Today was the big sightseeing day in Prague: time to head to the main attraction, Prague Castle. From the Old Town, it's actually not a bad walk, even though it's across the river. There's a bit of confusion at the other end, since it's not always obvious which street to take from signs alone; the easiest solution is just to follow the crowd. This time, they're probably right.
After climbing a long set of stairs (mercifully empty of vendors in the morning) you reach the castle gates, with an hourly changing of the guard and a fantastic view of the red roofs of Prague:
It's advisable to carry a fair amount of cash to the castle: while you can buy tickets on a credit card, there is a required deposit for the audio guide which must be paid in cash. I was able to get my audio guide, but barely -- it took all my cash temporarily in reserve. I imagine there have been plenty of groups and families taken by surprise in our plastic era. Regardless, I opted for the short tour, which offers the main attractions on one ticket. A three hour audio rental was enough (and cheaper than getting the full-day rental).
First up: the castle itself. Parts of the castle are still a working building, used by the Czech president for state functions. The castle tour begins with the Vladislav Hall, which is not only beautiful, with stone rosettes in the ceiling, but is still actively used for receptions hosting international heads of state:
Before the installation of central heating, the entire castle was heated by these big green stoves installed in each room; without being told what they are, they look like giant ceramic-tile cabinets. (With central heating, they are still used as heating vents, I think.)
Most of the castle tour takes you through rooms that are sort-of-but-not-incredibly interesting; what's more interesting is the history description in the guide. For example, one room was used for official record keeping and state discussions; boring. Except that, in one of the events catalyzing the Thirty Years' War, two Catholic officials were thrown out of the window by local Protestant officials in the Defenestration of Prague. (The men survived; Catholics claim it was because of a heavenly miracle, but Protestants claim they fell into a pile of manure.)
Of course, no castle would be complete without a court. Sadly, the throne in this one is not made from swords; it's just a bit of a fancy chair. The replica Crown Jewels in the room are pretty shiny, though.
After the castle, head over to St George's, the earlier and smaller of the two main churches on the castle grounds. It's a very nice example of a large medieval-era church, with straight stone walls and frescoes dating back over 600 years. There's also a cool crypt below the altar.
After leaving the understated St. George's, I headed over to its antithesis: the gigantic Gothic St. Vitus' Cathedral. It's a big Catholic cathedral -- tons of gold and silver and carvings and possibly the most impressive stained glass I've seen anywhere:
St. Wenceslas's burial room has walls inlaid with semiprecious stones - amethysts, garnets, etc. In a cathedral this fancy, it actually fits in.
At this point, my three hours were over, so I returned the audio guide and went solo. On the way out of the main castle plaza, I found the old castle jail, along with its implements of torture. How about this body cage, used to restrain prisoners, and occasionally dangle them over (or into) a pit? No Rancor in sight, though.
The final stop on the short tour is the Golden Lane: a district inside the castle walls formerly inhabited by goldworkers and jewelers. Other than a couple exhibits of medieval life (which take about ten minutes to cover: the room of a gold worker, and a very small tavern), today it's mostly full of souvenir shops. The most interesting bit is probably seeing how small people used to be, as evidenced by the doorways. I'm not tall:
After the Golden Lane, my plan was to walk over to the DOX museum of contemporary art (about 4 miles away), grab lunch along the way, and generally explore a bit of Prague outside the old town. According to my map, I could walk along the north bank of the river almost the whole way there, and have water on my right and a park on my left -- pretty! The map failed to inform me that the park was about 5 meters higher than the road level, so that there was just a concrete wall on that side, and that the road was an inner artery. Instead of the Embarcadero, I got El Camino. With more homeless people. There were a couple camps underneath overpasses and even a shack by the river. Woo.
Even worse, there was no food at all along the route. It looked pretty bleak too as I got into Holesovice, the neighborhood hosting the museum. It looked pretty residential. But, there was a flea market, so on a prayer I ducked inside looking for something to eat. Turns out there is a very nice Italian restaurant inside, Mercato, which whipped up some spicy spaghetti alla olio for under $10. Highly recommended.
The DOX Center hosts a number of exhibitions of contemporary art, with a bias towards Czech and other Central European artists. The featured exhibit was by an artist also interested in math and programming, so it should have been right up my alley. However, almost all the work was presented without description or comment, which made it hard to appreciate. One empty room featured a speaker array sounding two pure tones, whose interference caused interesting spatial patterns and nulls in the room. That was cool; sadly, the rest of the work -- crazy graphs and musical arrangements accompanied by code, blurring the lines between programs visual and auditory art -- looked more like a cross between insanity and Baby's First Program in Processing.
The second main exhibit was better. (I'm writing these posts on the flight back, so I don't remember any names anymore.) It was a mixed text and video presentation. Before entering the exhibit, seven racks hold short 1-2 page stories. The stories focus on a modern man named Greatman (variously a cubicle drone, a manager, or a top executive, depending on the story), who awakes to find himself without arms. The stories become progressively more bizarre, involving detachable arms, mouse mazes, gas masks, packages in the mail, and kitchen lighters. The videos accompanied the stories, each illustrating a scene from one story. It was well-presented; I just found the videos disturbing for reasons I can't explain.
The final exhibit was of young artists who had won a contest (or a grant, or something). The quality was mixed, but again they all suffered from the same lack of explanation as the first exhibit. There was a foam box full of crystallized caramel in one room, with no explanation or even attribution.
After all the walking, it seemed better to burn a few crowns and take the tram back to the hotel rather than hoofing it another couple miles. That plan worked great...for two stops, after which the tram filled with the unmistakable smell of burning electronics. The doors opened, and we were all kicked out onto the street. Of course, that broken tram was blocking the rails, so there would be no other coming to help. Oh well -- walking it was to be. At least it wasn't too cold out.
The day's exercise justified a little splurge on dinner. After a brief hotel stop to recharge, I got a cab back to the foot of the castle to get dinner at Kampa Park. The food itself was quite good; nothing mind blowing, but very good. The meal started with a double dose of foie gras on the house (take that, California), continued with asparagus soup and lobster, and finished with creme brûlée. Arguably better than the food was the decor; eating at Kampa Park was like being seated in an indoor forest, with a network of branches and pinpoint lights just overhead. Very cool.
The other great thing about Kampa Park is its location on one of the major tourist sights of Prague that I had not yet hit: the Charles Bridge. By day, it doesn't look like much. There are some dark statues lining the sides, and even more souvenir vendors hawking junk. By night, though, the peddlers leave, and all you're left with is the views of the Castle and Old Town over the water. It's like real world Disneyland:
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