Long Day in Prague

At 6:00 a.m. I crept out of the hotel room to head to the spa area for an early morning swim.  The water wasn't too cold but the hot tub was not very warm either.  I took a quick walk around the rooftop garden, went back and dressed and enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the Hilton buffet.  Just as I was finishing, Madeline joined me. We then got ready for our morning included tour.

We started out on a small bus for a tour of the city and disembarked at, you guessed it, Prague Castle. One highlight was The Changing of the Guard.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the fantastic St. Vitus Cathedral.  If you are not familiar with that name you will recognize Good King Wenceslas  whose burial chapel is here.  Seven locks guard the room with the Bohemian Crown Jewels.  This Gothic edifice is, itself, a crown jewel attesting to the faith and soul of the people of the long suffering region which is now the Czech Republic.  No longer predominantly Roman Catholic their culture still takes great pride in their Catholic history.

Completing our visit to the castle with a quick look around the gardens we boarded the bus for the short ride back to the center of the Old Town.  For nearly two hours we walked the cobbled streets crowded with tourists (who would have imagined?) who were from all around the world.  Since we did not have our AudioVoxes our tour guide's voice joined the cacophony of competing explanations in a variety of harsh languages. Several bike tours mingled with us in the narrow streets as we passed through the Josefov Quarter.  The narrow Jewish Cemetery where layers of graves top each other seems a peaceful release compared to the final outcome for the city's Jewish population under the Hitler regime. Yet, ironically, here in this humble neighborhood is where Hitler took great pride in creating museums of the wealth confiscated from slaughtered Jews.  I think it was his way of justifying their murder and in glorifying his own brilliance at recognizing and preserving the fantastic art treasures of European culture.

We then moved toward the Astronomical Clock.   The noon 'show' is not as remarkable as the clock in Messina, Italy.  But the robotic saints performed on schedule and the live trumpeter capped the display and also ended our morning tour.  Most of the others went back by bus to the hotel.  Candy, Dave, Madeline and I opted to stay in the town center and continue our own explorations.  But not before we had a delightful hour atop the  Hotel U Prince having lunch at their Terasa Restaurant.  (Note the St. Vitus Cathedral on the distant horizon.)

We then set out for the Charles Bridge.  This famous tourist magnet had massive crowds gathered at its foot but once we were on it we found ourselves among those few who were willing to take the walk across the river moving further from the city center.  The thirty statues are mostly replicas of the originals which are either in museums or have been destroyed by natural disaster and man-made havoc. However they are none the less impressive.  Also along the bridge are several small, nice, vetted crafts booths. Not overwhelming and mostly nice people.  One exception is the lady who swatted at my camera as I raised it to photograph the wooden boxes her husband had made.  I guess she thought the photos would help me create my own masterpieces.  I just wanted to show my Katie what she was missing by deciding to no longer collect them from my many trips!

Like all good things one thing led to another.  After crossing the bridge we could see that the Church or St. Nicholas was quite nearby.  Heading that way we made our turn to see the church that is the home of the Infant of Prague. I had never thought of it before arriving in the ancient city but then realized it was something I really wanted to see.  My Mom and Aunt always had these statues and in my head I had never really associated it with Czechoslovakia, or the Czech republic.  In my head I thought of it as being Polish since so many Polish Catholics have the statue in their homes. Although Mass was in progress we were able to visit the shrine.

I always wondered why the robes of the Infant were changed since they do not always match the liturgical seasons. Now I have found the answer.  You can see that they are bright Marian Blue the day we visited.

Our walking continued since now we needed to begin to head 'home.'  Candy had first caught my attention earlier in the trip for two reasons.  Each photo she took Dave or she made a note with the photo number and the view for future reference.  Neat but time consuming idea.  Also, she was carrying Rick Steve's guides to the countries we visited as well as the Czech Republic and Prague.  Since I had not done my homework this trip, I was glad to hook up with people who swore by the same travel guru I admire. Candy also had remembered to carry a map!

So following the map we worked our way back to the Powder Tower and from there to the hotel.  We had left at 8:30 a.m. and it was now after 6:00 p.m.  That is a lot of walking so we bypassed Wenceslas Square, and dinner.  I hit the refreshing pool and then we settled in to order room service.  Because of the high charges for the pizza we wanted, we dressed and went to the hotel Bistro.  It was perfect since lunch had been so huge and I hadn't had Italian food since leaving home.

Back in the room we surfed TV stations and actually found American football.  Thinking it was the Bears in a pre-season game we watched a few minutes. It was pre-season okay!  The Champion Chicago Bears against the Miami Dolphins in 1985!  How funny to see McMann, Payton, Ditka and The Fridge!