A farewell to Prague - the last word on a wonderful city.

We have just bid a farewell to Prague after 7 wonderful days there. There are lots of things we probably should have done, but didn't due to a combination of lack of time or being in the right place but at the wrong time. Not that the city its self failed in anyway to motivate us, it was more a case of doing our best to avoid the swarms of tourists queuing for all the major attractions.

(Photo above - the Sentries outside the gates of the castle in Prague - the sentries change every hour on the hour from 7am onwards)

Some days we'd decide "Okay we'll take a look at the castle grounds and gardens today" only to make the uphill walk through the cobbled streets to find that the tour buses had beaten us to it and there are queues all around the square. Those are the days that a cappuccino and cake or a cold pilsner suddenly move up the list of priorities and we'll skulk off to the nearest cafe or beer garden to lick our wounds, and reconsider our options.

Some of the sights are best enjoyed far from the madding crowd.....to steal a title of a Thomas Hardy book. You have to either be selective of the places you visit or time your visit to avoid the peak times. Sometimes doing this worked well and other times it didn't.

If you want photos from the Charles Bridge at dusk, there will be tourists all trying to get the same photo that you're trying to get. It would be wonderful to have the bridge to ourselves, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get the best photo you can despite the madding (or in this case maddening) crowd and move on.

So, here are a few of the sights that we did manage to see.

(Photo above - a panoramic shot of Prague Old Town Square)

We paid an early morning visit to the Charles Bridge and the Old Town Square. We had to share the bridge with a number of other early risers, but the town square was virtually empty. The square dates back to the tenth century and is the focal point of the old town. There are many must sees here including the tower of the town hall, the fairy tale spires of the Tyn Cathedral, the imposing Church of St Nicholas and of course the world famous astronomical clock. Add to this the multicoloured houses and there's no wonder it up there on the list of tourist must see places.

There's a myriad of winding lanes and alleys leading to and from the square and we managed to get ourselves well and truly lost in them. To make matters worse it was the first time we had left our accommodation without our trusty map, because we "knew where we were going"- yeah right!

(Photo above - Lennon Wall)

A rather more successful day saw us take in the John Lennon Wall - Lennon never came here, but at the fall of the Communist Block street artists took to this wall with "give peace a chance" type slogans and images of Lennon and others. Initially the government painted over the graffiti, but after repeated attacks on the wall by local artists and tourists it was decided to let the art stay. So once more Lennon's face graces the wall.....actually 3 times. To make the moment a little bit special there was a musician with a guitar singing John Lennon songs....and singing them very well.

(Photo above - one of the huge bronze babies getting a spank from Liz)

Also on todays list was a visit to Kampa Island. This stretch of and lies between the Charles Bridge and the Legii Bridge on the western side of the Vltava River. This place shows another side of Prague. The area along the riverside comes complete with little canals earning it the name Little Venice. My main purpose for visiting Kampa though was to see some babies.....and not just any babies.....some BIG babies.

These are the creation of Prague Sculptor David Cerny. Three of these huge bronze babies can be seen just outside the Kampa Art Museum, but there are several other climbing up the outside of the enormous TV tower located across town.

(Photo above - Plastic Penguins with Charles Bridge in background)

Also to be found on Kampa Island are a row of yellow plastic penguins that light up at night created by a group of six artists known as the Cracking Art Group. These artists are trying to give their art more social and environmental meaning and have used recycled plastic water bottles to make this art work.

(Photo above - The controversial Piss sculpture)

Close by is another Cerny sculpture, this time one that moves. It's title is "piss" and it is of two male figures urinating into a pool shaped like the outline of the Czech Republic. Apparently the statues pee into the water writing out quotes from literature. I watched them for a while, but couldn't make any sense of their trails of water so don't know if this is true or not. Whether this is a comment on the state of the Czech Republic or the state of todays literature I have no idea.

(Photo above - No it's not a scene from the Walking Dead - It's the Communism Memorial)

Since we were already in an arty mood we stopped off at the base of Petrin Hill, close to the Uzjed tram stop to take a look at 7 statues of male figures which were sculpted by artist Olbram Zoubek and architects Jan Kerel and Zdenek Holzel. It's a memorial dedicated to the victims of the communist era 1948-1989 (political prisoners). The first figure in the row is complete, but as we progress along the row the figures are in ever increasing states of decay until the last one who has been reduced to virtually nothing. It's an extremely symbolic piece of art and looks very eerie particularly when illuminated at night.

(Photo above - Petrin Tower)

You can get a ride on the funicular railway up Petrin Hill for views between the trees of Prague. The funicular was originally a water balanced railway much like the one in one of my earlier blog posts in Folkestone, Kent, but was electrified back in the 1930's. The views between the trees are limiting though so for better views climb the Petrin Tower.

The tower may look familiar. This is because it is a 1/5 scale model of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. From the top (I'm told) there are spectacular views over Prague. The tower is 63.5 metres in height, was built in 1891 and there are 299 steps to the top, which is the reason why I did not make the ascent to the top. The pain in my knee would not allow it, unfortunately.

(Photo above - Lizzie looking glamorous for our evening at the Philharmonic)

I had already mentioned our visit to the Philharmonic but it was so good it gets a second mention. Since we were approached in the street by people pushing tickets for the concert I did worry that it may be a con and instead of a world class orchestra, we'd be left watching a guy called Phil with his harmonica. No worries there. We had a great hour of marvelous classical music.

(Photo above - Statues and gardens outside the Senate)

There are another couple of free or almost free places to visit that we ticked off our list. The first was the gardens outside the Czech Senate building, Valdstejnska zahrada. This 17th century baroque garden with statues and fountains is a formal garden and well worth a visit. It's open to the public between April and October. Check on line for opening and closing times for the gates.

(Photo above - View of Prague from the Vysehrad Castle viewpoint)

The other was a fortress further along the river. Vyšehrad was once the seat of Czech Royalty before moving to Prague Castle. The walls are still there and are impressive and strong, but the interior is more gentle with trees, gardens and statues. There is also an impressive church and graveyard which is the resting place of a number of Czech personalities including the composer Antonin Dvorak. The real bonus of visiting Vysehrad was the lack of tourists. There were some, but a minute number compared with the hoards visiting Prague Castle.

Another bonus was cheap beer. I half expected that because the cafe's in the castle had a captive audience, so to speak, that they would hike up the prices for beer. I was wrong 40 Czech Koruna (Czech Crowns) for a cold bottle of Pilzner was a bargain on a hot day.

Just as an aside, beer is usually the cheapest drink on the menu in Czech Republic. Tea or coffee or even a coke costs more than a beer here, so there's no wonder the Czecks drink more beer per capita than any other nation. What is surprising is that the Seychelles are in second place. Now who'd have thought that? Austria , Germany and Namibia of all places, round off the top five. Ireland comes in at a respectable, and if truth be told expected, seventh place but the UK is way down the list in twenty eighth place and the Kiwis are just behind in thirty second. The Aussies beat the Brits and the Kiwis in nineteenth place.

(Photo above - the famous Dancing House)

On the way back into Prague centre from Vysehrad on the number 17 tram I saw from the window that we were about to pass the "dancing house" also known as "Fred & Ginger"- as in Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. When this somewhat eccentric building was first built, in 1996, it's less than traditional design caused controversy as it stands amid Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings. However, it has grown on the local populace and has become a well visited icon of Prague. It gets the name "Dancing House" from it's almost fluid appearance - like 2 dancers swirling across the dance floor. It was designed by the Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in cooperation with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. I kind of like it.

And so it's time to say farewell to Prague and move to the south west of Czech Republic to Cesky Krumlov.

More photos will be on my facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/malcfrost

Old blog posts can also be found at our earlier blogsite - https://lizandmalcseurotrip.blogspot.cz/

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