Saturday was our final day in Prague. Unfortunately Silvette was not feeling well. She had a bad cold and decided it would be best to stay at the hotel and rest. Andrea and I then took off to take in our final experiences in the city. It didn’t all go as well as we had hoped.
Our first stop for the day was a place I had discovered online. It was the Retro Museum. Prague seems to have a museum for just about everything, and in general we don’t go to many museums. However, this one intrigued us. The intent of the museum was to show life in the Czech Republic while they were under communist rule.
The museum was a little hard to find. It is actually on the top floor of a department store. Along the way we passed some of the old buildings with their interesting architecture.
Andrea is pretty good at using the map on her phone so she eventually got us there. The entrance fee is very nominal with a discount for seniors. When we arrived, I think we were the only ones there.
The first part of the exhibit portrays a 70s home under communist control. Some of the styles and furnishings looked quite familiar to me as I was a child and teen during this time frame. The museum set up various rooms with the things one might find there. The kitchen was quite interesting with the various cooking utensils. The style of a living/dining room set up was very bold. Andrea commented on how small things appeared.
Walking around the floor and answering questions was a woman in about her early 40s. Since we were the only ones there, she would often engage us in conversation. She made reference to her own experiences growing up in Prague. One story she told was about denim. Jeans made of denim were considered very fashionable, but they were quite expensive so they could not afford any. However, at one point a Vietnamese couple moved in nearby who could tailor clothes. Her father paid them to make some jeans our of denim for him.
Andrea was interested in a classroom that was set up to demonstrate education in this era. The museum also had a display of old black and white TVs which I found interesting. The TVs were playing some old shows, and it reminded me how bad those early pictures could be. Nearby was a selection of children’s toys. They were more varied than I would have expected in a communist country.
The last room focused on the fashions and various activities of a family. One exhibit showed a family camping with all the gear they might have. Another one showed a selection of dresses and other styles. Overall it was quite an interesting flashback for me, and Andrea also seemed to enjoy it. The experience gave me an opportunity to share some of my childhood experiences with her.
After we finished with the museum, we realized we were near the Old Town Square with the Christmas market. On the edge of the square was Church of Our Lady Before Týn, and I wanted to go inside it. The exterior is quite striking. It reminds many people of the Disney Castle. One thing to note is that the two towers are not of equal size, The larger one on the right represents Adam and the smaller one on the left Eve.
The entrance was a little hard to find, but eventually we found it. Sadly the first thing to greet us was a sign saying no photography inside. I told Andrea she was lucky. Since I couldn’t take any photos, I wouldn’t be in the church as long.
The church was a fairly large church, but it didn’t strike me as being as grand as some other churches in Europe. For instance most of the windows were not stained glass. They were just plain glass. The few that did have colored glass were very basic. The art work was prominent, and I liked the paintings one can see on the walls. The furnishings in the center of the church around the altar and pulpit are much more grand and detailed. The one major distinctive they have is their pipe organ which is the oldest in Prague.
After we visited the church, we wandered through the Christmas market one last time. I still wanted to try one more food item there, potato chips on a stick. Actually it’s one potato that is cut in a swirl, placed on a stick and then fried in oil. The one I bought was nice and crispy on one side, but the other side was a bit under-cooked so a little soft. There was no salt on it, but it tasted fine.
Andrea wanted to walk down one of the streets leading away from the square. It seemed to have many of the high end shops. The cars parked there were certainly expensive. Fancy cars seemed to be a thing around Prague. As one goes around the city, visitors will see different old, classic cars with a driver ready to take them for a ride. Most are convertibles, and during the winter they have furs in the seats for one to snuggle up in.
At the end of the street we came to the edge of the Jewish quarter with the Spanish Synagogue. I think the synagogue gets its name from the Moorish style of architecture on the side of the building. I had wanted to see the interior of the synagogue, but I had not thought that through very carefully. It was a Saturday, and in observation of the Sabbath, it was closed to visitors. Next to it is a statue of the Jewish author Franz Kafka. He is sitting on a headless figure.
It turns out all the buildings one might visit in the Jewish sector were closed for the sabbath. Even the graveyard was closed with the gates to it on both end locked. The graveyard is known because it was a small space and the only location in Prague where Jews could bury their dead. As a result they buried them on top of each other. We did go around the neighborhood and see the exterior of the other synagogues and Jewish buildings, but that’s all we could do.
However, we did have our final interesting food item here, a filled chimney cake. After having a chimney cake in Budapest’s Christmas market, we discovered shops sell it like an ice cream cone filled with various options. We went by a shop and decided it was time to try this out. I had an apple strudel one. Andrea had Nutella and banana. The chimney cake is not as tall as the one I had before. The server placed it in a cup and filled mine with an apple pie type filling topping it with ice cream. The ice cream was really good while the apple filling was OK. The whole thing became a little messy as the chimney cake pieces were now sticky with the sweet filling. However, I ate it all.
Across the river was a model of a metronome on the hillside and Andrea wanted to check it out. As we were walking toward the bridge to cross the river, we came across a memorial of candles. Just nine days before there had been a rare shooting incident in Prague at Charles University. Fourteen people had been killed and 22 had been injured. We had stumbled across the memorial at the university. It was huge with candles all along the front of the building..
We then crossed the bridge and climbed up the hill. We had some nice views of the city from there. It turned out the area was a large park with even a small lake in it. On the other hand the metronome was rather uninteresting. It didn’t even move.
After walking back down all the steps, we decided we should go back to the hotel and check on Silvette. She felt better, but was hungry so we ended up eating at the hotel. Then because we had an early flight, we decided to call it a day.
A taxi picked us up at 4:00 am to take us to the airport. Our flight left at 6:30 for Paris where we had a short layover and then flew off to Seattle where we arrived around noon. It was a very long day.
Visiting Budapest and Prague in the winter was interesting. I found the Christmas markets a bit disappointing. I had expected more, but seeing the different foods was fun. Since it was winter, the landscape seemed somewhat dreary.
While we found the people generally friendly, their English was often not as strong as we had experienced in other parts of Europe. Trying to read their language was also difficult since it is not Latin based which we are more familiar with. However, with each country we visit, we learn more about our world, and that is the ultimate goal of travel.
Have you been to Prague? What was your experience? What places did you like that we missed on our trip? I’d love to have your input as we share together about our world. Next week my daughter will share her experiences on this trip. You will want to be sure and read it.
Credit: Chimney cake photos by Andrea Lee