The cathedral was my favourite of the stops. It's a large gothic cathedral with a few nice silver statues in it. It also contains a stained glass window designed by the previously mentioned Alphonse Mucha. I'm not a big aficionado of stained-glass, but it is, by a good margin, the most beautiful stained glass window I've seen. I'm probably a bit biased since I like Mucha, but the colour and design of it seem so much nicer than the others I've seen.
Next was the old part of the castle. Photos weren't allowed, but honestly there wasn't much interesting to really take pictures of. The most interesting part was the signs with history and information, especially about the 30 years war and lead up to it. The basilica wasn't too spectacular either. The Golden Lane was a bit more interesting. It's a street of little colourful cottages within that city walls. Their quaint style combined with the location made them popular places in the last couple centuries, so artists and writers would sometimes rent them out. Franz Kafka lived in one of them for a stretch, but now they are all either shops or dislplays of old craft houses and shops. The displays were an interesting snapshot, and included a gold smiths shop, an herbalist, a tavern, a seamstress and maybe a couple others.
The last point of note in the castle area is a semi-famous statue of a boy. Somehow a story got started that rubbing the penis of this statue gives a person good luck, so now the penis of the otherwise black statue is gold from all the polishing.
How do you make rubbing the penis of a teenaged boy statue for luck even creepier? Stick it in front of the Toy Museum. Ah, Prague.
Due to some miscalculations on my part the next few days will be a bit weird. I'll explain more tomorrow, but it's looking like I'll be going to another Czech city with nothing to do in tomorrow for a couple days, then continuing on to Krakow.
3 comments:
I agree, the colours in the stained glass are richer and more intense than usual and I like the transition from the warm colours to the cool colours on the edges. And I'd heard about the boy statue with the lucky pens but didn't realize that it was in front of a toy museum, ewww!
I find your love of Prague interesting. For me, Prague was anti-climatic. To be fair, I was definitely biased since my first 3 days there were spent huddled in a bed, wanting to die from food poisoning, but overall I found the city less enthralling that what others told me it would be.
For example, I found the cathedral at Prague Castle to be bland and boring inside. It lacked character. The same goes for the Golden Lane - to me it seemed like it lost its history and whatnot. I think Daliborka's tower was the most interesting part of the castle area for me, but that might be my macabre interests coming out.
@Maureen
Other than the Mucha stained-glass window I wasn't overly impressed with the cathedral (or castle in general) either, and the window is something that most people would miss or simply not care about.
For me the appeal of Prague was that I went in with absolutely no buildings or landmarks or anything in mind, no list of famous sights or really any idea what to expect - and then everywhere I went I found something interesting, often with an even more interesting story behind it. After months of travelling in the most famous European cities, I guess sometimes it's the little things that I notice most. I definitely wouldn't call Prague an impressive city (relative to many of the others I've been) but I certainly found it a fascinating city.
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