We Gonna Ride an git some Kulture: 09/02/24

We decide upon a fun excursion for the day: public transit. We walked to the light rail transit stop a few blocks from the hotel and with the guidance of the very efficent Viktoria at the hotel front desk, we boarded the #15 tram that took us across the Vltava River where we intersected with the #22 route and there switched trams. Viktorria had also said that there was another tram, #42 that would take us through some of the tourist areas but what we were really motivated to see was where the real Prague people lived, so we rode the #22 to the end of the line, taking us out to the north west part of the city, then rode it all the way back to the other end of the city. The tram was extremely busy in the downtown area but by the time we reached the end of the line and the announcement came in both Czech and English that we had to get off, there was nary a fellow passenger. Going to the west, we gazed in wonder as the ancient, historic buildings, many centuries old, gave way to cinder block Soviet styled apartment buildings, totally devoid of character, except for those with graffiti (or murals, occasionally). Going the other side of the downtown, buildings were more the ancient style but much smaller than those we had seen downtown. And probably not as old. For example, I had asked the front desk staff of our hotel what the building had been before it was a hotel and we were told, the building was not that old - only about 200 years so that hadn't bothered to maintain its history.

We met a young American couple on the tram. I would say they were about 20 and they were over from LA going to university in Prague. I had overheard them speaking Czech then a few minutes later they were speaking English. I asked them if they were tourists and they explained to me that when they finished high school they had enrolled in a one year intensive learn to speak Czech program because university here is free for Czech speakers. The young man was taking I.T. courses and his girlfriend was studying physics. The both indicated that they would complete university debt free, their only expenses being living expenses, which would be far less than that in the U.S.

You can see on one of the tram trolleys the hashtag Stand With Ukraine. The communist history of the Czech Republic continues to weigh heavily on its past with it figuring prominently in statues and other public art in the city as well as museums with a discussion of the communist regime. Most hate the communist past: the country was surrounded by barbed wire and electrified fencing, people opposing the government were executed and people could not travel anywhere or did not have anything for themselves. On the other had, though poor, nobody had NOTHING, everybody had work, everybody had health care and there were no homeless. But the graffiti locally is all political in nature and for the most part, the communists were hated. As such, there is a great deal of empathy for the plight of Ukraine and Czech has accepted 500,000 from the war so far.

We spent a couple of hours riding the rails and got to see where real Czech people live.

Some people have toys.

Prague is not so well known for this style of building even they were much more prevalent, particularly outside of the downtown core.

Though nothing like home for numbers of homeless, they did exist as we saw.

A blend of the old and the new. Most places, the light rail transit rails are embedded in the cobblestones. Here, grass.

The Vienna of Prague. Canals used by transport boats, moving boxes and tourists. It looke hoakey, actually.

The river is not particularly deep so a canal/channel passes by one low area where the channel is excavated from ud, allowing other boats to pass.

Crossing Charles Bridge.

Rubbing the dog was said to bring the person back to Prague. Rubbing the baby brought the person good luck.

We went to dinner to a restaurant called Lokal. A place not oriented to tourits, though there were a few there getting authentic Czech food and beer. We had chicken schnitzal and goulash with dumplings (gooey bread).

Checked out this hole in the wall after and though we were tempted, too tired and besides, we have an early day tomorrow.

Sunday September 1

After all that anxiety about whether our flight from Kelowna would connect to our flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt, we were somewhat redeemed when I noticed from the Vancouver airport that our originally scheduled flight out of Kelowna was delayed 35 minutes, and ultimately landed in Vancouver at 12:35 pm, 40 minutes ahead of our depature for Frankfurt. We may have made it but the connection would have been tight. Our luggage may have had a harder time making the connection and either way, we (meaning "me") would have worried about it until we saw our luggage find its way to the carousel in the Prague airport.

We flew directly over Greenland and Iceland, though we were oblivious to it as the aircraft went abruptly dark at 4:15 pm, Kelowna time. We were flying along and Nan and I were both into our books and the cabin went dark in a matter of a minute or so as, flying east, the sun set abruptly and we were bathed in darkness. The cabin was so dark it would have been rude to turn on a reading light so we immersed ourselves in the on board entertainment system, plowing through three movies each.

We arrived Prague at about 10 am local time and we were happy to see our luggage join us as some of the first suitcases onto the conveyer belt, collected our ride to the hotel and were very thankful that the hotel could accept us so early in the morning. We were meeting our Kelowna friends when they arrived from Munich via train around 3:30 or 4:00 pm so, in order to get acclimated to the time change, we did everything we could to stay awake until our friends showed up with a view to joining them for dinner then going to bed afterwards. That worked out pretty well. We walked around the district and found a Czech resteraurant that served Italian and food served by a Belgian waiter.

When we returned to the hotel after dinner, Nan and me dog tired as we had been up about 28 hours, we happened upon a guy delivering 5 electric bicycles to the hotel. These were our bikes for the tour the following day plus our ride to Dresden, which will commence Tuesday morning. I know it is Tuesday because I recall it from my entries in the calendar but in terms of actually knowing what day it is, nada. I helped him load the bikes and deliver them to the basement of the hotel for safe storage.

Nan and I were asleep by about 8:30 pm Prague time and slept until just before our alarm at 7:00 pm. Integrated and acclimated. Great breakfast, more North American than European, as put on by the hotel and ready for our guided bicycle tour of downtown Prague. Except that, though we were ready, the guide was not as she was a half hour late. She claimed that this was somehow to our advantage because of the crowds or heat or whatever but I never quite figured out the connection. I do know however, that she was hurrying the end of our tour because she had another at 2:00 pm and didn't want to be late for THAT one, too.

Aside from that, it was a very enjoyabe tour, though Oldtown Prague is very crowded with tourists and a walking tour may have been more practical or at least, a hop on - hop off bus tour as we were competing for real estate with the many people walking. And occasionally occupying the same real estate. Fortunately, nobody was injured that at times we did have vehicle drivers honk their horns at us.

Our guide, Therese, was knowledgeable about historic Prague though I am pretty sure this was not the first tour she had given and she go on endlessly about it being the end of summer and how this was upsetting for her. She hit the highlights however, and in giving her description of some sites, i am sure she just made up stuff on the basis of us being ignorant tourists and unable to call her out on her "facts". Well, it sounded impressive. Especially when we could hear her. She had a tendancy to provide descriptions as we were riding our bicylcles, after telling us to ride single file. I only realized this near the end of the tour and I happened to be riding directly behind her and she continued to talk about the surroundings. I could hear that she was talking but not what she was saying. To say nothing of the person who was riding at the back of the line, 50 metres back. I did figure out that she was really into astrology, though.

One of my first lessons was that I didn't miss anything with our Czech language lessons (from the previous post) where we really didn't understand anything - except the word "pivo" - as English is widely spoken. That will quite likely change as we get out of the central part of Prague and in particular, on the way to Dresden but for the moment, we are functioning easily in the city. While we had read before our arrival that the Czech people are not much for engaging in small talk, that they prefer to get directly to the point and civilties in speech are a waste of resources, I think I would say that the Czech people have been quite pleasant with us. That is probably because we are in the tourist zone and being pleasant to tourists likely leads to a better income. We are Canadian and it is our responsibility to bring manners to the world, and to apologize when we overstep, so maybe the locals are just responding to that. Or money.

You can see from the Spotwalla link that we were riding around Old Town though I could not say I have a lot of confidence from that map where we were. Typical of old, by which I mean a thousand years, cities in Europe, streets do not tend to be linear or run parallel to other streets or to have intersections with streets intersecting at right angles. Invariably, streets curve with the geography or where other structures stand or maybe where a statue or fountain reside. For whatever reason, and I am sure there is one, streets can run any direction from any point. Maybe in 1210, it wasn't so important to keep streets parallel and houses or building were built just off a square and the road followed afterwards but whatever the reason, it makes for interesting navigation. I can tell you there are no "numbered" streets. Therese seemed to know where she was going and definitely had a route in mind. We just followed.

I'll start you with a nice group shot so that you will know who I am speaking about when I am throwing somebody on the bus.

From left, Kevin, his wife Gloria, Pete, Nan and me (Howie).

Four of us are pretty confident bicycle riderss: Kevin, Pete, Nan and me. NOT going to say who is less confident. And occasionally gets honked at. I know we all look cool but it was actually pretty hot out. Over 30, I'd say.

Editor's note: When Nan read my smart-donkey remark about throwing ~~three~~ no four people under the bus, she asked if she was one of the four! Ha!

OK now I am going to throw a bunch of pictures at you and where I actually know what they are, I will indicate under the picture and where I don't because Therese went so fast and it was in Czech that I didn't understand, I'll just make it up, with no offence intended to people who have been or lived here or who are educated.

From our hotel room.

Waiting for the tour guide.

There is a strong police presence on the streets. These SWAT-styled officers were packing pretty lethal heat: automatic weapons.

Pete, Therese and Gloria.

Old Town Square

27 Crosses, where 27 monks had been put to death.

The famous Prague Astronomical Clock on the wall of the Old Town Hall in Old Town Square. It is believed that the clock was constructed in the early 1400s and the first mention of the clock in literature was in 1410. It is now known that the makers of the clock were Mikuláš of Kadaň and university professor of mathematics and astronomy Jan Šindel. However,as THERESE told the story, which follows local legend, the clock was built by Jan Hanuš and that so that no other town could have as magnificent a clock, Hanus's tongue and eyes were cut out so that he could not repeat his efforts and as such, the clock went a hundred years without repairs until another clock maker was able to come to Prague.

Sinners to the left and right of the clock, were some kind of warning to the people of Prague in the 1400s.

There were also saints below, to little avail.

Clocks next to the oldest, active synagogue in Europe. About 800 years old. One clock has Hebrew symbols.

The group riding along the Vitava River.

The Stalin Monument. All artists were required to submit a proposal for a momument to Stalin. The winning artist was so dismayed with having "won" the competition, he committed suicide days before the statue was completed and erected, hence, the noose depicted.