Where The Streets Have No Name

It seems that everyone got the same telegram:  Go to Prague STOP It will be hot and humid STOP You will cram the streets STOP This is your vacation STOP.

Well, we did what we were told and just spent the better part of 5 days in Prague along with most of Italy, Japan, Germany, England and America.  The City of A Thousand Spires was crawling with humanity in a horrendous soup of heat and humidity.  A smelting pot, if you will.

There is a big difference between Prague and Vienna.  In Vienna, the moment a pedestrian steps into the street, drivers stop the car.  They might not be thrilled, but they stop and wait.  In Prague, drivers not only speed up, they do it gleefully, hoping to run you down.  Jake will attest to the fact that children are fair game.  We adapted to this new order in short order.

For visitors, Prague is a walking city, a cobblestone city, a Bohemian city, a hostel and backpacking city, a beer city, a patchwork of elegance and despair woven together.  It is a city curving with art nouveau facades mixed with the geometry of the cubist movement along with shards of Communism.  It is also a city where the centuries old Jewish Ghetto is now adjacent to the modern day luxury shopping avenue, where Jesus and Jazz coexist on the Charles Bridge.  We hoofed it through a crossroads of history, from Prague Castle to the Museum of Communism.

Old Town Square

Astronomical Clock est. 1410

Colors of Old Town

Pick Your Poison

Havel Market est. 1232

Marketplace Goodies

Ooo, hoo Witchy Woman

One of Many Fine Czech Brews

Old Jewish Cemetery 

Prague at Night

Estates Theatre

Charles Bridge

View to Prague Castle

Jazz and Jesus

The Johnsons Take Prague 

St. Vitus Cathedral 

Cubist House of the Black Madonna

Relics of the Past

Museum Next to McDonald's and Casino

Church of Mother of God Before Tyn from Astronomical Clock Tower Take 1

Take 2

As we left Vienna last Sunday, a neighbor asked if we were escaping to the lake country.  "Oh, NO!" I exclaimed with excitement, "We are going to Prague!"  As the elevator door closed he responded, "Well, Prague is a city."  Now I know what he means.  Everyone should look both ways and experience Prague, the City.