June 27 – Continuing to Prague, Czech Republic. I just had to split this day up. Too much for one post. We got to Prague about 6PM with just enough time to clean up and get changed for dinner. We're eating out this evening before a tour of the city.
The restaurant was a very interesting place. They had a huge collection of antique arms of all types, from the earliest rifles and pistols to cap lock models. One display was very unusual, highly inlaid and engraved flintlock pistols matched with what appeared to be bone or ivory powder horns that were ornately scrimshawed, one dated 1605. Dinner was good. In an unusual move for me I opted for salmon. It's not that I don't eat fish, I love it. It's just that it has to be fresh and cooked correctly and often in large gatherings this is not going to happen. However, I am happy to report that it was great. Not under or over cooked and just done with a little seasoning, no sauces. Almost perfect.
After dinner we walked up the hill to the Strahov Monastery. This is a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1149. Members of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré are not monks but canons regular. Their work often includes preaching and other pastoral duties and they usually serve in parishes close to their abbey or priory. Like Baptists, each abbey is autonomous but does have to live by the tenants of the order. This group certainly settled on some prime real estate. Of course in 1149 it was probably way outside of town.
There's a nice view of the city from the monastery grounds. You are looking right up the Danube River and can see three of the city's main bridges including the oldest, the Charles Bridge the farthest away. To the left is castle hill with the Royal Castle and Saint Vitus Cathedral. To the right is Old Town with the Square and Our Lady Before Tyn Church. If you were reading my journal on our last trip to Prague you got quite an earful about this historic church.
It was the home church of the Hussites, followers of Jan Hus, for several hundred years. In the USA they're known as Moravians because that's where they came from. Hus was a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. They were founded on the Four Articles of Prague in 1420. Briefly summarized they are: 1. Freedom to preach the Word of God, 2. Celebration of the Lord's Supper of Both Kinds (i.e. Both the priests and laity get both bread and wine), 3. The clergy can have no secular power and 4. Equal punishment for the mortal sins without considering the social position of the criminal (This is one of the first concepts of equality before the law in any written document.). Moravia was a predominately Protestant country. Unfortunately the Catholic minority teamed up with the same Bavarian Catholics that drove my ancestors out. By the way, I bear no animosity for this as it resulted in my being born in the USA. As bad as we may be getting it's still the only place I want to call home. Anyway the Moravian and Bavarian Catholics were too strong for the Hussites and they lost the war. In 1626 Our Lady Before Tyn became a Catholic church and the large gold chalice (the symbol of the Hussites) was taken down from the church and melted to make a golden statue of Mary to put in its place. That statue is still there today. Sometime in 1640 the Bavarian Catholics returned home to give my ancestors the boot. After a short stay in The Netherlands, they wound up in Wm. Penn's Colony and, with other mostly Protestant refugees, became the Pennsylvania Deutsch which morphed into Pennsylvania Dutch possible because the English couldn't properly pronounce Deutsch or because they wanted to separate themselves from the home country after the World Wars. I think it's the former.
We walked back down the hill to meet out tram. Now this is interesting. The tram we will be taking to tour the city is a private tram that will run between trams on the public rails. This means we have to be on time to meet is as it can't park and wait for us. It was a really nice tram. Peter, our local guide, told us that it was one that was built as a prototype for use in Sarajevo formerly in Yugoslavia in 1965. Apparently the Czechs are the tram builders for Eastern Europe. It has that sleek but rounded look of the 1960s. It was fun cruising around the town in the tram. People gave it looks as if to say, was I transported back in time or what. Some seemed like they expected it to stop and were disappointed when it didn't. The windows are large and provided us with an excellent view of the city's monuments as we passed.
When we arrived in Old Town we had to leave the tram as the old part of the city has no tracks. Much of it is closed to traffic and walking is definitely the best way to get around. It was a short walk to the Prazsky Most (Prague Bridge) Brewery, a small boutique brew house near the Charles Bridge. The restaurant/bar is downstairs and has been done in the Gothic style. You can really feel like you are back in the day. The lights and fixtures appear to be hand forged and the masonry with stone work has an authentic feel. On the way in you pass the brewing vats and other equipment. Nothing old here, stainless steel, computer controlled vats and mixers are all fairly new and spotless.
They brew two beers, light and dark. Czech beer is very good and should be. The Czech's drink more beer per capita than any country in the world. I haven't really been having beer this trip so I decided to have a stein of dark. It was a honey brown color and tasty but not sweet. Some dark beers are very sweet and while they taste good at first you soon go on overload. This one was very nice and had an excellent taste. The logo on their steins is the Charles Bridge, sometimes referred to as the Prague Bridge.
Properly fortified your intrepid travelers headed out into old town. We walked a short way to the Charles Bridge. At the eastern side you pass through the Old Town Bridge Tower to enter the bridge. Built in 1870 it is atop the first pier on the Old Town side of the bridge. The Charles Bridge is the oldest bridge in Prague, in fact it's the oldest surviving bridge over the entire Vltava River. Emperor Charles IV himself laid the cornerstone in 1357. Both sides of the bridge are lined with statues, 30 in all. They are all religious figures, some saints and some scenes from the life of Jesus.
One of the most notable is of St. John of Nepomuk, the oldest statue on the bridge. It was made in 1683. The inscription on it says that it was placed on the bridge on the 300th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. John. In case you were wondering who he is, so was I. I'll tell you. John of Nepomuk was a priest in Prague. He was the confessor for the wife of the King Wenzel. The king suspected his wife of infidelity and asked John if she had ever confessed this to him. John refused to break the seal of the confessional and wouldn't answer. The king had him tortured and when he still wouldn't answer, had him tossed off the Charles Bridge to his death.
The largest and most expensive statue on the bridge is of St. John of Matha, St. Felix of Valois and St. Ivan accompanied by unnamed Christians. Sts. John and Felix were co-founders of the Trinitarian Order. The Trinitarians were formed to buy Christians from unbelievers who had enslaved them. The base of the statue is a cave and inside are three Christians praying to God for their salvation. The cave's guard is dressed as a Turk. St. Felix is shown holding the hand of a liberated Christian. Above him is St. John of Matha whose vision prompted the founding of the order. St. Ivan (Russian for John) is pictured praying. He was a hermit who became so famous they had to build a monastery for him to control the crowds. Not sure what connection he has to the others.
The best photo I got was of the statue of John the Baptist. It's not a good shot of the statue from a technical standpoint; it's just my favorite of the statue pictures.
After the stroll across the bridge we met our tram on the New Town side and rode it back to our hotel. Just a short stroll and we were home. It's been a long day of touring and we were tired.
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