Prague, Czech Republic: A Favorite City

Have you been to Prague?  No?  You must put it on the list.  Yes?  Then our infatuation with the city will be no surprise to you.  For us, it was all about the architecture.  Splendid buildings around every corner from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque eras.  Apparently the city was not rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries like many other European capitals because it was only a provincial town.  Although it was bombed during World War II, it was not leveled like many other cities, notably Dresden, Germany.

For three days we walked around the city from an AirBnB we rented in a bedroom community to the north. And we have some photos to prove it.  Enjoy!

Early morning is our favorite time to wander -- nice light and few people.  The Old Town Square is surrounded with interesting architectural treasures.

Churches are abundant, squeezed in between other buildings and often shrouded in some kind of scaffolding. 

The core of the old town is a canyon of stone buildings.

We did a tour of the Municipal House, a public cultural center built at the turn of the 20th century in art-nouveau style.  It was decorated by artists of the day and celebrates the Czech nation.  There is great attention to detail everywhere, like the embroidery on these drapes.

Earlier in the day we had visited the Mucha Museum, a gallery with just a sampling of the prodigious work of Alfons Mucha.  His work may be familiar to you, especially the posters he produced while living in Paris.  The Lord Mayor's Hall in the Municipal House was decorated by him, with the characteristic penetrating stares of figures from Czech history and mythology on the spaces between the arches.

Love, love, love the style of art-nouveau!

Just another tremendous building on a wedge-shaped piece of property.

We took in a free organ concert on a Sunday morning in the St James Cathedral.  The organ dates from 1705. A beautiful sound in a beautiful space.

The chandeliers in the church sparkled with Bohemian crystal.

A good place to sit and ponder.

Crossing the Charles Bridge is an obligatory thing to do when visiting Prague.  We had a clear morning to see it from the south before we ventured across.

It is also a thing for many Chinese couples to have photos taken in iconic locales in European cities.  We saw more than a few on the Charles Bridge when we were there.

There are 30 statues mounted along the sides of the bridge.  The originals date from the 1700's, but only replicas remain.  The pigeon, however, is real.

The Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava River, and on the west bank is the neighborhood of Mala Strana.  There is a castle and a few cathedrals, but most impressive was the massive Wallenstein Palace which houses the Senate of the Czech Republic.

I am collecting pictures of doors, which I call the "Portal Collection".  This one is particularly nice, don't you think?

Inside the Senate building was this wallpaper made from tooled leather.  That is a lot of cows.

We clanked around on the trams which provide great access to most corners of the city.  Some were very modern and sleek, others vintage.  I kept trying to get a good picture of some of the old ones, but they were almost as elusive as a deer in the forest, stopping and taking off before I could whip out my camera.

We spent a good half hour sitting in this garden space and taking in the open-air cathedral ceiling.

Paddling up and down the Vltava River by the Charles Bridge is apparently a fine thing to do on a clear summer day.

And paddling in a whimsical boat is even better!

Ok, just one more impressive building .

Our final afternoon we spent in the Czech Museum of Music. There were many old instruments -- pianos, strings, woodwinds, and brass -- and recordings of pieces played on those instruments.  The piano collection was quite impressive, as in the craftsmanship of this one with wood and mother-of-pearl keys. 

One thing we learned is of the various different piano designs through time.  We think this space-saving upright might just fit in our living room.

The museum is housed in a former 17th century church, and includes this performance hall which nicely blends new and old architectural elements.