Prague: Shopping, Spires, and Stalin

We arrived in Prague admittedly a bit tired of playing the tourist role, so we took it a little easier, and also spent a bit of time booking some future travels (which takes a surprising amount of research and time). We had a few days with some rain, so that helped us slow down a bit. 

Old Town Square in Prague at night

The city view from the Prague Castle grounds

Prague was largely spared damage from WWII and therefore has a lot to show off. It is now a huge tourist destination. It has really beautiful buildings, that cover the spectrum of building styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Cubist/Art Nouveau, and of course, Communist. Don't be deceived by the exteriors of the buildings though, most of them were filled with malls, shops and other retail establishments. Prague has a surprising amount of shopping! (Stalin would not approve...)

Just one of Prague's many gorgeous buildings

In spite of "taking it easy", we still managed to hit quite a few Prague highlights. We visited the infamous Prague castle on a rainy day. It is a sprawling castle grounds (according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it's the largest ancient castle in the world). With history dating back to the 9th century, it has been the seat of power for centuries and has multiple churches inside the castle walls. The current President of the Czech Republic lives there. Sadly, the Crown Jewels were not on display the day we visited.

Outside of St. Vitus cathedral, within the Prague Castle grounds

Inside of St. Vitus cathedral

One of the dramatic entrances to the Prague Castle

Prague straddles the river Vltava. Currently, it has many bridges crossing the river, but the oldest and by far the most famous is the Charles Bridge. It has a number of statues along the sides, mostly of famous saints.

Us with the Charles Bridge on the left, Prague Castle in the back right

Wenceslas Square is where the roots of the Czech Republic lie. At the top of the square, there's a nice statue of King Wenceslas (born 907 AD) on a horse. King Wenceslas is like King Arthur, more fiction than fact, but still an inspirational historical figure for the Czech people. You may recognize the holiday song "Good King Wenceslas...".

Wenceslas Square

Wenceslas Statue at the top of Wenceslas Square

We went to a symphony concert at the famous art nouveau Municipal building in Prague. My (Kenzi) observation is that many people in Prague play instruments. Music seems like a big deal here. We saw lots of regular Prague folks toting stringed instruments around town. 

Our symphony concert at the Municipal Building

We toured the Jewish History Museum. The most interesting part by far was the Old Jewish cemetery. From about 1400-1800, Jewish people were buried in this cemetery. It was such a small area, though, that they had to keep building up, so the Cemetery is quite a bit taller than the surrounding streets. Some parts of the Cemetery are 12 layers deep! And that's why there are so many gravestones in such a small area.

The Old Jewish Cemetery. In the back you can see another higher layer of graves beyond the wall. 

So many headstones at the Old Jewish Cemetery!

We visited the Communist Museum, an eclectic little place, sandwiched between a McDonald's and a casino (take that Communism!). It was a friendly reminder to be grateful that I've never experienced my own government coming at me with military tanks. Marxism sounds interesting on paper, but according to some estimates, the attempts to implement Marxist theories "cost around 100 million human victims." Ouch! Prague has been a democracy ever since the Berlin Wall fell in the fall of 1989. 

Prague's central square has an Old Town Hall building and on the side of this building is a famous astronomical clock, the oldest one that's still operating. It was first installed in 1410. It tracks the position of the sun and moon, and has an hourly show where the apostles march around, as well as a calendar representing the months. 

Prague's famous astronomical clock

Alfons Mucha, a Czech artist, spent 20 years working on a set of 20 huge(!) paintings that represent the history of the Czech people. These were fascinating, beautiful creations, and we learned a lot about the history of the Czech nation from viewing them.

One of Alfons Mucha's 20 Slav Epic paintings. They were huge! 

A closer look at one of Alfons Mucha's Slav Epic paintings

Finally, we visited a large moving statue of a metronome. It currently stands where a gigantic statue of Stalin used to stand. The uber-expensive ridiculous Stalin statue was only up for seven years before it was destroyed due to Khrushchev's anti-Stalin campaigns. Even within Communism, there were disagreements.

The Metronome

All in all, we had a very nice time in Prague, and appreciated a little down time. 

**NOTE: As of this year, the Czech Republic is now known as Czechia. It's never too late to change your name.