Prague

From July 28 to August 1, we were in Prague, in the Czech Republic. We were able to get a direct flight from the airport near us, so that was handy. Plus, it was only about a 1.5 hour flight. The taxi driver that picked us up at our flat took us on the back roads to get to the airport, taking about 25 minutes, when on the motorway, it's only about a 12 minute trip. And, he was new and couldn't find our flat, so he was almost 20 minutes late picking us up.

We arrived at Prague about 5:30 in the evening. We had to catch a bus into the city, but everything was really well marked and all the signs are in English. We then had to get on the metro to get to our hotel. We got a bit confused getting off the metro as the streets are not that well marked (at least where we were) and it took us a bit to find our location on the map, but then we ended up in the right place.

So we arrive at our hotel, and the receptionist says that the water in our room isn't working and they'll have to send us to another hotel for one night. This is the exact same thing that happened to us in Paris! So we trudge off down the road to another little hotel and finally get sorted for the night.


The old main square

The area where the hotels were was a big main boulevard, and the buildings are all converted old townhouses with the carriage entrances and inner courtyards. The location was only about 15 minutes from the center of the old city. The metro runs frequently, don't think we ever had to wait more than 5 minutes for a train. You buy tickets, which are also good on the buses, based upon the length of your trip. You can buy a 20 minute ticket (good enough to get to the city center) or a 90 minute ticket (good to the airport). The metro stops we were at were pretty clean, although the signs were in Czech.

There is lots of different types of architecture in Prague, which I think makes it better than Paris. The buildings are great in Paris, generally more kept up as well, but generally the architecture in an area is the same. In Prague, you go down a street and you have Baroque, Romanesque, Art Noveau, Art Deco, and Communist (sort of an Art Deco impersonation). The buildings are also painted different colors, mostly pastels, which breaks them up. The one detraction is the graffitti, which there is a LOT of. We never got an opportunity to ask someone what the graffitti was all about.


Some cool buildings

Prague is a very walkable city; in fact there are very few cars driving around the streets (although there are a fair amount parked around). One thing to be aware of is that a lot of intersections have no control - no lights, no signs - so pay attention when walking. Drivers do seem to go slow and defer to pedestrians, but no need to take chances. One note about cars, if you go to the city center you can take a tour of the city in an antique Skoda. Pretty neat looking cars, they charge per person per time. We did not avail ourselves of this, instead we used foot power.

We spent Sunday just walking around the city, mainly the old town, just looking at stuff. That evening we went to the opera Don Giovanni - the marionette opera. Yes, puppets. The headquarters of the international marionette association is located in Prague. Puppet opera. It was very good, a lot funnier than real opera. Monday we went to the castle which is above the city on the opposite side of the river and walked around the town there, and then came across the Charles bridge (built by King Charles IV in the 1400's, one of their better kings). That night we went to Spanish synagogue and listened to a concert. Very nice building, very nice concert. The violinist was playing a Stradivarius, about 250 years old (the violin, not the violinist), and she was really good.


A view of Prague Castle from across the river

There are lots of concerts every evening throughout the city. There are fliers everywhere or you can go to one of the music shops and get a list as well as tickets. We ended up going to a concert on Tuesday night as well. Prague has an international reputation for music, which is good for entertainment. And the concert prices are really reasonable.

Tuesday we went on a tour to Konopiste, which is about 45 minutes outside the city. It is an old castle (1400's I think) that Franz Ferdinand (not the band, but the heir to the Austrian-Hungary throne, whose assassination in Sarajevo started the Great War) converted to a manor house. Very impressive place. This guy collected everything. He has one of the most extensive collections of St. George art (the guy who kills the dragon, the patron saint of England) as well as arms and armor. He also hunted a bit; apparently he has 300,000 trophies, including 12 tigers from India (that might have something to do with their decline), and a lot of them are mounted in the house.


Konopiste

We returned to town about 1:30 in the afternoon, and after a quick refueling of pizza and beer, headed off to the Mucha museum. Mucha was a very famous Czech artist during the Art Nouveau period. He did tons of fantastic posters, especially for various things in Paris. You'd probably recognize his work. It was one fo those places where we knew the art but not the artists. Although it was a small exhibition, it was really well done and we enjoyed it.