Today’s Prague is a mix of medieval and modern. Fortunate not to have been bombed or destroyed in any other way during WWII, today Prague finds itself with a foot in two worlds. On driving into the city on their version of a freeway, you can’t help but notice the effect of Communism on the shape and style of their newer buildings. High rise structures bear a strong similarity to each other, much like the tilt-up engineering buildings we see in Southern California.
On the other hand, there is Prague’s Old Town where each building also shows a similarity to the next, only this time the style is medieval-modern using block and stone technology instead of tilt-up engineering. And, that’s what everyone comes to see.
No different with us. We started out from our hotel on one bank of the Voltava River and crossed over…on foot…to old town. We joined the crowds, all shuffling and staring as they flowed through the narrow streets looking for who knows what and going who knows where. If we wanted to see it, we had to hoof it.
We had to be careful of a beggar lying prostrate on the street. It was either step on or over him. Louise dropped a few coins to help the guy get a square meal.
She must have put him over the top because he put on his backpack and melded into the crowd.
Most of old town Prague’s architecture is in the Gothic or Baroque style. The building facades must reflect the architectural trends of the time, or perhaps the owners just wanted to be different. What ever the reason, they’re still with us today.
You can walk only so far before its time to stop and have a drink. Having a place to sit is more like it. We did that also.
We just followed the crowd as they gawked at goods in the shop windows that we could easily match back in the U.S.
Just looking at the sidewalk signs tells you the something about the history of Prague. This appears to be in Russian or some other language of Slavic origin. No surprise what with the city’s recent experience with Communism.
Another sign reminded us that we’d purchased tickets for a Mozart/Dvorak concert this evening. Certainly don’t want to come to Prague without sopping up some of the cultural events.
One of our goals this morning was to locate the concert hall so we wouldn’t be searching in the dark tonight. It is called the Municipal House, not a very romantic name for a performance hall, but the exterior looks like anything but municipal.
The scenery was spectacular if you took the age into consideration. At one point we stood under the Orloj astrological clock, built in 1410, that gives all sorts of information, including the time.
It was a wonder to see and does mechanical trickery hourly. Since it performs on the hour, and that had just passed, we decided to move on to the Old Town Square.
The slow but surging crowd finally reached the Old Town Square where 14th century architecture is in full bloom. Of course there are municipal buildings along with churches on the square plus the buskers we’ve come to expect in all European cities.
Usually these are one-man bands but this group put together quite a number of musicians doing their best to collect our loose change.
Others chose to go it alone with one man acts like this puppet in a buggy. The face is real and belongs to a performer who spends all day sitting in a cramped position trying to make a few Korunas.
This guy used bubble blowing as a device to attract funding. It drove the kids nuts when they tried to catch the floating spheroids that came from his magic wand. Of course, they blew up in their faces but they always came back for more.
Even Louise got caught up in the fun but let the kids do the running and catching.
There is a statue in the square that is not dedicated to a historical or political figure, but was commissioned to honor the spirit of art. There were a lot of community suggestions on what the spirit of art should look like and I think the artist finally said, “What the hell,” and came up with something that included all of their suggestions but that nobody really liked. The design was approved and stands today.
That evening we took the subway to a restaurant for a light meal before the concert. The drifting crowds still passed by on their way to the Old Town Square.
The whole tenor of the central square was changed at night. The crowds were pouring in for relaxation and to just hang out, possibly waiting for something to happen. We never knew if anything did happen because we were off to enjoy a little Mozart and Dvorak.
