Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2008
Staroměstské náměstí (the old square)
Czech is difficult to pronounce, but once you've got your mouth around the words, the sights make it worthwhile.Our visit to Prague (or Praha if you're local, but I don't know how to pronounce that) started off less than promisingly. Arriving at the station, we were treated to an underground concrete monstrosity with water dripping from the ceiling, hardly any lighting, and the worlds least helpful tourist information. However, it wouldn't be fair to judge a city by its station, and I've recently discovered that Prague is twinned with Birmingham, so perhaps it's only fair that they have equally bad stations.
In the city itself the sights are incredible. Prague survived two world wars with relatively little damage, and despite the combined efforts of looting by the Nazis and the attempted destruction of anything that met communist disapproval, it is probably the most intact European capital. In some ways I found it too much. Impressive, excessive, and sometimes wierd. There are only so many excessive bohemian mansions you can look at before it starts to look distasteful. Why do you need so much gold on the outside of your house anyway? Waterproofing?
We did enjoy the place though. Our hotel was right next to the castle, which was incredible. It's the largest ancient castle in the world,
Inside the cathedral
Where else can you get a perfectly preserved statue within a perfectly preserved cathedral within a perfectly preserved castle? and when you realise that it fits a huge cathedral within its walls you can see why no one has tried to compete. We spent a happy eveining within the castle walls listening to a string section of the Prague Royal Orchestra playing Vivaldi. They were excellent, although some Dvořák would have been appreciated - they seem less keen on celebrating their local talent!
Our next day, we tried the National Museum as a way to escape the heat. We failed to realise that it had no air conditioning, and were perhaps therefore not in the best condition to make the most of the exhibits. The museum itself was stunning (and one of the communist targets - they even shelled it believing it harboured radicals and free thinkers). However, the exhibits were less than wonderful. The musem is dedicated to natural history, with floors on zoology, paleontology and mineralogy. It should have been just our cup of tea (or expresso, since we're on the continent now). The problem with the place it best demonstatrated by their collection of minerals. Imagine three huge rooms (you could barely see the end of each), filled with rows and rows of glass frinted
cabinets. In each cabinet was 20 or so specimens on shelves, each with a single lable giving their name. That was it. Nothing about what they were made of, where they came from, what they meant or why they were important. It was less exciting than reading the telephone directory - and if a geologist thinks that, what would everyone else make of it?
Perhaps we've been spoiled, but comparing this with the art gallery in Copenhagen is a revelation. There, they arranged all their landscapes in a single room in date order, with lots about each painter, and insertions at key points in history showing how wars, scientific and political develpments changed the style of art. That's how it should be done. Well done Copenhagen!
When we'd finally dragged ourselves away, it was time to catch our next train. Italy, and nearing the end of our European adventure!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.033s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0158s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
