Exploring Prague

May 12, 2016

Before leaving home a friend suggested that we visit the Mucha Museum while in Prague which we did this morning.  Alfons Mucha was a Czech artist born in 1860. After leaving the Art Academy of Munich he moved to Paris where he gained fame with a series of decorative drawings, think furniture, and a series of posters.  Particularly noteworthy were posters he created for the plays in which the actress, Sarah Bernhart, appeared. It is difficult to describe his work.  He was not part of the impressionist group, his posters were a stylized depiction of his subject.  All of the colors in his paintings were rather muted.  While in Paris his goal was to eventually return to Prague.  He already had a vision of a series of large paintings about life in his homeland.  But first he needed to earn enough money to follow through with his plan. To do this he moved to New York City where his work was on display.  While in New York he met a benefactor who afforded him the opportunity to return to Prague and realize the vision he had in Paris.  This series of huge paintings, "Slav Epic", became a reality but, unfortunately, were not in the museum we visited. When Czechoslovakia was created, Mucha was commissioned to design the paper currency and postage stamps for the new nation.  While Mucha's work was not really our style we found it very interesting and enjoyed our morning in the Museum.

We returned to our hotel in time to greet the Dutkowskis and Dominguezes on their arrival.  After giving them time to settle in their rooms, etc., the six of us set off for lunch.  We ate  at Kolovna, a restaurant we had visited for lunch on our first day in Prague. Well fed, we explored the old town area.  We continued to be impressed with architecture of the buildings in Old Town.  Of particular interest was the Prague Old Town Hussite Church.  Hussite is a christian religion with which none of us was familiar.  The church building was not very large but was beautifully decorated.  We also visited a larger catholic church that came dangerously close to being "over the top" in its decor.

We returned to the hotel for the first official gathering of all the passengers on our cruise with our cruise director. It was a short meeting laying out the activities for the next two days.   Following the meeting the six of us adjourned to the Cloud 9 Bar atop our hotel for a drink that turned into two.  Is this a sign of things to come?

Saturday morning was our first "official" tour with Viking Cruises; a city tour.  It began with the bus dropping us off by the Vltava River, the Moldou river in English, where our guide walked us through the Jewish section of Prague.  He pointed out the oldest active synogogue in Europe which we were unable to go into.  Also of interest was the Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was relatively small but contained the remains of over 1000 people.  Because there was no room to expand the size of the cemetery, additional layers were added so that the cemetery has grown up, not out.  It has been a number of years since anyone was buried in the cemetery.  Our next stop was Old Town Square with which we were now pretty familiar.  Two highlights.  There is a 600 year old Astrological Clock on the side of the old town hall.  For 600 years it has been performing on the hour, every hour. Two windows open and figures representing the disciples go by while a skeleton rings a bell indicating the end of life.  Three other figures representing wealth, envy, and something else shake their heads "no", they do not want their life to end. Finally, a rooster crows indicating that life will still go on, at least for another hour. It didn't seem like much of a show until you realize it was created 600 years ago. The other highlight was the 40 minute coffee break we were allowed that the six of us spent in a delightful coffee house, appropriately named the Cafe Mozart.  When we reassembled, we continued walking through old town, a section we had not seen, and then walked across the Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge across the Vltava River. In the 1960's as traffic increased and the size of buses grew, the bridge was turned into a pedestrian only bridge. It is a lovely bridge with a number of artists and craftsmen offering there wares.

Back on the bus, we were driven up to the Prague Castle situated on a hill with a commanding view of the city. The castle, now the home of the President of Prague, is the largest occupied castle in Europe.  On the grounds of the castle is St. Vitus Cathedral.  Unfortunately the Cathedral was closed so we were unable to see the inside. This was a major disappointment as the pictures we had seen of the inside of the Cathedral before our trip showed it to be quite beautiful. You may be interested to know that the remains of King Wenscelas of "Good King Wenscelas" fame are buried in St. Vitus.  Even more interestingly, Wenscelas was not a king at all, but rather a Duke, and finally, "Good King Wenscelas" is an English Christmas carol that is not sung in the Czech Republic.

Talking with our guide we discovered that Mucha's "Slav Epic" was on display at the National Gallery of Contemporary Art so after our tour we headed there.  The concierge at our hotel told us to take the No. 8 tram to the 4th stop and we would find the gallery two blocks away.  Not one of the six of us thought to check the map at the tram stop to see which direction to go.  We all asssumed it was the opposite direction we had been travelling on the No. 8.  When we got off at the 4th stop we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  It took another ten minutes for us to consult cell phones before someone finally actually looked at the map and figured out our problem.  By the time we did arrived at the gallery Tim, who had planned on going to an afternoon concert after the gallery did not have time to go in. Those that did go in thought the "Slav Epic" to be a bit of a disappointment.  It was in a different style than the pieces we had seen earlier, the colors were even more muted, and the subject manner was quite dark.  The art group quickly adjourned to the hotel bar where they found the beer to be perfectly colored and the glass to have an esthetically pleasing curve.

On the plane into Prague, Tim, by chance, found a brochure about the Prague Spring Music Festival taking place the entire month of May. While leafing through the brochure, he discovered that the finals for the Trumpet Competition were taking place today.  There were 4 finalists with 2 playing in the concert at 4:00 and 2 playing at 8:00.  Each finalist was performing 2 Trumpet Concertos with Orchestra, one of which Tim has studied.  Tim went to the 4:00 concert that featured a Spanish and Hungarian.  Both played exceedingly well.  When Tim bought his ticket he opted to sit in the balcony where his seat was in the second row, right in the middle.  When the auditorium lights went down just before the concert Tim was surprised to see the 7 members of the jury judging the competition file in and sit in the row directly in front of Tim.  He was able to look over a judge's shoulder and follow the score for the Concerto that Tim did not know.  At the intermission the judges left the auditorium and ushers came out and made those in the second row move to different seats.  As the balcony was not full this was not a problem.  Tim was upset that it was too dark for him to read the comments the judges were writing as they listened.

This evening the six of us celebrated our first full day together with a wonderful meal at a restaurant on the Vltava River that had a spectacular view of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. Vaclav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic after the communists were defeated, was a frequently visitor to this particular restaurant.

Saturday morning we left Prague on buses bound for our boat.  After a three and a half  hour drive we stopped in the town of Nuremberg, famous for the post WW II Nuremberg Trials.  We were given a bit more then an hour to have lunch and explore  a little of Nuremberg.  We went into a recommended Bratwurst house that offered take away sandwichs. McDonalds could learn much from this restaurant.  All six of us were in and out in 5 minutes with wonderful bratwurst sandwiches.  We ate our lunch as we walked to St. Sebald Cathedral in central Nuremberg.  St. Sebald was built as a Catholic cathedral but for some reason that we don't know it converted to a protestant cathedral in the 1600's.  It was extensively damaged by US bombing in April, 1945.  Some aspects of the restoration were done in a comtempary style that made for an interesting juxtiposition with the ancient art work that obviously had been removed for safe keeping during the war.

Our guide on our bus informed us on our drive into Nuremberg that during Medieval times the water in Nuremberg was very bad because the river flowing through the city was used as its sewer system.  Someone noticed that people drinking beer did not suffer from the same stomach problems as those people who drank the water. This led to the creation of a number of local breweries throughout Bavaria with everyone including children drinking beer rather then water.  She encouraged us to try a local beer as they were all very good.  After leaving the church we found a bar to do this. We drank a beer none of us had heard of but found to be very good.

Back on the bus we had an hour and half bus tour of Nuremberg that took us by the Halls of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials took place, the prison where the Nazi war criminals were housed during the trial and then executed following the trial, and various ramparts that surrounded the old town.  We also drove by a huge, unfinished stadium being built by the Nazis considered to be the largest Nazi building still standing. Our last stop was at the Zeplin Field.  Zeplin Field was originally used as an airfield for Zeplins, hence the name, and was used by Hitler as a yearly gathering place for over 200,000 people where he would deliver speeches.  Many of our readers have undoubtedly seen pictures of these gatherings.  Seeing these places in person brings home the extent of Hitler's ego in ways pictures cannot.  From Nuremberg, we drove to Bamberg where we boarded our boat, the Viking Idum.

Sunday morning we took a three hour walking tour of Bamberg.  Bamberg is a delightful, picturesque town.  Two highlights of Bamberg.  The local beer is known as Rauchbier, smoked beer in English.  It was too early in the day to try it but it was variously said to taste like "dirty socks" or "liquid bacon"  Neither description motivated us to try it.  There is also a beautiful, 1000 year old cathedral in Bamberg.  Tim and Lynda asked permission from our guide to leave the tour briefly to go inside the cathedral.  The entire tour group could not go in because a service was in progress. When we entered the church the choir was singing, accompanied by organ and brass.  It was very well done and uplifting to listen to.  To our surprise the cathedral was completely full with many people participating in the service having to stand.  The archbishop presided over the service which, of course, was in German.  We were very glad we were able to witness the Bamberg Whitsunday service.

We are now cruising the Main (pronounced "Mine")River having already passed through the first few of the 34 locks we will encounter. We apologize for being late in posting. There have been internet issues on board ship and we have found traveling with 4 other people different then just the two of us.  It has been much fun so far, but is taking away from blogging time.