Trip to the Golden City

We spent this past weekend in the capital, Prague. This beautiful city, founded in 885 A.D. is also known as: The Golden City, and The City of a Hundred Spires, and The Mother of Cities. None of these nicknames does it justice.

We don't make it to Prague as much as we would like.  It's a two-hour forty-minute train ride. So, to make it worthwhile, we either need to leave early and stay late or spend the night. For this trip we did both, leaving home at 6:30 Saturday morning, spending the night at a friend's apartment, then getting home around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday (I know it's not that late).

It's fun to get around in Prague. At the train station, they announce arrivals and departures with the first four notes from one of the movements of Ma Vlast by the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. Within the city we traveled by bus, trolley, and, my favorite, the Metro (subway). I dig the long escalator, the peculiar smell, and the rushing wind as the train approaches in the tunnel. Traveling below ground, however, makes it tough to get a sense as to how the various parts of the city fit together.

Escalator down into the Metro.	The Metro.	A Trolley. From Prague

The first place we went was Prague Castle. A person really ought to spend a couple of days there, we spent part of an afternoon. Here are some photos...

Prague Castle from across the Vltava River. From Prague

The central element of Prague Castle is the Saint Vitus Cathedral. It is a Gothic church with the most amazing detailing outside and in. It also contains the tombs of many Czech kings and priests.

Front door of St. Vitus.	Above the front door.	One of the many statues on the exterior.

We also went into the best preserved Romanesque building in the Czech Republic, Saint George Basilica. It is both austere and beautiful.

Relief over the one of the doors of Saint George.	The Basilica from behind, the different elevations looked cool.

Golden Lane is a narrow street with tiny buildings that were once the home of alchemists and Franz Kafka. One of the buildings has a collection of armor and weapons that made Caleb drool.

Looking down an alleyway.	Silas at the stairs to the armor and weapon museum.	The buildings of Golden Lane.

We finished our tour of Prague Castle with a visit to a dungeon named Daliborka.  Its first occupant back in 1498 was a young lord, Dalibor, who sympathized with the plight of  his cruel neighbor's serfs and encouraged them to revolt. Captured and imprisoned in the new tower, he used his last few coins from which he should have purchased food from the guards, and instead bought a violin. Czechs say that misery taught him to play. Townspeople would gather beneath the tower to listen to his sad melodies and in return would send food up to him. One night the crowds gathered to listen, yet the music never came.  They later learned he had been executed that morning.  Some say that occasionally one can still hear the faint strains of a haunted violin coming from that tower.  (We tried to convince Caleb to play his violin there in the shadows some night and freak people out.)

After the visit to Prague Castle we ate at a smoky restaurant/bar, because our thirteen-year old bottomless pit was getting desperate for food and there was no time to be choosy (not a highlight of the trip), but then had dessert at a fancy sugar shop which has been in business since 1905. It was nice.

Chandelier in fancy sugar shop. Neat thing...they had a photo of the place from the early 20th Century. The interior has been updated, but elements of the old design were carried artfully into the new. (Photo by Lucy)	Lucy with her treat.

On our way home we went past the statue of Saint Wenceslaus (as in "Good King Wenceslaus looked out on the feast of Stephen...")and I snapped this photo...

On Sunday morning we visited the Prague LDS congregation. We got to see a couple of familiar faces and met some new people. Kristine and Silas stayed at church for the children's Sunday School, while Caleb, Lucy and I went to the Jewish Quarter. We visited the Pinkas Synagogue where the names of some 80,000 Bohemian and Moravian Jews killed by the Nazis are inscribed on the walls. The Jews were confined to this ghetto for much of their 1000 years of residence in Prague. We walked through the cemetery where, because of lack of space for traditional burials, some people were buried 12 deep. The proximity of the gravestones to each other has an ethereal quality.  We didn't get a photo of this, but we highly encourage you to click on the link so you can see photos.  Finally, we went to the dazzling Spanish Synagogue where there is a display of Jewish history in the region during the 19th Century - a time when reforms allowed more freedoms for Jews and Czechs were asserting their national identity. We didn't got into the Old-New Synagogue - the final resting place of the Golem of Prague. This part of our trip was one of Caleb's favorites.

We met back up on the Old Town Square. There was a fair going on and the square is surrounded by some of the most magnificent structures in the city.

Church.	Some old building.	Jan Hus statue (notice statues on buildings in background).

Old City Hall.	Cheese vendor's display (photo by Lucy).	Clock on old town hall (photo by Lucy).

We walked down to Charles Bridge, probably the most iconic place in all of Prague. Seeing the statues on this old stone bridge would be worth the price of a plane ticket. We walked through part of the city below Prague Castle. We saw a man in armor with a sword. Silas asked "what is he doing?" Kristine told him that he is probably just trying to drum up business for this tower you can climb. Silas didn't care for that pragmatic answer and instead informed her that "he is defending his tower from bad guys."

Crossing a bridge over a little arm of the Vltava River, we came across this fence with all these locks attached to the bars. They all have the names of a couple on them. Apparently, lovers put their names on the locks and attach them there as a symbol of their affection. In the water below....dozens of shiny keys thrown away.

Fence with lover locks.

We came home inspired and reminded why we wanted to come to this place so rich in history.

Peter & Kristine