10/15/2014
We started the day with a lovely breakfast at K+K Fenix. Loved the dining ware, the teapots, and very posh tea bags (they had flavors like Caramel Peach and Orange Cream--which actually tasted like orange + cream).
Here's a few of the offerings:
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| Streusel Poppyseed cake |
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| Look at how many different cheeses they have! And prosciutto. |
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| Champagne breakfast?! Mom's loving it here! |
In the elevator, they had this sign:
Angel got a kick out of it. Europeans give you dirty looks if your children are running amok; they like their children well-mannered and respectful, while Americans overindulge their children. In the US, if bratty children are running around and they bump into you, somehow the parents think it's your fault. Go figure. We should really take a page out of the Europeans' book about this: children should be seen, not heard. :P
We walked toward the city center and stumbled upon this quaint market:
Where they sold witch puppets! They're really big in Prague--I really need to look up why. Some of the puppets even cackle and their eyes blink orange. Oh wait, I just realized Halloween's coming up. Hmm...
And beautiful baskets of berries:
If you go to Charles Bridge around 9:30am or earlier, there aren't as many tourists around. Get your photo ops now! I think cuz the tour groups aren't operating yet. I was reading an article about Charles Bridge in the hotel magazine and it says that the statues on Charles Bridge are actually replicas of the real statues. The real ones are located in Gorlice hall at Vysehrad and were erected on the bridge around 1700, but replaced with replicas later on. The construction of the original bridge began in the 1350s and was called the Stone Bridge up until 1870, when it got the name Charles for some reason. The bridge was the only means of crossing the river Vltava until 1841, so it became a very important trade route between Eastern and Western Europe.
I really wanted an audioguide yesterday, as it's rather hard to figure out the significance of a place without explanations. But Angel forbade it, and I spent today whining about not having an audioguide to guide me. The audioguide is 3 hours (Angel emphasizes 3 plus hours) and explains all 7 exhibits. Angel said with the audioguide, it'll slow me down and we'd end up spending another week here--she's a Nazi, I swear. Today, she stayed behind in every room of every exhibit to make sure I was following her. If not, she'd double back and push me out of the room.
Oh, and a Prague sausage. Drench it with mayo, baby!
Angel got a kick out of it. Europeans give you dirty looks if your children are running amok; they like their children well-mannered and respectful, while Americans overindulge their children. In the US, if bratty children are running around and they bump into you, somehow the parents think it's your fault. Go figure. We should really take a page out of the Europeans' book about this: children should be seen, not heard. :P
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| Hotel Lobby |
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| Lobby |
We walked toward the city center and stumbled upon this quaint market:
Where they sold witch puppets! They're really big in Prague--I really need to look up why. Some of the puppets even cackle and their eyes blink orange. Oh wait, I just realized Halloween's coming up. Hmm...
And beautiful baskets of berries:
If you go to Charles Bridge around 9:30am or earlier, there aren't as many tourists around. Get your photo ops now! I think cuz the tour groups aren't operating yet. I was reading an article about Charles Bridge in the hotel magazine and it says that the statues on Charles Bridge are actually replicas of the real statues. The real ones are located in Gorlice hall at Vysehrad and were erected on the bridge around 1700, but replaced with replicas later on. The construction of the original bridge began in the 1350s and was called the Stone Bridge up until 1870, when it got the name Charles for some reason. The bridge was the only means of crossing the river Vltava until 1841, so it became a very important trade route between Eastern and Western Europe.
After crossing the bridge and climbing up the steep hill and steps to Prague Castle (208 steps! Mom and I counted today, separately to make sure we had the right number), we went into the castle complex to finish our tour. We had bought tickets yesterday that allows us entry into 7 of the exhibitions, though only a few allowed photography. The tickets are good for two days, so this is our second day. We started out at the Basilica of St. George, which was founded in the year 920. The shrines of a couple Czech kings are located in here.
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| Basilica of St. George |
I really wanted an audioguide yesterday, as it's rather hard to figure out the significance of a place without explanations. But Angel forbade it, and I spent today whining about not having an audioguide to guide me. The audioguide is 3 hours (Angel emphasizes 3 plus hours) and explains all 7 exhibits. Angel said with the audioguide, it'll slow me down and we'd end up spending another week here--she's a Nazi, I swear. Today, she stayed behind in every room of every exhibit to make sure I was following her. If not, she'd double back and push me out of the room.
Angel (Edit): I did not. The sheep came willingly.
Jen: Do sheep led to slaughter ever go willingly?
Angel: Yes. To feed a king.
There's a medieval-looking tower in Golden Lane that exhibits armory through the centuries and has its very own torture chamber:
Most of the armory displayed here were used for jousting. This particular one dates back to the 1400s:
Notice anything funny here?~~
An armor shaped like a bird! Bird beak, feather dress...
...even feet shaped like talons. And wings sprouting out the knees!
Look at how many armors they have!
This helmet was used for jousting:
And clothes were on display, though I'm not sure if these are the originals. If so, they are beautifully preserved. Just look at the colors! Not faded at all!
The torture chamber:
The other day at Budapest History Museum, I made Angel stand next to some stone balls as a Frozen/troll gag. Today, I learned that those stone balls were actually used as cannon balls during the medieval age.
There were a series of tiny, tiny cottages in Golden Lane that were originally earmarked for the Red Artillerymen's homes. The houses are tiny! I can't believe people lived in here up to the 1950s! Not only that, but up until the 1940s, there was only one bathroom for everyone on the street to share. *shudder*
As the years went by, tourists started flocking to this quaint little street to see a remnant of the past. Some enterprising owners in Golden Lane began opening up gift shops in their houses or renting out their houses to artists and writers looking for inspiration. One such writer was Franz Kafka, though I'm not sure if he had to pay rent, as his sister owned Number 22 on Golden Lane.
Here's one owner's shop, selling Christmas egg ornaments. Ah, fond memories, Angel! You're not allowed near them!
As we exited Golden Lane, we saw a statue of a prisoner kneeling with his hands tied behind his back. Why would they make this into a statue?!
In the Powder Tower, you can see more instruments of torture. This is where they kept prisoners, with the noble prisoners kept upstairs in more comfortable lodging and the most wily, wild prisoners thrown down this rabbit hole:
I've never seen gargoyles in the form of humans before. But apparently they can be any creature, so long as they're menacing and angry. This is believed to help ward off evil.
In the end, we spent about 7 hours doing the Prague Circuit A ticket and 1.5 hours at Lobkowicz. There's so many artifacts at Lobkowicz that you can really just take your time, pause the audioguide and look around. Pamphlets are available in certain rooms so you can match up the corresponding items to explanations. I think I would've spent a lot more time in the Royal Palace, etc. if I had an audioguide to explain everything. As it was, Angel rushed me out, so that she could go a-hunting for her fabric shops.
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| Back view of St. Vitus Cathedral |
There's a medieval-looking tower in Golden Lane that exhibits armory through the centuries and has its very own torture chamber:
Most of the armory displayed here were used for jousting. This particular one dates back to the 1400s:
Notice anything funny here?~~
An armor shaped like a bird! Bird beak, feather dress...
...even feet shaped like talons. And wings sprouting out the knees!
Look at how many armors they have!
This helmet was used for jousting:
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| Funny looking, hunh? |
And clothes were on display, though I'm not sure if these are the originals. If so, they are beautifully preserved. Just look at the colors! Not faded at all!
The torture chamber:
*Shudder* I would never want to be strapped down in a chair like this!!!
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| Dad with cannons |
There were a series of tiny, tiny cottages in Golden Lane that were originally earmarked for the Red Artillerymen's homes. The houses are tiny! I can't believe people lived in here up to the 1950s! Not only that, but up until the 1940s, there was only one bathroom for everyone on the street to share. *shudder*
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| Bedroom in one of the cottages |
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| The Seamstress's bedroom in Golden Lane, complete with sewing machine. Angel's favorite kind of room! |
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| Kafka's home in Golden Lane |
Here's one owner's shop, selling Christmas egg ornaments. Ah, fond memories, Angel! You're not allowed near them!
As we exited Golden Lane, we saw a statue of a prisoner kneeling with his hands tied behind his back. Why would they make this into a statue?!
In the Powder Tower, you can see more instruments of torture. This is where they kept prisoners, with the noble prisoners kept upstairs in more comfortable lodging and the most wily, wild prisoners thrown down this rabbit hole:
It's a solid 20 foot drop from the circular iron door to the bottom of the room. There's no ladders. No way to get back out. And I thought Count of Monte Cristo was bad.
We paid online for advance tickets to the Lobkowicz Palace, as it's 10% cheaper online. If you're thinking of doing this, however, allow yourself 24 hours before you go to the castle, as the tickets might take that long to process/get emailed to you. Once you receive the email, print out the ticket and go up to the palace to exchange for the real ticket. It would be awful to pay online, climb up all those steps into Prague's castle complex (did I mention those 208 steps?), and find out you needed to print the ticket first. There's a one-hour audioguide included in price of admission, and is narrated by Prince Lobkowicz himself. It's engaging and entertaining, well worth the price of admission. Though surprise, surprise, no photography allowed. What else is new?
Oh wait, the bathroom entrance fee. It's 10 CZK per person, but it just seems to me that if I'm already paying for the museum ticket, why do I have to pay to use their bathroom as well? Every city I've been in, if you pay to go into a museum, bathrooms are usually free. Heck, most McD's have free bathrooms. As witnessed yesterday, however, Prague is unique on this. Every single bathroom in the city (unless it's your hotel room's) costs money to go into, regardless of if you paid admission or not, and it's usually around 10-15 CZK.
Lobkowicz Palace is not included in the Prague Castle circuit of tickets, as it is privately owned by the Lobkowicz family. I'd seen Prince William Lobkowicz (the current head of family) give a short spiel of his ancestral home on a Viking River Cruise promotional DVD, and he really did sell the attraction to me. Of all the attractions at Prague's Castle compound, this is the one I wanted to go into. Plus, with the many fires, looting, demolishing and rebuilding of the other buildings over the past 8 centuries, there aren't that many historical artifacts left in the complex to be seen. As we went into the Old Royal Palace earlier in the day, Mom commented that they must have liked their furnishings sparse and not at all befitting a royal, because the rooms were so barren. But the Old Royal Palace has sustained at least 2 major fires--one that felled the roof--and the beautiful murals on the walls were all scorched off. So it wasn't that they didn't decorate it, it's just that no one ever restored it.
Lobkowicz is a bit different in that they managed to retain most of their material possessions throughout the ages, so they have lots of paintings, weapons, figurines to show (they have the largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic).
The family lost all their possessions/estates twice. Once courtesy of the Nazis (restored to them after WWII), then once more by the communists (restored to them after communism fell in the Czech Republic). They have a remarkable collection and I was just in awe of how their family managed to retain all their possessions down at least eight generations. The first Lobkowicz to be raised to princehood was in the 1500s. The 7th Prince Lobkowicz was a patron of Beethoven's, and offered him an annual stipend to create whatever music he wanted. This was remarkably forward-thinking at the time, and it freed Beethoven to really create what he wanted, and not what the patron wanted. From this partnership stemmed Symphonies 3, 5, 6, and countless more. His original compositions are on display at the palace. There's one composition he debuted in Italy where his name is converted to "Luigi van Beethoven." And another one that he'd originally wanted to dedicate to Napoleon, but then Boney went and declared himself Emperor. Beethoven wasn't happy about this and changed the dedication to Prince Lobkowicz instead.
Mozart's original scores are here as well (in his own handwriting!). Canaletto's artful depiction of London in the 1800s is also on display here, acquired by the 6th Prince Lobkowicz, who was exiled to London at the time. They became friends and Canaletto (possibly) introduced him to the Duke of Richmond's daughter (Canaletto's most generous benefactor). The prince flirted with Richmond's daughter, something that made for perfect scandal sheet titillation. However, he was also carrying on an affair with the wife of the Venetian Ambassador.
They had a whole room dedicated to paintings of their dogs through the ages. One ancestor enjoyed smoking...and making his dog smoke alongside him. He'd stuff the pipe into the dog's mouth. Poor puppy!
Many ancestral portraits had explanations by them, and were usually sorted with husband and wife beside each other. Quite a few of them married their first cousins...some married their nieces... Though, to be fair, it wasn't frowned upon at the time. You know, to keep things in the family :)
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| Strolling around the back of Prague Castle |
I've never seen gargoyles in the form of humans before. But apparently they can be any creature, so long as they're menacing and angry. This is believed to help ward off evil.
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| Gargoyle at St. Vitus Cathedral. Yikes, it's scary! |
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| National Museum - a block away from our hotel |
On our trek to find the fabric shops she pre-mapped, we ate a delicious dinner of doner durum. This stand is at the corner of the National Museum and the Champs-Elysee-like promenade.
Oh, and a Prague sausage. Drench it with mayo, baby!
We went back to our hotel because October 15th is their 15 year anniversary and to celebrate, they were offering Bohemia Sekt (a brand of champagne in the Czech Republic) on the house from 5pm-8pm. It was light and pretty tasty, not too much alcohol, which is always good. It smells floral and tastes like bubbly Chardonnay.
We then went out again to buy dark chocolate at Billa supermarket (Angel had a hankering for chocolate). Along the way, we stumbled upon Palladium, a ginormous shopping mall replete with the usual suspects: H&M, Guess, Calvin Klein. I could go on, but the main stores that piqued our interest were Marks & Spencer and Albert supermarket, both located inside. We had yet to go into a proper Czech grocery store, so wanted to see what Albert was like. Turns out, it's much like every other grocery store. So we went back to Billa, where Angel and I settled on buying a marzipan cake for our journey tomorrow.
When we got back to the hotel, it turns out Dad had ruined his luggage zipper. Angel immediately set about trying to fix the zipper, ultimately taking the hotel's sewing kit and sewing the broken part shut.
While Angel was fixing the zipper, Dad was doing this:
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