Due Vagabondi: Czech Republic - Prague (City of a Thousand Spires) & Cesky Krumlov

Since this is being written about a month after being in the Czech Republic, we can say unequivocally that Prague has been our favourite city on this journey. It would be lovely to come and just stay for several months to get to know her better.

We had planned several stops in Czechia before getting to the capital city, but the miserable weather had us cut them all out except for Prague and Cesky Krumlov.

Our accommodation was an apartment right across from the Prague Florenc bus station. It was very handy for arrival after a long day of travel and for getting in late from day trips. It was quiet; an effortless twenty-five-minute walk to Centro; and there was a grocery store around the corner. There is a little restaurant/bar on the ground floor of Residenze David's Apartments that was especially convenient on arrival day.

Prague is full of surprising architecture, so you never know what is around the corner. This city has so many architectural styles: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Cubist, Rococo and even a Brutalist building.

All parts of the historic center: Old Town, including the Jewish Quarter (or Josefov) Lesser Town and New Town, are designated as one UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the Castle District.

Every walk is a new adventure. There are wide people-friendly plazas with street food carts and public seating, narrow cobblestone streets, numerous bridges to cross the Vltava River, talented street musicians, beautiful parks and gardens and it feels completely safe. There is an interesting mix of old and new. Of course, Prague has some of the best beer in the world and some of the loveliest glass art.

Prague has embarked on an exciting revitalization of a four km stretch of its riverfront. Large vaults built into a stone wall that used to be for ice storage are being redesigned as cafes/bars, studios, workshops, galleries, a library branch, neighbourhood meeting rooms and public toilets. The enormous round vault windows that can rotate open are a unique feature that merges the inside with the outside. A floating pool with all the amenities is another part of the project. This link will give you a glimpse of what the future holds.

Everything here is quite affordable: restaurants, groceries, theatre, opera, and museums. As seniors, we could ride city buses for free and were given a considerable discount on intercity buses.

Our first full day starts with a Guru walk of Old Town and the Jewish Quarter, starting at the Rudolfinum building, home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a contemporary art gallery and an upscale cafe.

Then it's on to the Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti) to see the Astronomical Clock (The Orloj). At over six hundred years old it's one of the oldest functional clocks of its kind in the world. In addition to telling the time and providing the date, it shows the relative positions of the sun, moon, earth, and zodiac constellations.

On a different day we buy tickets to go up into the clock tower for a fabulous view over Old Town.

Some photos from inside the museum at the clock tower:

Some of the 12 apostles that rotate out of the clock

Cast iron stove

This is an enormous square that was a marketplace at a crossroads of European life in the tenth century. Today it's lined by the Old Town Hall, the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn with her Adam and Eve spires, the Church of St. Nicholas (baroque); the Kinsky Palace (rococo), the Stone Bell (gothic), the monument of Jan Hus, and memorial stones that mark the execution of 27 Czech lords in 1621.

Prague is known as the 'City of a Thousand Spires'. While the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn is one of the most obvious examples of one spire being larger (Adam) than the other (Eve) there are several other buildings that follow this pattern.

We pass by Charles University (AKA: the University of Prague). Founded in 1348, it's one of the oldest in Europe and ranks in the top 2% of world universities providing a modern, dynamic, and quality education. Indeed, on the bus ride back from Cesky Krumlov we talk with a young man from the American south who is doing a student term here and loves it.

Old Town Prague originally had thirteen city gates to welcome visitors. Today the only two that remain are the Powder Tower and the Tower at Charles Bridge on the Old Town side.

The Powder Tower was intended to be an attractive entrance, but through history and conflict ended up becoming a defensive tower that stored gunpowder (thus the name).

Powder Tower/Gate

Below is the tower/gate of the St. Charles Bridge on the Old Town side.

Next to the Powder Tower is the magnificent art nouveau Municipal House, a concert hall, and a ballroom. We return another day to look again at the mosaic over the entrance called 'An Homage to Prague' and to wander inside.

We never time it right for a tour of the inside but here is a photo from the concert hall. Photo used with permission with citation.

Municipal House. (2022, July 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_House. By © Jorge oyan / http://www.royan.com.ar, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19169481

We enter the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) at the Franz Kafka statue, a famous Czech author who was born and lived here for many years. Here he sits on the shoulders of a headless figure.

Throughout the city, there are many tributes to him, including a museum and a statue of his head with forty-two rotating layers done by artist David Cerny.

Speaking of headless statues our tour guide tells a story that he swears is the truth about the headless statue below. This statue is of Il Commendator (the ghost) from an opera of the same name, and it sits outside the Mozart Theater. The story goes that a drunk person stuck their head inside the statue and it only came out with the help of city workers. After that, the openings of all headless statues were enlarged ... just in case!

Outside the Kafka Museum on Kampa Island is another famous rotating statue by Cerny. In this statue, the hips rotate, and the men's penises lift to enable them to write letters on the water's surface.

Back to Josefov. In the thirteenth century, a ghetto was created when all Jewish people living in Prague as well as any Jews banished from nearby countries who landed in Prague were ordered to move there. During the Nazi occupation, people from this ghetto were transported to concentration camps all over Europe, but especially to Terezin, only sixty km away.

Many Jewish treasures were transported here from all over Europe as after the war Hitler intended the Quarter to become a 'Museum of Extinct People'.

Today there are six synagogues, a ceremonial hall, and the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

Altneuschul (Old-New Synagogue), is the oldest active synagogue in all of Europe.

In the Jewish quarter, and indeed throughout Prague we see kameny zmizelych (stones of the disappeared) set in amongst the cobbles and in front of the place where the victim lived. Most of them are in memory of Jewish victims but are made for other victims such as the Roma people, political enemies of the regime and those from the LGBTQ community. Today there are 396 such memorials, with more to come.

Most days when we walk to either the Old or New Town, we pass through Wenceslas Square. The National Museum is at the head of the square. In olden times it was used as a horse market. Now it's a vibrant place by day with street food and souvenir carts and nearby shopping malls. Street musicians are often set up here (see the video below). We often stop to rest for a while. By night, the side streets have strip bars and sex trade workers ply their trade.

This square is steeped in history from the October 1918 public reading of the Czech Declaration of Independence to political protests and demonstrations of all kinds, and celebrations such as at New Year's and when the ice hockey team is winning.

Another day we walked across Charles (pedestrian) Bridge which connects Old Town with Lesser Town. Built in 1357 it is the oldest bridge over the Vltava and the second oldest bridge in the Czech Republic. It's named after Charles IV, former Czech King, and Holy Roman Emperor.

Thirty religious statues line both sides of the bridge. These are reproductions with originals held in the National Museum. The older statues are black as the sandstone absorbs air pollution. Below are some photos of the bridge and a collage of some of the statues.

On the other side of the bridge lies Lesser Town and Kampa Island (voted one of the most beautiful city islands in the world). Walking here is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. There are a variety of museums.

One that looked like fun, but we decided the admission fee was too steep was the museum of pedal cars.

Some random photos from Lesser Town and Kampa Island:

There is no room to walk around the canals here. From a boat you can see many houses that once were mills.

The enormous baby statues in the collage below are cute from behind until you see their face. This is more public art by David Cerny. In place of facial features, there is 'code'. The artist meant it to symbolize scary technological advances.

Statues here are from all over the city, not just on Kampa Island

From our apartment window, we gaze out at another ten of these toddlers crawling up and down on the face of the Zizkov television tower. We had to pull out our binoculars to identify what they were.

It's Trdelnik !! All over Prague these 'Chimney Cakes' are sold. Each vendor tries to outdo the other with what is put in them and the decoration. Frankly, one looked like a two-day calorie intake, so we passed. They are immensely popular. Below is a picture of the cake being cooked on a spit over an open fire. Go here to see photos of assembled Trdelnik.

One afternoon we plan to visit a couple of museums, but the museum in Old Town dedicated to the famous Czech Art Nouveau artist, Alphonse Mucha captivates us, and the hours fly by. Here is the cover from a program that we purchased:

All his work is copyrighted of course, and no photos are allowed in the museum, so go here to see photos of the exhibition.

In New Town, the stores with children's toys are unbelievable. Larger-than-life comic hero figures are everywhere, lego scenes, carousel rides and floor-to-ceiling shelves stuffed with toys.

Here too is an amazing Gallery of Steel Figures housed in an art nouveau building. It holds over a hundred figures all made from scrap metal and waste. There are figures from science fiction, fantasy, fairytales, and pop culture. There are animals and vehicles. Everyone is invited to touch, climb, play, and sit on them. And when you need a rest, there's a cafe onsite.

A visit to Prague isn't complete without a visit to the Castle District.

It's a good walk over the Charles bridge and up the hill to get there, but worth it. The Hradcany neighbourhood that leads to the Castle has lovely old buildings and interesting looking eateries.

Hradcany Square is the entry point to the Castle complex. The quality of street food here is great. One woman has a booth that sells only potatoes in quite a variety of dishes. Mushrooms are featured by many booths, and of course traditional meats. Most of the food is cooked in these enormous cast iron pots.

We arrive in time to see the changing of the guard at the palace and to hear the musical band that accompanies the change.

The Prague Castle complex was started in the ninth century for the Bohemian Kings and continued to be built over several hundred years. Today it is the seat of the President of the Czech Republic. It's the largest ancient castle in the world and covers eighteen acres. The Crown Jewels are kept here.

Anyone can wander the grounds freely and tickets to see inside buildings are sold on-site.

Photos of some of the buildings:

The riverfront where the tour boats and river boats dock is another pleasant stroll.

The bridge has ornamentation on both sides. Below are a couple of photos.

CESKY KRUMLOV

On another day we head out for a three-hour bus ride each way to daytrip from Prague to Český Krumlov in the southern Bohemia part of Czechia. Protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site its now the second most visited place in the country after beautiful Prague. It boasts Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, preserved in a street layout from the Middle Ages.

Arriving at the main square, clearly, a free walking tour is about to begin. The guide graciously allows us to join in. He grew up here and his family is involved in both the restaurant and hotel businesses, so his stories are personal and full of warmth and humour.

Krumlov means bend in the meadow after a bend of the Vltava River (see map below). The word Český was added later, meaning Bohemia to differentiate it from another Krumlov. You will see that the historical core, is within a horseshoe bend of the river, with the old town part and castle complex is on the other side of the Vltava. In 2002 it suffered damage from the European Flood.

This area by the river has been permanently inhabited since the Older Stone Age (70,000 – 50,000 BC).

Much of the city fell into disrepair during the Communist occupation. Then after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ousted the Communists, much restoration was done.

Český Krumlov Castle is one of the largest in central Europe with an area of seventeen acres. It is made up of forty buildings and palaces, situated around five castle courts and a castle park. Our time was limited to touring outside only. The inside can be toured with a Google search. One of the many unique things about this castle is that its moat is not filled with water, but with (3) bears.

We are so glad we went there; the city is lovely. Our guide tells us that only three hundred live in the historical center now. Everyone else has turned their buildings into restaurants, pensions or storefronts for the thriving tourist trade and moved outside of the center.

In the photos below you will see beautiful signage, a unique shuttering system that many storefronts use and so much more.

The horseshoe-shaped bend is easy to see from above.

A friend of ours got to do a float on the river. That would be interesting.

Castle Tower from afar.

In the photo below, we have wondered about this old finishing technique also seen in Prague. The brown sandstone is surfaced with a white concrete-type finish, then when dry, part of that is scraped away by hand on each block to create a certain pattern. The first photo is of the "envelope" style.

Waterwheel with statue on its left and building signage on the right.

The next three photos are a few of the great signs around town.

Love all the door shutters

No wrought iron bars for the outsides of these windows, only beautiful scenes.

On the photo above: On the left is the oven used to make gingerbread here. On the right traditional gingerbread. On the wall àre old patterns for display not eating. Check out the delicate decoration with white icing (bottom right). Those are for eating.

The shop in the photo below had the most beautiful hand-painted ... well, everything. The owner had two shops in town, with some variety in product. The leather goods are imported from Italy. He is the designer and artist and has several artists who work for him.

Rainspout!

We don't know where these lovely ladies were headed, but they were happy to pose for us.

BACK to PRAGUE for ONE MORE DAY

We want to end by sharing photos of some of the ornamentation on buildings in Prague that delighted us, and of course some of the beautiful buildings.

BUILDING ORNAMENTATION/DECORATION