Praha

Last week, my sister Julie and her fiance, Michael arrived from Los Angeles. After a weather delay in New York city for a day they arrived on Christmas day. The weather was perfect for Christmas. A heavy frost coated the countryside in white. So, our afternoon walk was quite spectacular. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t accompany us, so I don’t have any images to share.
The next morning, I had to go back to work, but Julie and Michael borrowed our car and went to visit friends in Paris. When they returned, they agreed that Paris is an amazing city.
Next stop was to the Czech Republic’s capital city of Praha (also known as Prague). Although communism took hold of the country in 1948 and held on until the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. Now, capitalism has firmly returned and the country (and Prague specifically) has become rather expensive. Nonetheless, the architecture is something to admire and the fact that the city was relatively untouched during WWII makes the city center remarkable.
We began our tour at the Prague Castle, or Prasky hrad. This is the most popular tourist attraction in the city. Also, according to the Guinness Book of World Records it is the largest ancient castle in the world. With a length of 570 meters and a width of about 128 meters, it is almost a city unto itself.
Here are a few images of the stoic guards at the entrance.



This is St Vitus cathedral. It looks very Gothic and was begun in 1344, but wasn’t completed until 1953, with the very modern touch of the artists carving sculptures of themselves over the triple doorway.

Among the many reliquaries housed in the cathedral is the tomb of St Wenceslas. He was the Duke of Bohemia in the 10th century, but is perhaps best known as the subject of the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas. Interestingly, the lyrics make no mention of Christmas, only the very Christian virtue of aiding the less fortunate and a saint’s feast on Dec 26th.

There were also blacksmiths outside the castle practicing their art. Julie and Michael picked up a very nice piece for their home.

The castle also afforded great views of the city.


Then, we wandered down to the Vlatava River.

This is the 500 meter long Charles Bridge. It was completed around 1400 and withstood the constant strain of wheeled traffic for 600 years when it was made pedestrian after WWII.

These are a few views from the bridge.

You can see the crush of people can be a bit much, and this wasn’t even the summer tourist season!

This perspective offers a nice view of the castle.


A clock tower in the Old Tower Square.

This is the astronomical clock. It dates from the 15th century and drew quite a crowd to watch the hourly parade of the 12 apostles.

These tasty rolls were sold at several places in the main square, which was teeming with the commercialism of a Holiday Market.

These are a few images from the market in the Old Town square. Although this particular market is relatively new, the square has been the center of Prague’s commerce since the 10th century.




This is the distinctive Gothic Church of Our Lady Before Tyn.




Tasty ham being served rotisserie style.

The music was very enjoyable.


Julie and Anna as the subway train passed.

The weekend went by very quickly, and was quite nice. However, we left with the feeling that commercialism has strongly taken root again (to its credit) and left the city VERY expensive for visitors and locals alike.
Next stop was Amsterdam for a huge New Year’s celebration. Until then…
–Jim