Prague – The City of Fairytales (2)

Posted: October 18th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: trips and notes | No Comments »

And so…

Let’s move on… like most European capitals, Prague is also situated on the sides of a river, the Valtava river to be more precise. It is responsible for the city’s unique appearance, it weaves into its tissue and turns into its heart…

The oldest and also the most visited bridge by tourists crossing the river is the Charles Bridge.

There are statues of saints along its sides, similarly to the San Angelo Bridge in Rome…

We also found the statue of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius…

Let’s take a walk along the river… There are tourist ships taking off every hour or so. Valtava is divided into shoots, making it deep enough and navigable all year long.

Let us get off and wander around the romantic, narrow streets of the Czech capital…

As I already mentioned, they call it “Northern Venice” and that is why…

This canal (called the “Devil’s Stream” due to the temper of a certain house owner along its path) shapes the Kampa island – another great place for recreation. The canal was used for setting the mills in motion and nowadays you can see canoes navigating its waters instead of gondolas.

And we move on…

Paving stones are the preferred lining material for the streets and the sidewalks alike (especially in the older part of the city).

The next street is situated in Hradcany. It has a long and diverse history: initially these houses were inhabited by the guards of the castle, then they became home of bandits and criminals, later, this is where the alchemists used to live, trying to generate gold. It is called the “Golden Lane” because it was also a home and a work ground for goldsmiths in the past. More recently, the street was a place where many famous writers and artists lived and at present it is a museum with a few small shops dedicated to local crafts.

You can also see buildings representing the Cubism movement in Prague which did not develop that much in the remaining parts of Europe.

We are now in the Jewish quarter which was destroyed in the past due to hygiene and sanitation reasons. Many synagogues and the old cemetery (which we did not manage to visit) were preserved, however.

I will jump to an entirely different location for a while, called Vaclavske namesti (“namesti” means a square), which is in the Nove Mesto area and it is a long square surrounded by streets on both sides. It used to be a horse market in the past and you can (almost) see the continuity today as there are several famous chain stores and hotels along the square.