Prague Walking Tour – Day 2
Started the day around 7am with a great breakfast and some decaf coffee. Need to do a little planning before we head out on our walking tour so get out the maps, the phone, the list of places we want to see and start laying it out. A lot of planning was done in Fairplay before we left, but we wanted to overlay the sites we want to see on a physical map so as not to drain the phone battery. I know, old school but it works.
Raining this morning and temps are around 400. Not a heavy rain, more like a drizzle but enough to get you wet so we’ll wait until about 11am to start our touring. The weather is supposed to break by then so hopefully we won’t get too wet.
Rain stopped so off we go to our first stop, the Rudolfinum or House of Artists. Built in late 1800’s in Neo-Renaissance style, this building was designed as a cultural house combining concert and gallery events. It was named after the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince, Rudolf, the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I.
Rudolfinum
The building has been used for many different purposes, such as a Parliament building, a gym, a concert hall, and even a celebration hall for the birthday boy, Adolf Hitler.
Today they’re hosting a truck show so we thought we’d check it out. No idea why there’s these three trucks here, but they’re pretty cool looking vehicles. If my buddy Dave still had his business, I could see All Pro Fire on one of these bad boys!
Tatra Trucks
Speaking of unusual vehicles. What dolt spends in excess of $400,000.00 for a Lamborghini SUV, the Urus? Maybe it’s because Urus crazy as a loon!
Lambo Urus
Moving right along we headed to the Jewish Quarter to see the famed cemetery. National Geographic thinks this is one of the top 10 cemeteries in the world so gotta check this out. Guess we’re going to see this one through the fence because the Jewish owners want to charge $20.00 per person for a peek at this funky graveyard.
What makes it funky? First, it’s one of the oldest graveyards in Jewish history, dating back to 1439. Second, there are 12,000 tombstones here. But, because they ran out of room to bury the newly dead, they had to start stacking them. It is estimated that the number of people buried here is around 120,000.
Jewish graveyard with over 120,000 people buried here
Continuing on back toward Old Town to see the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. (Not a typo, Before Tyn). In this case “Tyn” refers to a fenced area where merchants stayed, a courtyard, and “Before” is used as in front of, not referring to time. Perfect. No pictures are allowed inside so I found one on the internet. The place is quite ornate with gold gilded statues everywhere. Seemed out of place for a church that was asking for donations to repair the roof.
Church of Our Lady Before Tyn
A little farther up the road is the Powder Tower where gun powder used to be stored. Built in 1475 by Vladislaus II, it was used as a defensive tower complimented by a 9 meter (30’) moat. The tower is decorated similar to the tower over Charles Bridge with no decorations on the lower part because that’s where commoners walk; the middle has royalty; and the upper part has religious figures and saints.
The Powder Tower
With Christmas coming soon, we had to stop by and see the Church of St. Nicholas. Yep, good ole St. Nick! This should be good. Lots of colors, presents, ribbons, etc. filling this large building. Probably some happy music and mulled wine there as well. In we go! Well, no. This St. Nicholas has nothing to do with Christmas, damn.
The Church of St. Nicholas served as a parish church before the Tyn Church was built. It was later taken over by Benedictine monks and rebuilt in baroque style. During WWI, the church was used by the military. The church survived WWII only to catch fire at the end of the fighting. Today it is not only used for services, but also for music concerts. Bet Marilyn Manson never played here!
Church of St. Nicholas (Not St. Nick!)
Next up was a stroll across the Charles Bridge to see a few special oddities on the Left Bank. The first one was a statue of two men peeing in a pond that is in the shape of Czechia. Yep, all this way and a bit of a hike to see what happens everyday in a public restroom, at least on my side. Artist David Cerny thought this would be hilarious. His art has been known as “black humor” and this one certainly fills the bill. The statues can swivel and raise / lower their extremities to spell out words with the water but no one there was interested in writing.
Never saw anyone drinking from this fountain.
One last adventure for the day and that was to find the narrowest alley in Prague. The alley is so narrow it actually has a stoplight to control the pedestrians.
One skinny alley!
Jesus and a stoplight protecting the alley. Must be a fair amount of accidents here.
OK, one last thing before we get home. We passed this small shop several times and just had to get one. The world famous Old Czech Chimney Cake, with ice cream and strawberries. That’s how you end a day of touring…
Chimney cakes cooking
Chimney cake with ice cream, chocolate, and strawberry