We went back to Prague because we love the city when we were there in 2002. This time, we like it even more, our stay made all the more pleasant by the ubiquitous Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which distinguishes itself by the flawless and attentive service it lavishes on the guests.
There must be millions of images of Prague on the internet, so here are a few personal ones, perhaps from a less familiar angle.
There are literally hundreds of glassware shops in Prague, from the high end Moser to the low end tourist tack, where hideous objects lie cheek by jowl. The visitors can choose from traditional tableware to modern sculptures, and the choice is bewildering. In a city that celebrates music and culture, this small orchestra is all charm and fun.
A jazz band playing at the Old Town square. This five-some was there everyday, in the same place, playing the kind of jazz that we both can identify with. It attracted a diverse audience; there were two teenagers rocking away on one occasion, as if they were dancing to some modern disco music. The old chap playing the skiffle board reminded one that such type of music is from a different era.
Yet another jazz band playing on the Charles Bridge. However, the tourists on the Charles Bridge were too busy posing for and taking photographs, so much so that the musicians were practically ignored. In the evening, in the Old Town, one can find young musicians playing Mozart (always Mozart), and their music wonderfully serenaded the passers-by. Prague after all, is a romantic city.
The rather splendid auditorium of the Dvorak Hall at the Rudofinum. The concierge had no difficulty booking the tickets on the telephone, and had even offered to have the tickets couriered to the hotel, but we preferred to stroll across the Vltava to fetch the tickets. Then we discovered that there were different windows for different types of tickets. And at one of them, the female attendant was busy on the telephone for some good ten minutes. Same case with the Municipal Hall, where we bought the tickets for a small chamber orchestra. The Czechs take their music seriously - on the night at the Rudofinum, most of the patrons were in their Sunday best. Not a pair of jeans or trainers in sight. And they were effusive with their applause. On the night, we were treated to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, a lumbering piece of immense sadness.
Just off the Charles Bridge, a display of modern sculpture. Four guns pointing at the same direction, why? It is only when I searched the internet that I found out that firearms in the Czech Republic are available to anyone without a criminal record and aged above 18 After the Velvet Revolution, apparently many businessmen felt the need to obtain firearm because of the rise in organised crime often related to the economic transformation in the early 1990s. In a population of just over 10 million, the estimated number of Czech citizens holding firearms is 1.6 million!
An unusually quiet lane in the Old Town. Elsewhere, Prague was heaving with tourists, and often well into the evening, when the young ones went clubbing and drinking. On a Sunday afternoon, this lane was deserted - no shops, no restaurants, no ice cream parlour, no shady money changers. All over Prague, it was not unusual to be approached by a stranger offering to change money. Apparently the scam is either to offer the unsuspecting tourists fake notes or some other worthless denominations. Some of these money changers could be quite aggressive, witness a Chinese tailing me and demanding to know "Where are you from!?" No quiet whisper of "Do you want to change money?"
The unmistakable Charles Bridge. In the background gathered the rain clouds, but the trading on the bridge remained buoyant. There were the usual suspects: portrait painters, crafts stalls and jewellers, and an army of stallholders selling similar photographs and paintings of Prague. The paintings were particularly abysmal, as if they were churned out by amateur artists without much talent. Such a beautiful and cultural city, such a pity.
A romantic view of the Old Town from a quiet corner off the Charles Bridge. Away from the maddening crowd, from the young lovers that kiss and cuddle on the Charles Bridge, Prague remains dreamy and romantic. In this photo, you can see the river boats plying the Vtlava. Curiously, the tickets to these boat trips were sold by black men dressed as sailors. Elsewhere, there were hardly any black men or women in sight.
Suddenly, a man with a fur helmet sporting two Viking horns, started his motor bike and roared away into the traffic. In a city that boasts a large number of BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Porchses, motorbikes and cycles are a rare sight. It must be a bone shaking experience riding a bike on the uneven cobbled stones, but a motorbike? According to the Laboureconomic's web log, the average monthly wage was 1053 Euros, suggesting that there are a lot of well off citizens in Prague, enjoying a standard of living that is beyond the dreams of the average worker.
There must be millions of images of Prague on the internet, so here are a few personal ones, perhaps from a less familiar angle.
Just off the Charles Bridge, a display of modern sculpture. Four guns pointing at the same direction, why? It is only when I searched the internet that I found out that firearms in the Czech Republic are available to anyone without a criminal record and aged above 18 After the Velvet Revolution, apparently many businessmen felt the need to obtain firearm because of the rise in organised crime often related to the economic transformation in the early 1990s. In a population of just over 10 million, the estimated number of Czech citizens holding firearms is 1.6 million!
