there's Old Town (which is obviously older), and New Town (I won't insult you with an explanation). On the left bank, there's Lesser Town (so-named only because the left bank is lower than the right bank) and the Castle District (again, no explanation needed). The sections used to be divided by city walls, and each had it's own main square and town hall.
Our tour began in Wenceslas Square (as in the good king who went out on the Feast of Steven), which is the main square of New Town. There we saw the National Muzeum, which was nearly destroyed by the Russians during the communist occupation of Prague. They thought it was the radio station, which it was not. When the communist tanks moved in to occupy Prague, the Czechs tried to deter them by removing all the street signs, counting on the Russians to get lost. Apparently those clever communists had considered this possibility and mapped out their route before leaving Moscow. We also saw a small memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajik, both of whom burned themselves to death in 1969 in protest of the Soviet occupation. The Wenceslas Square is the one in which all the Czechs gathered during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The fall of communism in the Czech Republic is known as the Velvet Revolution because there was no violence involved. Mikhail pointed out the actual balcony from which Czech leaders declared the end of communism. The last thing we saw in New Town was a really interesting Art Deco Hotel. Apparently Art Deco was a big deal in Prague in the beginning of the 20th Century. New Town seems to be the major shopping district of Prague; chic chain stores line the streets and large advertisements adorn the walls of all the buildings. It seemed like capitalism arrived in Prague and then exploded, leaving behind bits of consumer culture on every available surface in the city.
Next we walked into Old Town, where our fist stop was the Estates Theatre Prague Opera House, where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in 1787. Next we walked to Old Town Square. There we saw the Old Town Hall, which is one of the only buildings in Prague to have been bombed during WWII. The Czechs surrendered to the Germans without a fight, thus there was no reason for the Germans to bomb the city. There was no reason for the Allies to bomb it either, as the Czechs weren't aiding the Germans but rather being subjugated by them. The buildings which were bombed in Prague were bombed by mistake. The part of Old Town Hall which was destroyed was not rebuilt; there's an open space where it used to stand serving as a memorial to the dead. A portion of the building survived, the bomb, however. It's still there, though it no longer performs any government function. On the side wall of Old Town Hall is a large Astronomical Clock. Every hour, little figures come out of the clock and perform, kind of like the Glockenspiel in Munich but on a much smaller scale. Unfortunately, we missed the performance. Also in the Old Town Square we saw a St Nicholas Church (one of two we saw on our tour), Our Lady Before Tyn (another church), the Kinsky Palace (converted into an elementary school; Kafka attended class there), and the House of the Stone Bell. Hundreds of years ago, before the Czechs had the novel idea of numbering houses, they adorned each house with a symbol. That symbol became the house's unique address. The House of the Stone Bell had a small stone bell attached to the side of it.
We left Old Town Square and emerged on to Parizka, a street constructed to look like the Champs Elysees. The Czechs also constructed a tower much like the Eiffel Tower; it's called the Petrin Tower. Mikhail told us that because it's built on a hill, it's actually taller than the French one, making it superior. He did admit, though, that the French do have the "Louv-RA," (lovely pronunciation) so it was still worth visiting Paris. From there we walked to the Jewish Quarter. It was preserved during the Nazi occupation because Hitler wanted to create a museum there dedicated to the "extinct race," the Jews, after he had exterminated all of them. I found that extremely disturbing. In the Jewish Quarter we saw the Old-New Synagogue, which Mikhail told us was the only functioning medieval synagogue in Europe. We also saw the old Jewish cemetery. It was very small, so people had to be buried in layers-up to 11 of them! What's even more interesting is that these layers were actually created above ground; dirt was built up into a huge mound on top of the coffins.
Old Town was extremely beautiful; all the buildings were painted in soft pastel colors, and the old architecture was wonderfully preserved.
After the Jewish Quarter, our tour took us back though New Town. There we saw the House where Kafka was born and the New Town Hall. New Town Hall is obviously the former town hall of New Town, and it also serves as the town hall for the united Prague today. Mikhail pointed out a statue of a woman built at the town hall who, in his opinion, looked very masculine. He had decided she must have been a swimmer from the South.
Next we went to the Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River. A huge tower guards the entrance to the bridge from the right side of the river, and a statue of Kind Charles stands just to the side of that. The bridge itself, which is only intended for pedestrians, is lined with statues. The most significant of these is of a priest who was tortured, then thrown off the bridge into the river hundreds of years ago. Supposedly rubbing this statue brings you good luck. Once we reached the left bank, we walked down the same staircase that Tom Cruise used in Mission Impossible and thus arrived in Lesser Town. There was terrible flooding here in the lowlands next to the river in 2002.
Lesser Town, located just below the Castle District, is filled the former palaces of Czech aristocrats. The majority of these now house restaurants, stores, and foreign embassies. Like Old Town, almost all of the buildings are painted in soft pastels, and it's quite beautiful. One of the first things we saw in Lesser Town was the John Lennon Wall. Shortly after John Lennon was assassinated, people began painting portraits of him and writing song lyrics he'd written and other, personal inscriptions on the wall of a building. It was done as a memorial to the musician, and while it certainly wasn't approved of by the communist government, it was tolerated. Also in Lesser Town, we saw the second of the Saint Nicholas Churches featured in our tour. The tower of this church actually belongs to the city of Prague rather than the church itself. The architects misjudged the proportions of the building, and thus it was larger than the piece of property purchased by the church for it's construction. The city of Prague refused to sell the land on which the tower was built to the church. The only other sites Mikhail pointed out in Lesser Town were several more houses with symbols, including my favorite, "House of the Red Lamb."
As we made our way up an enormous hill from Lesser Town to the Castle District, we stopped in a pub for a glass of Czech beer. The Czech Republic is famous for it's beer, and apparently people in that country drink more beer per person than in any other country in the world. The pub also served goulash, which is a traditional Czech dish.
We arrived at Prague Castle just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was interesting, though not nearly as impressive as the changing of the guard in London or in Athens. After observing that spectacle, we walked through the castle, which was actually not a single building but an enormous compound. Inside is a massive cathedral; construction began on it in the 900's but wasn't completed until 1929. A huge bell hangs in the bell tower of the cathedral, and, according to legend, when the bell cracks it means something terrible is about to happen. Interestingly enough, the bell cracked just before the flood in 2002. Also inside the castle, we strolled down Golden Lane. The lane is just a narrow passage between the old and new fortification walls of the castle. It's lined with what look like tiny little elf houses; castle guards used to live in them hundreds of years ago. Supposedly they used to perform experiments in alchemy there, and that's how the passage received it's name. Today all the elf houses are painted bright colors, and most of them have tiny little shops inside.
As we were leaving the castle, we noticed there was a special Barbie Doll exhibition going on in one of the buildings inside. Leslie made a joke about wanting to go. An Australian girl on the tour responded that it wasn't yet 5:00, and so she still had time. Leslie looked at her with a shocked look on her face and replied, "You mean now? I'll only have 30 minutes to go through; you need a whole day." At that almost everyone on our tour (including me) piped in, saying "It's like the Louvre!" We said it in nearly perfect unison; it was quite funny. The Barbie Exhibition joke marked the end of our tour.