Prague 2

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Today, refreshed from a good night's sleep, we explored Old Town with our guide Sean. Not a czech name you say. You're right, he is an American who has been living in Prague for the last 2 years to finish his masters degree in Central Europeen Studies. As with all tours they take you to the major sights and tell you the history. I never remember the historical facts but I do remember the stories and legends, and Sean told us quite a few.

One of the must see attraction is the Astronomical Clock. The clock is a 600-year-old marvel of medieval engineering. The clock is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town Hall in the Old Town Square. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures—notably a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest still in operation today.

The story about the clock maker goes something like this. The people of Prague wanted the best clock in the world, so they hired this clock maker. Once the clock was finished they wanted the clockmaker to promise to never make a better clock. Of course he refused, he is a clockmaker after all and why wouldn't he continue to improve on his craft. So they took him to this room and burnt his eyes so he would not be able to make another clock. True or false?

The next interesting story is about a thief who tried to steal a peace of jewelry from the statue of the virgin Mary. As you might know, in the past, churches never locked their doors because who would be bold enough to steal from a church. Well, this thief in Prague really didn't care. So he went into St-James church and saw this nice pendant on the statue. As he tried to take it the statue came alive and grabbed his arm. He tried for a long time to disengage his arm from the grip of the statue but was not able to. When the priest discovered him, he also tried to disengage the thief's arm from the statue because he wanted to take the thief to the police. After 1 hour the thief suggested that the priest get a hammer and break the statue's arm. So the priest left. However the priest did not want to break the statue, so he went to see the butcher to borrow a big knife. Then he goes back to the church and hacks the thief's arm off. At that point the thief ran away. The statue had let go of the arm and the priest picked it up and wanting to teach his parishioners a lesson, mummified the arm and hung it in the church for everyone to see. It still hangs in the church today.

Outside the Estates theater - also known as the Mozart Theater because it was at this theater that Mozart's The marriage of Figaro triumphed, although the premier was in vienna and he introduced for the fist time his opera Don Giovani - there is a statue of a character from Don Giovanni opera. This statue has become a big headache for the police and fire department. If you look at the picture you might notice that there is a hole (black hole). Apparently that some drunk residents of Prague are interested in finding out what is in this hole, they get their head stuck there and the fire department has to come to disengage their head.

The Czechs are big meat eaters. It is served with cabbage and potatoes or dumplings. However the dumplings are not what we know them to be. You have your choice of bread or potato dumplings. See picture in extra pictures.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, we take a tour of Prague Castel.

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Comments

[Lylaenvoyage]

So cool!
But the arm...Bleah!