Czech it Out

My first weekend in Europe, we went to Prague, which has been on my list of places to visit for a while. We had planned on spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but I screwed up the flights and booked a 9pm flight, rather than a 9am flight, on Friday. I guess it worked out for the best since I had just arrived the day before, and still was not quite on Euro time, but it did cut out some time to sight-see. Fortunately, Denis had met up with a friend in London earlier that week, and he recommended a tour guide to take us around the sights of Prague. We spent five hours walking with him on Saturday and got a whirl-wind tour of the city.

One of our first stops was a pedestrian bridge filled with “love locks”. Legend has it that when you find your true love you carve your names on a lock and lock it onto the gate. You then throw the key in to the canal. This canal is referred to as Čertovka (The Devil's stream) where this little gremlin was perched next to the old Grand Priory Mill water wheel. Just beyond the canal is what is referred to as the Lennon Wall. Once an ordinary wall it was created in the 1980's after Lennon's death as a memorial to John Lennon and his ideas for peace, but also served as a monument to free speech and the rebellion of Czech youth against the Communist regime.

Onto the quaint cobblestone streets of the Little Quarter, it is one of the most picturesque and peaceful areas in the city. We passed the House at Golden Unicorn, where Beethoven had a stay in 1796, and the Grand Prior Palace which was the seat of the Knights of Malta. This area has been heavily affected by several floods over the years from the Vltava river, and along the walls of the buildings are marks showing how high the water reached, about 14 feet high in 2002.

A quick tram ride took us up to Belvedere, the Italian Renaissance style Royal Summer Palace built by Ferdinand I for his wife Anne. In the small geometrical garden in front of the palace stands the Singing Fountain for the sound the water makes as it hits the bronze bowl.

Through the Royal Gardens is Ball Game Hall. The building is covered in Renaissance sgraffito, a form of decoration created by cutting a design through the wet top layer of plaster on to a contrasting undercoat. The sgraffitoes on its walls represent the four elements (earth, fire, water and air), the virtues (forethought, modesty, mercy, hope, righteousness and bravery) and sciences (theology, astronomy, geometry, music, arithmetic, rhetoric, dialectics and grammar). Even the communists left their mark on the building by placing a hammer and sickle in the sgraffito. The gardens were spectacular as thousands of tulips were in bloom, as well as home a group of birds of prey that have been rehabilitated.

Another grand palace showing the eclectic mix of Italian influence with tradition Czech design is the Schwarzenberg Palace. Another amazing building covered in unique black-and-white sgraffito, which our guide referred to the design as “envelopes”.

Then we finally get to Prague Castle...

Despite periodic fires and invasions, Prague Castle has retained churches, chapels, halls and towers from every period of its history. The Castle became the seat of the Czechoslovak president in 1918, and even the current president has an office here, sorta like the White House. One of the most impressive buildings is St Vitus’s Cathedral with it's towering Gothic spirals, Golden Portal mosaic and exquisite stained glass windows, including one by one of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha.

And I still have much more to cover...