Crawling around Prague
The initial spurt of focused sightseeing appears to have taken its toll on the Oldies. The not-so-Dynamic Duo have at this stage reverted to their usual slow, aimless wanderings. I must say it suits me too, and we have come across some wonderful gems on our ambles through this beautiful city. The famous Prague arcades often appear to be quite non-descript openings in the elegant facades, but they open out into veritable Aladdin’s caves of architectural splendour. This realisation spurned Her Ladyship on to take her investigations further. His Lordship and I have followed her lead and the three of us have been brazenly sticking our noses (and beak) into any building that particularly catches our fancy and that we don’t get thrown out of!
We’ve been gawking at the stunning interiors of banks (trying to look as if we are just checking up on our millions), popping into post offices and libraries, wandering into theatres, concert halls and university buildings, and even striding purposefully into Art Deco and Art Nouveau office buildings in the hope of catching a quick glimpse of the concierge’s niches, marble staircases and paternoster lifts. Many buildings here look so wonderful from the outside, it is easy to forget that in many cases it is not a problem to have a look around inside too.
The other day, we were strolling around the Jewish quarter and the Oldies were just starting to think about looking for somewhere to have a bit of lunch. As luck would have it, the first restaurant they spotted happened to be in a Cubist building. There was no further discussion. Her Ladyship, normally as picky as they come, was in there like a shot without even as much as a glance at the menu hanging outside. If they’d been serving pig swill, she would have insisted on us eating there. Luckily it wasn’t. As we’ve come to expect, the food was excellent as usual. Served with cubed vegetables, of course!
I am sure that through our haphazard wandering we missed out on many more wonderful buildings, but one that even the Oldies couldn’t miss was the Žižkov Television Tower. At 216m high, it is the tallest building in Prague. It was well worth the visit, not only for the incredible views of the city (don’t worry, there is a lift), but also for the giant babies crawling up the sides. Yes, babies. These are figures by David Černý, a local sculptor who is famous for his controversial works. Controversial or not, I love these space-age creatures. I think they’re hilarious and they certainly brighten up an otherwise seriously ugly Communist building!
The tower itself was renovated quite recently and has viewing areas on the upper level and a very classy bar, restaurant and one-roomed hotel on the level below. His Lordship was intrigued by the one-roomed hotel and enquired about the prices. €1,000 a night! Somehow I don’t think we will be checking out of our €42 a night apartment just yet…
Her Ladyship’s eyesight is not as bad as I’d thought. From the tower, she was sharp enough to spot that the immediate surrounding area was full of Art Deco architecture, so when we got back onto ground level she dragged us around to do some exploring. Sure enough, we found some stunning examples of the period that had the pair of them practically drooling. You really can’t take them anywhere. I was mortified!
His Lordship had never heard of the famous Infant Jesus of Prague and we never managed to find The Church of Our Lady Victorious where the statue is located, but just seeing the souvenir statues in the shops brought Her Ladyship back to her childhood. She explained that it used to be traditional in Ireland to give an ‘Infant of Prague’ statue as a wedding gift. She remembered a story about one particular family member who, although she was quite a religious person, was nevertheless not at all happy to discover that her wedding presents included no fewer than nine ‘Infants’ – and not a kettle or toaster in sight! A case of too much of a good thing, perhaps?
It seems that we, however, are not getting enough of the good thing that is Prague. Time has already run out and we all feel that we could easily have done with another week here. Or two. Or three.
