A trip to Prague: day 2
Prague on a sunny day is so different from Prague on a rainy day that we should be forgiven for thinking that we had woken up in another city.
A building across our hotel in Prague
A few days after arriving in Amsterdam, the wife had taken a free New Europe walking tour and had quite enjoyed the experience. Since the organization offered a walking tour of Prague too, we thought we’d give it a try. The tour starts from the Old Town Square at 11:00 AM. That gave us a destination in the morning, but the route was of our own choosing.
Opening the shop and doing a waltz
Somewhere near the Old Town Square
The cherubs seemed to be saying “yo Jesus man”
Wandering in Prague
When we reached the town square, the tour hadn’t yet started. We used the time to sample “Tredlnik” - a traditional Slovak preparation of dough grilled on coal and topped with sugar.
Trdelnik
While we found it somewhat flat and underwhelming (being brought up on Indian sweets does that to you I guess), it did manage to attract big honeybees.
The walking tour is a great way to collect nuggets of myth, legend and history. It covers fair bit of ground in 2-3 hours and we mentally bookmarked places we wanted to return to later.
Somewhere in Prague
Wenceslas Square
History, Myth, Legend
Somewhere in Prague
Somewhere in Prague
Somewhere in Prague
Now there was something about Prague that I haven’t been able to put my finger on. Throughout the tour I kept feeling a sense of loss. Stories of self-immolation by students to protest against invasion by Soviet Union don’t lighten the air much either. The melancholia becomes almost oppressive when you are walking through the Jewish Quarters. Outside the Jewish Quarters, when our guide drew our attention to the distant installation of a metronome (which swayed gently in the air as if keeping time to a sad adagio) that stands where a statue of Stalin once stood, I felt as if I would never know happiness again.
Somewhere in Prague
[If you’ve read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, then you’d understand when I say that it felt like being in a kingdom ruled by one of the Forsaken]
The walking tour ended near Rudolfinum, which I kept referring to as Prague’s Concertgebouw
Prague’s Concertgebouw
Since we very close to Charles Bridge, we decided to go across and visit Prague Castle.
A view of the Prague Castle
Prague Castle is a surreal world of gardens, chapels and palaces. The long shadows of spires and gargoyles and the evening light add a touch of eeriness to everything.
A garden near Prague Castle
Somewhere in the Prague Castle
Somewhere in the Prague Castle
Somewhere in the Prague Castle
Gargoyle
The long shadows add a dash of eeriness
After walking for close to an hour, we were quite glad to emerge at the open terrace of the castle. The view of the city from here is absolutely breathtaking.
The view of the city from the terrace of Prague Castle
It was now time to retrace our steps and visit the places we had bookmarked during our tour. We reached the Old Town Square for another look at the Astronomical Clock. Every hour the two windows above the clock open and small figurines of apostles appear in them. The otherwise stationary figures that decorate the clock also start to move. Our guide had warned us in the morning that it’s all a bit overrated. Still, every hour the crowd begins to swell near the tower, and all the eyes are on the clockwork in anticipation of something magical. Random passersby asked me why everyone was here and after learning about the clockwork, joined the crowd. As the hour struck, the clockwork did its prescribed routine and it was all over by the time everyone had snapped a couple of decent pictures. But before the buzz could fizzle out, the latest addition to the clock - a human trumpeter atop the tower - played a delightful little tune on his trumpet by leaning out of the balcony once in each direction. The tune echoed in the square below. Everyone cheered loudly and broke into applause. It is this memory that will stay with me for a long time.
Old Town Square in a new light
Waiting in anticipation for those doors to open
The trumpeter does his thing at the Astronomical Clock tower
I regretted not having recorded the trumpeter, but as the wife kept saying, hundreds of others had recorded it and put it on YouTube:
We ended our day with a walk to the Museum through Wenceslas Square. It was mildly ironical to end the day surrounded by American Brand outlets that have sprouted in what was once the center of protests against Soviet oppression.
Ending the day at Wenceslas Square