Danube Cycling Day 7

Day 7:  Exploring Prague

We met our guide, Jana, this morning and began our tour of the city.  Our first stop was the “Dancing House”, an interesting bit of post-Communism architecture.  The “Dancing House” is set on a property of great historical significance. Its site was the location of a house destroyed by the U.S. bombing of Prague in 1945. It was designed by the Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunic in cooperation with Canadian-American architect Frank Ghery.

We drove by (poor quality photos) the St. Cyril & MethodiusChurch.  The only high Nazi official assassinated during the war was Rhinehardt Heydrich, the SS commander of Prague.  The commandos that shot him took refuge in the basement of this church, but were betrayed. Rather than surrendering, they fought until the end.  A good account of this episode can be seen in the recent film “Anthropoid”.

Our next stop was the TV tower given to the Czechs by the Soviet Union.  The Czechs hated the tower feeling that it looked like an automatic weapon, and soon after the Velvet Revolution, commissioned an artist to make a statement here. In 2000, ten fiberglass sculptures by Czech artist David Cerny called "Miminka" (Babies), crawling up and down were temporarily attached to the tower's pillars. The sculptures were admired by many and were returned in 2001 as a permanent installation. Another three babies, made from bronze  you can find in Prague’s Kampa Park  The grotesque infants with bar code faces are climbing a structure that jars the beauty of Prague’s skyline, a symbol of the Communist era, unable to reach adulthood, their growth stifled by this landmark of totalitarian rule. The outrageous babies also portray a bloated, surreal childhood.

Just next to the tower is another Jewish cemetery.  This cemetery had been huge, but the Communist regime took a large portion and built the TV tower and apartments over the graves, desecrating them.

There is also a beautiful synagogue nearby that we viewed, the New Synagogue (not to be confused with the New Old Synagogue).  This is another Reform synagogue still in use today.  While we were there, there were three Ultra-Orthodox Jews (one at least a rabbi or cantor, exactly why they set foot in a Reform synagogue we’ll never know), and two began singing from the balcony.  The acoustics were amazing.  The liturgy made the visit very special.

The next stop was Jana’s favorite building, the Municipal House, built during the period of revival of Czech nationalism in the late 1800’s. There is a large concert hall (Smetana Hall) as well as several restaurants here. It is located next to the Powder Gate in the center of the city.

From here we drove across the river to the Prague Castle area to see the changing of the guard at noon.  Views of the city from the castle were beautiful.

I have to admit, it was not anywhere near as impressive as the ceremony at Buckingham Palace, or the Greek Parliament in Athens.  

We then strolled around the castle grounds.  The area is used as the seat of the Czech government.  The St. Vitus Cathedral is a prominent part of the castle that dates back to the 10^th century. The current cathedral is the third of a series of religious buildings at the site, all dedicated to St. Vitus. The first church was an early Romanesque rotunda founded by Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia 930. This cathedral is a prominent example of Gothic architecture and is the largest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle  complex.

Nearby are the senate grounds that have beautiful gardens adorned with peacocks.   

From here, we stopped at the Lennon Wall. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beetles' songs.

 In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of   Gustav Husk. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism"

Charles Bridge is an historic bridge that crosses the  Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles I and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's old Town and adjacent areas.

Our last stop was the Kafka statue (another one, not the statue from our first day in Prague.  This twisting and reflective sculpture depicting the head of writer Franz Kafka is a kinetic artwork by David Cerny   Installed in 2014, the enormous mirrored bust is comprised of 42 independently driven layers of stainless steel and weighs in at some 45 tons. The piece shows Kafka’s tortured personality and self-doubt that plagued him his entire life.

We stopped to chat with an Australian in front of the Kafka statue for a few minutes, and he must have had good “Jadar” because he asked us if we had visited Rashi’s grave just nearby.  Rashi's (for those didn’t attend Yeshiva) was a famous medieval French rabbi, living in the late 11^th and early 12^th century, who wrote commentary and interpretation of the Torah and my tormentor as a 10 year-old trying to understand the Book of Exodus in Hebrew.

Back at the hotel, we went up to the roof for a great view of the Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral.

Tomorrow we drive to the medieval town of Cesny Krumlov.