07-03-2013, 04:14 PM (Edited 07-03-2013, 05:47 PM by LONDONER.)
First: A couple of people have asked me to post about my recent journey to Prague.
Second: If you look at my profile you will see that one of the things I do is write very long e-mails.
Third: So, the “Reply” to this post is my long, rather boring account of the three days I spent in Prague. If you now move on to my account, be warned that it is long. And this is an edited version of the e-mail I have sent to friends!
Four: The reason I went to Prague was initially because a Spanish doctor friend of mine, Nico, asked me to check something that he had written in English and he followed that with a telephone call explaining that a colleague of his was supposed to attend a conference in Prague, had fallen ill and was unable to attend and had asked him to take his place. He asked me if I was interested in going with him since the room in a five star hotel was booked and paid for. Although I am fairly widely travelled, I didn’t know Prague and agreed.
Five: Every country has its own cuisine but I am a macrobiotic type 2 diabetic and there are quite a few things that I am unable to eat. So, anything I might say about the food is not a criticism, it is simply that my diet is restricted.
I am now wondering how I can post more than 60 photos!
07-03-2013, 04:16 PM (Edited 07-03-2013, 04:29 PM by LONDONER.)
The journey started off positively fraught. Nico and I went to the airport together and when we got to the check in desk Nico was told that he had no reservation! He had booked on-line via a company called eDreams and he called them and they told him that the debit card he had used was not valid and that they had sent him an e-mail to inform him of the fact. He was able to check via his iPhone and nothing of the sort had come through but what had come through was an e-mail confirming his reservation and then another one to inform him that 373 Euros had been charged to his card and then another one to say that they had been charged 25 Euros commission that was then returned it him. Anyway, the long and short of all this was they said that they could not re-book his flight because his card, as far as they were concerned, was not valid. The only way that he had of getting a ticket was to buy a new one using my debit card. Had that not been possible he wouldn't have gone and neither would I. Anyway, all's well that ends well and we got on board.
The flight with a Czech low cost airline; SmartWings, was better than I had hoped in a Boing 737-800 with an acceptable amount of leg room. The only drawback was the luggage allowance, 5 kilos for hand luggage and just 15 kilos for checked luggage, not much if you're going for a long visit. It was a three hour flight and we arrived about 1am. Had to wait what seemed like an eternity for the luggage. We were both tired and a little disoriented and while we were waiting we made efforts to find some coins to be able to make a call for a taxi. Nick9 had been exceptionally helpful and explained the intricacies of 'phone booths, taxis etc. and explained that if we called 14014 and asked for a taxi at a certain tariff, it would cost half the price than if we just got a taxi at the rank. Couldn't find any coins and then suddenly I saw what I thought was a pay 'phone. where one could use credit cards. I called Nico, put my debit card in and started to mark the number on the keypad and then I said to Nico, "Where's the handset?" We both looked for a second and then Nico pointed out to me that it wasn't a 'phone. at all but a machine where you paid for your parking! That incident had us engulfed in laughter for at least two days just thinking about it. We tried calling using out cell 'phones. but in spite of the fact that the AAA taxi company in all its publicity says that it speaks English, all I got was a woman speaking Czech apart from saying "Can you hear me?" In the end we gave up and just took a taxi from the rank.
The journey to the hotel took about 30 minutes. The roads seemed to be a mixture of asphalt and tram lines (lots of different tram companies in Prague) that made for a pretty bumpy ride especially at speed. But we got to the hotel safely and Nico gave the driver 700Cz (Czech crowns) that is the equivalent of about £23/$35/27€. We walked in to the hotel and then Nico realised that he had left his leather shoulder bag in the cab and it contained his passport, iPad, credit card etc. We explained to the Receptionist and he called the taxi company and amazingly and fortunately, about 10 minutes later they called back to say that they had found it and the taxi driver returned it about an hour later much to Nico's considerable relief.
The Hotel President is a five star hotel from the ex-communist era. Frankly it doesn't deserve a five star rating and would in my opinion scrape through with a three. The decoration was lumpen and stogy (sic?); all dark "wood" that turned out to be plastic laminate. The TV in the room was an old fashioned CTR one with rather bad reception. It was supposed to have free WiFi in all the rooms but on the 5th (Executive) floor where we were, it was very much a matter of luck if one could connect. Breakfast was included and was extensive but it comprised a mixture of things like sausages, fish, cold cuts, cheese, preserved fruits, yoghurt, croissants, a variety of breads and sweet pastries etc, almost none of which I could eat. Fortunately I had come with some of my own bread that I kept in the minibar in the rooms, plus a small bottle of olive oil. I toasted my bread on the toasted in the breakfast room and had that with the olive oil and then an apple. It was just about enough to last me for a few hours.
The first day, naturally, we were exhausted after so little sleep but we were determined to take advantage of the time and in any case Nico had to get to the Conference Centre. He was supposed to be assisting at WONCA (http://www.wonca2013.com/en/home). I have no idea what he was supposed to be doing but we walked miles out of town to the Conference Centre and he spent about half an hour there for which he told me he now has credits. I have no idea what he's talking about but after that he didn't go back and we spent the rest of the time together apart from Friday evening when he had dinner with some of his colleagues.
Rather than walk back we braved the Metro. It's a little difficult if you don't speak or read the language and don't have any idea how the ticket system worked. We tried the ticket machines first and couldn't work them out so approached the woman at the ticket office but she saw us coming and drew the shutter down and closed! In the end we more or less worked out how the machines worked and this time we had some coins. I don't think that we got off at the right station however and had to walk quite a distance to get back to the hotel. We had a much needed siesta and then left the hotel again at about 6pm to explore more.
Something that attracted my attention was the number of apparently vintage cars, all painted red, that were being used to take tourists on rides. There were so many of them that in the end I realised that they were not vintage cars at all but what I would describe as "Bitsas", in other words, "bitsa this and bitsa that". Cars seemingly put together for other car parts. Lots of modern cars on the streets but there is of course a predominance of the Czech national manufacturer Skoda that is in fact a very good car. Skoda used to have a terrible reputation but since it was bought by Volkswagen it has developed a very good reputation.
One thing. The places was seething with hordes of tourists. With 12,000 doctors or those associated with medicine in town attending the conference and seemingly thousands and thousands of Japanese, it was hard not to hear almost anything other than Spanish and Japanese being spoken. Trying to find something to eat was, to say the least, difficult. Czech cuisine is very much meat, potato and dairy based so there was very little available for me to eat. Eventually we found a Chinese restaurant where I ordered just two plates of vegetables with tofu. Nico didn't want to eat as he was meeting up with colleagues later. We ordered beer that came in two enormous glasses but was very good beer and didn't seem to have any really conspicuous intoxicating effect. On the way out we saw a charming statue of a female nude that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with a Chinese restaurant but which certainly had some artistic merit.
Inevitably there were very many shops catering for tourists in the centre, some selling the usual tourist junk but other selling more high end goods. The Czech Republic is famous for its glass so there were many shops selling anything from just plain glasses to those selling large and highly elaborate vases and ornaments covered in gold etc One could admire the craftsmanship but they seemed so out of odds with today's modern living although I suppose that that sort of thing would appear to the Arabic nations that do love heir bling.
One very interesting and very useful thing about Prague is the very clearly indicated WCs. The city seems to have come to an agreement with many commerces so that if a sign points to a WC it could be a restaurant, a shop or whatever. You go in, you pay a tiny amount and use the facilities. It seems such a good and simple idea where just about everyone benefits. The city doesn't have to build and maintain public WCs. I didn't use them but Nico did that evening and he explained the system to me. I left him about 8.45pm to go back to the hotel while he waited for his colleagues. I was wiped out and went to bed about 10.30pm and Nico told me that he got back about midnight. One disadvantage of sharing a room with Nico is that he snores. He snores long and loud. He had been kind and given me some ear plugs but even with those and my head under the pillow, I could still hear him. I mentioned it to him and he said: "Why didn't you give me a kick?". On the last night I took him at his word and when he started I just gave a gentle kick to his bed and he stopped. I just thought that it was sufficient to just jog his subconscious but in the morning he told me that I had in fact woken him up each time. Poor guy, but I was desperate to sleep also.
Friday afternoon we walked along the extremely pleasant riverside that is laid out with grass and trees, a lovely shady place to view the river and the beautiful elegant buildings lining it. We made our way to the Charles Bridge, the most famous one in Prague, initiated in the 14th century by King Charles IV. It is a stone bridge supported on 16 arches and at that time it was the only fixed link between Prague Castle and the city. It is totally traffic free now and during the day it is lined with small stalls selling souvenirs and other things including some really very beautiful photos of Prague during all the seasons. There were also musicians playing very good jazz. The Czechs it seems are very fond of jazz and there were plenty of places in the city where it was possible to hear jazz at night. The bridge is lined with statues of various saints and there is a small iron and brass monument to John of Nepomuk who was Archbishop of Prague and confessor to the wife of King Wenceslas. So I understand it, Wenceslas believed that the Queen had a lover and demanded from John that he reveal the secret of her confession. John refused and the King ordered him to be thrown off the bridge. How the King got to have the name of Good King Wenceslas I have no idea. Anyway, the monument has achieved a legend at it seems that people believe that if they touch it, it brings good luck. It was hard to photographs because of the hordes of Japanese trying to touch it!
Coming back to music, there were concerts galore in churches, synagogues and other places. Unfortunately they are very much catering to the tourist so almost every programme featured "The Four Seasons" and "Eine Kleine NachtMusik" as well as music by national composers like Smetana and Dvorak etc. The musicians of Prague must be totally fed up with playing the same thing over and over again. That is a shame to inflict such torture on what I believe would be very good musicians. Had we arrived in Prague earlier there was a concert in the Spanish Synagogue that would have been interesting. It was "The Best of Gershwin".
Before I got to Prague Sandra, a friend of mine in London, had sent me two pages of what to do while we were there but to have done everything she had list would have been impossible. I am sorry that we missed out on certain things but we really did fill in every possible moment. Prague is a city that needs to be walked, and walk we did. I had no need to worry about not getting any exercise while I was away. So, Saturday we planned what we wanted to do. Sandra had suggested the Lobkowicz Palace and Castle on the hill across the other side of the River Vltava where the Kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperors and Presidents of Czechosovakia and the Czech Replublic had their offices. It is apparently the largest castle in the world covering 70,000 square metres (753,473.72919 square feet). It's 570 metres (1,870 feet) long and 130 metres (426 feet) wide. In other words, it's enormous. It was possible to take a full tour with an audio guide but it would have meant walking for hours and hours and hours. In the end we opted for a shorter variety without the audio guide and to be honest, the interior of the palace is not desperately interesting but the exterior is really very attractive. No photography was allowed inside the Palace but I took a clandestine one of the Palace's greatest treasure, a bejewelled gold crow. One exhibit was a skeleton that had been found during excavations and Nico and I were acting like forensic scientists. Nico said that it was of a young man in his 20 because of the state of his teeth. We noticed that the top of the left femur was broken and out of the socket and I suggested that he had died from injuries suffered by a fall from a horse and that's how the femur was broken. He was obviously someone of note as he had been buried with a sword, a dagger and other personal items. Within the precincts is the Cathedral of St. Vitus (he of the dance?) and we paid to climb the 287 steps to the highest vantage point in the whole of Prague and once again, the views were spectacular. I suppose that we must have spent about four or five hours all in all through the palace and the gardens. The gardens were lovely and beautifully kept. At times we saw the Guards and so Sandra told me, ex-President Václav Havel employed the costume designer of "Amadeus" to re-design the Guard's uniform because he didn't like the old Russian designed khaki ones. The new ones are not a success. They are powder blue with lots of gold braid and look like something out of Ruritania.
We had walked up the castle one way and came down by a different route. Once down at river level I insisted on stopping for something to eat. My metabolism is faster than Nico's and I just burn off calories at a rate of knots. On this occasion it was some deep fried cauliflower, not quite tempura, but sufficient to stem the pangs of hunger. Then it was back to the hotel for a much needed rest before we went out again in the evening. We went in search of a vegetarian restaurant called "Maitrea" that had been recommeneded to us by the tourist office. We found the street and were dithering about whether to go left or right when an old gentleman asked us what we were looking for. He explained that the street was Tnyska ulicka and that the restaurant was to the left and that "Maitrea" meant Buddha in Sanskrit. Anyway, we went to look at the menu and in spite of the fact that on the Internet it is described as vegan friendly, it is certainly not. Many of the dishes seemed to include dumplings (undoubtedly made with white flour), potatoes and cheese none of which I eat. So, we walked through some back streets away from the tourist area admiring some of the really attractive architecture on the way and always on the lookout for some place to eat. By pure chance we came on a Chinese vegan restaurant called "Loving Hut". This, so I have discovered, is "Part of an international chain of vegan restaurants owned by the followers of Supreme Master Ching Hai, an advocate of vegetarian living. Each is individually family owned and operated." There are three "Loving Hut" restaurants in Prague but this was the closest to Wenceslas Square. Anyway, it was an absolute find because it was truly vegan, no meat or dairy produce used and the prices were very reasonable. Oh, and the meal was delicious and it cost the same amount for the two of us as had my meal in the Chinese restaurant the previous night.
Sunday was our last day and we wanted to take advantage of the time we had left so we left our luggage with the hotel porter and walked a short distance to the Jewish Quarter with the intention of seeing some of the synagogues and the Jewish cemetery. The first synagogue we went to they only sold tickets for all of the synagogues and the cemetery at a price of £15. Really we only wanted to see what is known as the Spanish synagogue and to see that we had to walk there and pay just £2.30. Curiously, at the Spanish synagogue they also sold tickets for all the others and the cemetery but at a price of £10. I was in the end a little disappointed. The pictures of the Spanish synagogue that I had seen had shown what looked like a gorgeous, golden interior. The truth was that it was rather dull and dark. The photographs I had seen had all been very brightly illuminated. To be absolutely honest, unless one is a Jew or have a specific interest in Jewry, then the exhibits hold little interest. Almost everything is quite late, from the 19th and 20th centuries since so much had been destroyed over the years during wars or pogroms etc. One of the glass cases held small things that had been done by children in the infamous Terezin Concentration Camp, drawings and the like. That was quite moving. In a separate room were silver artefacts, those also quite late and as one of the legends explained, the reason they were made was more for their intrinsic value. In case of need they could be melted down and used as currency.
Having "done" as much as we waned of the Jewish quarter, we walked done alongside the river heading towards a part of the city we had not explored. Our specific goal was the "Dancing House", the then infamous and now famous building designed by the Croatian/Czech architect Vlado Milunic in collaboration with the Canadian/American architect Frank Gehry. The project caused some controversy since it was built on a site adjacent to many of the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings which are so predominant in Prague. However, ex-President Václav Havel had lived nearby most of is life and he supported the project. So, it was begun in 1992 and finished in 1996. Frank Gehry had originally called the building "Fred and Ginger" because he said that it resembled two dancers but in the end he rejected the name because apparently he didn't want it to be associated with Hollywood kitsch.
We walked back to the hotel and relaxed for an hour and a half in the hotel lobby before walking to the nearest Metro station where we took the train to the end of the line and then caught a number 119 bus to the airport. Neither Nico nor I knew the system of the buses and when it arrived we just piled on together with dozens of other people and then we realised that there was no way to pay the driver. We should have bought the ticket before we boarded but by then it would have been almost impossible to get off because we were jammed in, so we just stayed put. A quite unintended free ride to the airport.
The airport was jammed packed, after all it was the 30th of June, the start of the summer holidays and it seemed that all the world and his wife were travelling some place. Getting through security was absolute chaos with seemingly only two people manning the security check. I arrived back home at about 11pm and finally got to bed about 1am.
LONDONER Wrote:... I am now wondering how I can post more than 60 photos!
Post them on a site like Flickr or another such site and then point us to the pictures. There's a button up in the toolbar for you to include the pictures individually if you wish.
princealbertofb Wrote:Post them on a site like Flickr or another such site and then point us to the pictures. There's a button up in the toolbar for you to include the pictures individually if you wish.
I have an Flickr account and tried to make a completely new gallery but I think it would be too difficult for people to open.
LONDONER Wrote:I have an Flickr account and tried to make a completely new gallery but I think it would be too difficult for people to open.
Not sure about that. Put one picture up. Use the address of the picture with the aforementioned button and if we click on it, it directs us straight to your photo (and maybe gallery).
A visit to Prague (by request)
Sagittarius
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