Month: September 2019

Having walked twenty one and three quarter miles in the past three days in 32C of heat we decided to spend the last two days at a more leisurely pace. Dan was brilliant at locating what he wanted to see and navigating his way there so I just trotted along happily beside him. He had two main things on the list for the Sunday: one was to go to the crypt of the Orthodox Christian Church St Cyril and Methodius Cathedral; the other was to go to The John Lennon Wall followed by lunch at the John Lennon Pub, just around the corner.

After breakfast we caught the tram again, but stayed on it longer. We eventually got off at a stop by the river and headed for the church, which was up a bit of a hill on a corner. People were coming down the stairs having clearly attended a service.

There was an unpretentious looking door and entering through that we were both amazed to find ourselves in a museum with a great deal of information about Operation Anthropoid, which was the code name for the attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich the Obergruppenfuhrer of the region during the German occupation. A number of films have been made about the operation, which was ultimately successful, but at a huge cost to those involved. The men were trained at one point at Cholmondley Castle near Chester.

There was a lot of information about the planning and execution of the operation. You go through another door modelled on a Spitfire wing. Here you can see the small trapdoor where the men came and went and the window where the Fire Brigade poured water in an attempt to flush them out after their whereabouts was revealed by a traitor. They all perished by their own hands either just shooting themselves or taking Cyanide pills and shooting. Statues to all the men line the sides of the crypt and the large stone that hid the entrance to the stairs inside the church was disguised by a huge concrete slab. I found it all very moving.

We had a quick look inside the church, but as there were still people after the service I didn’t want to intrude. We looked at the window used by the Fire Brigade then retraced our steps to the tram stop where we took a tram to just beyond Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall being on the other bank, which was once the Old Town.

The John Lennon wall was a way of the young doing a soft protest against the Russian occupation. They started the wall in 1980 after the assassination of John Lennon and would go there to sing Beetles’ songs and songs of freedom. These days buskers go and sing similar songs. We took a few more pictures then headed to The John Lennon Pub for lunch.

We had lunch in the beer garden at the back. It was a nice cosy atmosphere and the food was good. Star of the day was Dan’s waffle, especially his look of delight when it arrived.

I had seen a nice restaurant for the evening meal close to where we were so I booked there for our last night. By now it had started raining, although it was still very warm.

We decided to visit the permanent exhibition of Mucha and Warhol, which was on the Town Hall square and it was a way of escaping the rain. Having crossed Charles Bridge still thronging with people we made our way through the crowd to the Town Square. The crowds had thinned out here and we were soon in the exhibition of Mucha. I found the style fascinating, particularly his posters of Sarah Bernhardt that I knew more through her association with Berlioz.

Moving on to the Warhol exhibition I learned that his parents had come from Slovakia and he had changed his name from Warhola. The information on him was in more depth than Mucha and part of the exhibition was personal letters to his brother. I particularly liked his painting of his mother with whom he was very close.

There were a number of different colours of his painting of Marilyn Munro

We returned to our hotel to change for the evening and returned for a meal at the lovely restaurant on the canal by the water wheel. We were given a table on the little balcony opposite the water wheel that I had photographed earlier. There were a lot of flowers and it was charming. It was quiet being a Sunday night, but the food was very good.

After dinner we made our way back to the big square where Dan fancied an nightcap looking at the square by night, which was really lovely and a good end to the day and especially our last night.

Having followed me into the French restaurant the previous night, Dan was very keen to have meal at a little Czech establishment, which had received great revues, called Wine O’Clock. We had to email for a reservation and thus were booked in from 5pm to 7pm on the Saturday evening.

We chilled a bit in the morning and headed off into town for some lunch. While our hotel Le Petit Prague Hotel was pretty basic it was handily placed to the trams, which stopped very near by and went every fifteen minutes.

Dan was very keen to watch the Wales v Ireland rugby match and we found this later in the afternoon at a pub called the Dubliner. Unfortunately because of the time difference we didn’t catch more than twenty minutes of it before we headed off for the little restaurant.

Wine O’Clock was indeed small with three tables for couples and seating for eight along the bar. The food was prepared behind this. As with the French restaurant the walls were stacked with wine, mostly from Italy, but a good selection of Czech wines as well. I enquired about one that looked a bit like a Gewürztraminer, but he said it was a very good one so we decided to try that.

Dan loved the ambience of the restaurant declaring it was just his kind of place.

The meal was excellent and the wine improved with every sip. All in all a lovely experience.

After the meal we headed for the Funicular railway to take us up to Petrin Hill. Dan was keen to get to the top of the tower as the sun was setting When we arrived at the station there was quite a queue. Then there was the rather difficult matter of obtaining tickets from the machine. In the end, with a bit of help from a local Czech, we had to use Czech cash, then the tickets were duly produced. The journey to the top was quite short and we alighted just as darkness was starting to fall and made our way through the gardens to the tower. The gardens themselves would be worth a visit. After obtaining our tickets we climbed the 299 steps to the top where there is an observation platform. There is one halfway as well. There is a lift, but we were happy to climb and you caught glimpses of the city all the way up. The observation platform does a complete circle and the views are stunning;

As a good way of rounding off an excellent day we went for a couple of drinks in a little outside bar to the right of Charles Bridge. It was lovely sitting beside the River Vltava looking at the reflections of the lights in the water and watching an occasional passing boat.

Dan had heard that the best way to see Prague was to do an all day inclusive tour. Consequently we signed up for one and an hour later we were picked up and transported to the start We alighted in front of a very large building, which had once been a palace, but was now an official government building.

The rest of the group arrived along with our guide and we set off down the hill towards the square in front of the palace. Our guide pointed out a wall, which was a painted imitation of one built with three dimensional stones.

There were many beautiful buildings, formerly palaces, but now mostly government buildings. The spires of the church inside the palace dominated the immediate skyline. Our guide pointed out the statues over the golden gate, which were symbolic of Marie Theresa’s great power and kingdom.

Once inside you are overwhelmed by the buildings and the front of the church, which was built over a number of centuries. You can see gothic architecture and similarities to to Notre Dame. I particularly like the big rose window.

As with all tourist hot spots the inside was thronging with people and it was hard to take photos. The Nave was very beautiful with a similar high Vaulted ceiling to others built in that style

Our guide pointed out some twentieth century stained glass windows, which had the most beautiful colours and told some historical events,

Emerging from the church we made our way around the other side of the cathedral. From this angle you can see the gradual development and changing styles of the building, the oldest to the right as you face it. The oldest part is much darker in colour, which was due to a fire.

Opposite the cathedral is the official residence of the president and further along a big banqueting hall. The whole area is immense.

We exited the palace under the golden gate, which is ceremonially garden by two soldiers who change every four hours.

From the wall outside the castle there is a good view across Prague and we stopped there briefly while our guide explained how there had been a fire in the district below, and the houses were now of a different material from wood. Their red roofs reminded me of those in Florence.

The town on the castle side of the river was the old town and that on the opposite bank of the Vltava was the new. They were joined in the reign of Charles IV who also became a Holy Roman Emperor. He founded the Charles University. We descended a big flight of steps into an area we there were many embassies.

We gradually made our way down to the river passing John Lennon’s wall on the way. This was a passive protest by the young against the communist regime’s denial of Western Pop music and after Lennon’s death in 1980 they kept coming to the wall to sing songs of freedom.

From here we made our way to the River Vltava where a cruise. boat was awaiting us. Once on board we were offered a choice between an ice cream and a ginger cake; I chose the latter, Dan the former. We were also offered a glass of beer, which we willingly accepted. It was incredibly hot and sitting on the boat while it cruised gently along the river was a wonderful respite from the intense sun. Various buildings were pointed out as we progressed along the river.

All too soon the cruise was over and we were shown the various statues on Charles bridge many of whom were saints. The bridge was full of tourists and local artists and performers trying to part the tourists from their money. We made our way up Charles street until we eventually arrived at the Astronomical Clock, one of the striking features of Prague. I had seen one before in the palace in Venice, but this was on a much larger scale.

The main square to the right of the clock contains many fine buildings, which we would revisit.

By now it was mid afternoon and we made our way down into the cellar of an old building where we were given a medieval style meal. It was very dark, but the relative coolness was very refreshing along with the food.

After the meal our guide took us to the old Jewish quarter of Prague and spoke of the many thousands who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

The tour ended here, but I felt I had gained a real insight into both the history and geography of Prague. Dan and I caught the number 17 tram back to our hotel to return the same way later in the evening for a meal. We didn’t get the same tram back into Prague so were negotiating some streets back towards where we’d eaten the previous day when we came across a very nice looking French restaurant. Dan could tell I was very keen so in we went. Inside was like Aladdin’s cave to a lover of wine, shelves piled high with bottles, which on closer inspection proved to be fine Burgundian wines, well at least in the room where we were directed to a table. I had noticed the menu was from the region with some of my favourite dishes. We were offered Champagne while we studied the menu.

I chose a wine from Santenay near Mersault, a village that Brian and I had stayed in on a number of occasions to buy wine from the region. Everything was delicious, the food, the wine and the ambiance. I particularly enjoyed the Guinea Fowl.

We caught the tram back again and reflected on what had been a long, but rather wonderful day.