23 April 2014

What is it about Statues?

I decided that this trip was for relaxation and no heavy cultural agenda.  Prague has always seemed to me to be Disneyland – there are only bits and pieces of a culture here.  For example:  “The Best of Sleeping Beauty”, “The Best of Mozart”, and so on.  This is all for the tourists, which have crowded the city.  So I go and look for little things – things that amuse me.  I do have one destination, however, Our Lady before Tyn.  Getting in can be a bit of a problem – the main door is hidden in a very tiny courtyard.  The last time we were here, I never got in.  This time I was lucky.

And rummaging around in old churches can have unexpected rewards, like the tomb of Tyco Brahe.

Once I am quite satiated with its medieval, baroque, and rococco splendors, I leave the church after buying a book (no photos).  I walk past the Astronomical Clock (absolutely jammed with people) and have a gander in the old neighborhood that we stayed in last time.  I walk up river a bit and then notice and remember the doors of the Goethe Institut – a tribute to Arthur, I think.  They are just as beautiful as they were when we first found them.

 I work my way up to the Charles Bridge, and then notice the river cruises, and choose a small boat for 50 minutes of absolute relaxation. 

The fun of the river cruise is seeing all the bridges.  I am especially interested in one that is decorated with the Hydra on one side, and ubiquitous women on the other.  I wonder why the Hydra.

But then, why statues at all?  There are many here, describing past persons of importance, abstract notions of what institutions are all about, but most of them just cut the air, fuzzing up the mass of stone or brick that defines a building or plaza.  I wonder, as I am eating in a restaurant (goulash) with music going on in the back ground if statues aren’t like elevator music – there, but not to be taken too seriously.

Like this building that is trying ever so hard to emulate Asamshaus in München, but not quite making it.  But the doors are amazing, filled with gilded copper panels of thistles – beautiful.

The street in the Jewish quarter is now filled with very expensive shops.  I have a Bellini and a tartalleta di Fragola.  It is very odd.  The people next to me speak French – the waiter does not – so English is the language.  Same with the Germans on the other side.  I am really amazed that the waiter knew no German.

I’m tired, so go grab a nap at the hotel, and then have dinner next to Obecní dum (Microsoft Word doesn’t seem to recognize Czech diacritical markings).  A nice rabbit pate, a lamb shank that actually tasted like lamb, and a “chocolate trio” capped the evening.