A Visit to Prague

Prague to English speakers, Praha in Slovenska and related languages, Prag to the eminently practical German speakers--whatever it's called, a beautiful city. We went there last weekend during Fall break, Friday to Tuesday. Prague has nearly 2 million inhabitants of the metropolitan area, about four times the size of Bratislava. Compare Denver to Chicago; each has its own flavor, but size does make a difference.

We'll let pictures do most of the communication. We stayed in a boutique hotel, the Dom Henrici, about a half kilometer from the castle, which means we climbed up stairs after each time we went to the center of the city. You will see the hotel, the stairs, the castle including the changing of the guard, the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, and the parts of the city that we saw--the Old Town, the "New (from the 14th Century) city, and the Jewish Quarter. A few words will accompany the pictures to keep you oriented, but this is not a travel blog, so if you have questions, you'll have to ask us.

The church in the castle is named for St. Wenceslaus (as in the King o' the song, except he was a prince, not a king). You'll see a statue of him also in front of the National Museum; he's the patron saint of the Czech Republic (of Bohemia, actually). The Swartzenburg Palace, on our way to the castle from the hotel, has sgraffiti on it; no, not bad words or slogans. It's trompe l'oeil painting or etching meant to fool you into seeing stone.

Paula took a beautiful picture from the balcony of the cafe in the Lobkowicz Palace in the castle. Not heard of the Lobkowicz family? Neither had we, until we saw their stunning collections. Google them. Oh, by the way, we ate well, not only in the Lobkowicz (a little something pictured) but all five days.

We also seem to collect Frank Gehry buildings. The one(s) shown (there are actually two in the picture, not one) are called the dancing buildings, known locally as "Fred and Ginger" for Astaire and Rogers.

The bottom line is, we found, you can't compare the two cities. Both had important roles in former days, in former empires. One never had much of an industrial base, but even as it faded a little, kept its beauty for the tourists. The other had many industries, and outside interests pushed them at the expense of its beauty. In an era, and under a regime focused on industry, one stayed a tourist mecca and the other became even more a haven for industry. Now, when nations covet ideas more than ideologies, the smaller city encourages tourism and works to make up for lost time. We're glad to be here and watch it all happen. And we're glad to be back to meatloaf in our favorite restaurant.