Travelog for: Big Glubschi

Today we finally visited one of the most remarkable momunemt of Paris - The Arc of Triomphe. It honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

And it was sunny so we enjoyed the view even more.

After a short flight we landed in Prague. As a group trip we were all very happy to spend some time together and explore the beautiful city. On our first day we admired the Dancing house. Originally named Fred and Ginger (after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – the house resembles a pair of dancers) the house stands out among the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings for which Prague is famous.

Next we saw the panorama of Prague castle a majestic set of palaces constructed over 1000 years in all kinds of architectural styles.

Instead of going to the castle we continued to the Old Town square famous for an Astronomical clock that was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. A legend says that the clockmaker Hanuš was blinded on the order of the Prague Councillors so that he could not repeat his work in another town; in turn, he broke down the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next hundred years. According to local legend the city will suffer if the clock is neglected and its good operation is placed in jeopardy.

Then we saw the townhall bulit in the Art Nouveau style with a statue of a Dark Knight (not the one from Batman) in the corner.  Another Prague legend says that it was a foreign knight who came to Prague with his suite and wanted to marry one of Czech girls. The girls refused his love and was interested only in Czech young men. As a hot blooded foreigner he killed her with his sword. Before the girl died she cursed the foreign knight to remain a metal statue for thousand years until an innocent girl does not change him back by a kiss. Since the time has not yet come, the black knight is still waiting in the corner of the town hall.

To avoid the tourists we took a shortcut through Clementinum which is a national library founded in 1781 on a place of a former monastery and a university. There is also a meteorological observatory and the weather recording there started in 1775 and provides thus a comparison of weather development over more than 200 years.

After quite and exhaustive walk we have finally reached the Charles Bridge a symbol of Prague and its very valuable monument. The beginning of its construction was carefully planned by royal alchymists who predicted that the most favorable would be to lay the corner stone on 1357 9th July at 5:31 a.m. (divine sequence of odd numbers in ascending and descending order 135797531). The bridge is 621 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, resting on 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues originally erected around 1700.

Our first day sightseeing was finished in Kampa a lovely area between Vltava and Devil's Stream (Čertovka), a waterway dug to power water mills. It is supposedly to be named after a sharp-tongued woman who lived in a local home called the Seven Devils. Even today we can admire a beautiful watermill from the 12th century. Kampa island i salso home to a Museum of modern art announced by massive bronze statues of babies that were sculpted by David Cerny a well known Czech artist.

Next day was announced as a sunny one so we continued our tour de Prague. We walked through a parc admiring the views when suddenly we saw an Eiffel tower. We thought that it was some sort of a teleport that took us to Paris but our host told us that it was not an Eiffel tower but a look out tower on Petrin a 60 metre high steel tower built in 1891. Although it is much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, it stands atop a sizable hill, Petřín, so the top is actually at a higher altitude than that of the Eiffel Tower.

We then continued to the Strahov monastery founded in 1149 The monastery is often visited because of its historical library with more than 200.000 old boks and manuscripts. There is a beautiful view of the Prague panorama that we admired as well.

There are really many beautiful buildings in Prague. Another one that took our breath away was the Prague Loreta church a beautiful baroque edifice from the 17th century.  It is an important place of pilgrimage and a house of a Loreta treasure an large collection of lithurgical object of innimaginable value. It i salso famous for its chime bells that are used instead of classic church bells.

Finally we have reached the Prague castle whose panorama we saw yesterday from the riverside. The impressive castle founded in the 9th century is the largest medivela castle in the world with 570metres of length and 128 of width. It was a crowning place of Czech kings and it is now a seat of the Czech president and a house of Czech crown jewels. In the heart of the complex there is a St. Vitus cathedral that contains the tombs of many Czech kings and it is also the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The chapel of St. Wenceslas a Czech patron saint contains not only his relics but also the most valuable treasure of the entire nation – the crown jewels.

To také a little break from all the walking we went to the Wallenstein gardens that belong to the Wallenstein palace (a seat of the Senate). Beatiful peaceful French garden architecture was meant to rival the Prague castle and we have to admit that it must have really threaten the empreror. No wonder Wallenstein was assasinated on the order of the Emperor ion 1634.

Last gothic jewel of our visit – a church of St. Nicolas built in the baroque style. The green copper roof and the bell tower are distinct marks on Prague panorama.

Today is my last day in Paris. My host took me to Versailles a miraculous castle of Louis XIV called Sun-King. It was Sunday so we had a chance to admire the gardens with all the fountains and music. It was undescribable and I hope we were able to capture some of the atmohpere on the pictures.