Prague - Old Town
Sept 10-11 and 17-18, 2010
We flew from Prague to Almaty and back to Prague the next weekend, so we ended up spending two consecutive weekends in Prague.
The city gets busier and prettier it seems each time we visit. The first time we were here in 1989, there was almost no one on this square. Now it is always busy. On one of our visits they had craft and artists' booths here, but not this time. I think they were moved to another area of the old town. I have a picture later of where we found them. The building with the clock tower is the old town hall. The famous astronomical clock is around the corner, so you don't see it in this photo.
Here is the monument to Jan Hus, an early protestant reformer predating Martin Luther. He was condemned as a heretic by the Catholic church of that time and burned at the stake in 1415. The church behind it is St. Nicholas.
Jan Hus from the front.
Another view of St. Nicholas church on the square.
Here the clock tower is on the left and the square straight ahead. The Tyn church sits right behind the low buildings in front of it. The entrance is through one of those archways you can see the tops of.
The town hall with the clock tower and astronomical clock. This clock chimes every hour with saints parading behind the blue windows, which open up.
A horse-drawn carriage passing the old town hall.
The clock is chiming now and the widows are open. The figures on the left and right of the clock face also move. One of them rings a bell. A cock crows in the little center window.
And then someone plays a trumpet from the parapet above the clock.
This cafe is just down the street from the clock. We stopped here for coffee one morning.
I watched those two men applying plaster to the wall of a nearby building. It must have been hard to do from a swinging seat.
Here's an elaborately painted building seen from the same cafe.
This was the first quiet little courtyard that we found just behind the big Tyn church.
We enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea here.
Then we found this small quiet square close by. It had some nice restaurants and shops.
And we found this gigantic chair here.
We returned later to this area and had dinner at an Italian restaurant on the little square.
This is a street not far from the old town square in the old Jewish neighborhood.
Another building in that area.
A pretty shopping arcade north of the old town square...
led to this street, which is where we found the booths selling arts, crafts and other items.
We also saw numerous shops selling Bohemian glass and crystal.
This tower, called the powder tower, was along the route back to our hotel.
And just next to that tower is this Art Nouveau Concert hall. We came back here on our last night to hear Mozart's Requiem.
More of Prague -- the Charles Bridge, Lesser Town and Vltava River