where Medieval meets
modern.
A lovely city rich with beautiful ancient architecture and cobblestone streets, it has photo ops around every corner. Our hotel was conveniently located in Old Town and within walking distance of most tourist attractions. According to AI, it is one of the most visited cities in the world. According to our tour guide, 60% of the city’s revenue comes from tourists. As we maneuvered around other tourists, we believe that to be true.
Like most tourists, we took
tons of photos. However we will spare you and share only a few of what we
consider the highlights of our experience. If you want details on the
Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque
architecture, they are readily
available online.
The Astronomical clock drew
the attention of the engineer (aka, Captain.) Tourists flock to the Old Town
Hall to watch the twelve apostles appear, the skeleton ring the bell and a
rooster crow on the hour. An amazing 15th century engineering feat.
Proudy
is a humorous, bronze representation of two men programmed to move their hips and write messages with their urine. There is no accounting for diverse art appreciation.
A surprise find was the
Lennon Wall on a side street off the main square.
Originally it was a tribute to John Lennon following his murder in 1980. It became a place to protest the communist government. It continues to be a place where one can post political messages and global concerns like climate change. (No, we did not see any anti-U.S. messages.)
Having gained an
appreciation of the communist era from folks who actually experienced it, we
decided to visit the Communism Museum. As western media were not allowed in the
country during that period, we had not realized the severity of oppression. It
was eye opening. As one tour guide expressed it, the KGB just changed uniforms
with the Gestapo.
How was the food? As a tourist
city Prague offers a diverse cuisine from around the world. The traditional
food we sampled was pretty much what we expected, brats and kraut, schnitzel
(much like country fried steak), and seafood. We found the elegant restaurant
adjacent to our hotel to be exceptionally good and about 2/3 the price of what
we would pay for a similar meal in the U.S. The desserts were the best,
especially the Chocolate Dome with Sour Cherry filling and the Pavlova with
Lemon filling and Cherries.
Our very favorite Prague experience was the beer spa! In a very private room, we immersed ourselves in oak tubs filled with unfermented beer. Each of our tubs had a beer spigot with a choice of light or dark beer, (the best we had in Prague.) After the 30 minute soak, we relaxed on an organic wheat straw bed covered with a sheet. Our legs, tired from walking about 5 miles a day the past 17 days, thanked us for it.
Prague is a very large city. Our three day visit gave us just a small glimpse.
With the exception of one
restaurant waiter and a few airport personnel, all the folks we encountered on
our European excursion were extremely nice. This included our tour guides, shop
clerks, restaurant servers, fellow passengers (from Canada, Australia and from
every region in the U.S.) and especially the Viking staff from Romania, the UK,
the Philippians and other countries.)
It is worth noting, we
concluded our 3-week European excursion without turning on a TV and, believe it
or not, we did not hear our president’s name mentioned
once. What a reprieve!
Not expected but not
surprised, we did bring home a respiratory virus that kicked our butts for
about a week. Fortunately we picked it up on the return home portion of our
trip.
All is well now and we are
glad to be home.
