Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it –Roald Dahl
1. CROSSING CHARLES BRIDGE
LET’S IMAGINE YOU WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND DISCOVER FAIRIES have magically transported you to Prague. And they will grant you one fine day to visit the city—until Mickey’s big hand and little hand on your watch both point to 12 midnight.
The city of Prague has been honored with numerous terms of endearment: the heart of Europe, the jewel of Bohemia, the mother of cities, the golden city, city of a hundred spires, a symphony of stone. Some people even call it Disneyland for Grown Ups. And you don’t even have to stand in line for rides. Or pay exorbitant entrance fees. Or brave bumper-to-bumper traffic and road rage in Anaheim.
You brush the fairy dust from your shoulders, and decide to walk from your Airbnb apartment in Old Town—where all fairy tales begin—to Prague Castle on the far side of the Vltava River because…well…it’s a castle. And this is your fairy tale—with good guys, bad guys, dragons, and a noble quest. OK, no dragons, but maybe amber penguins, ugly ducklings, and pirate ships.
It will be a long walk, but you’ve been given the whole day, and you’re psyched. You slip on your mouse-ear hat and head out the door. You’re not wearing your six-inch glass stilettos because you know the dangers of cobblestones when mixed with even a smidgeon of stupidity. You stroll past the Spanish Synagogue just off Dusni Street and head right into the surreal nature of Prague.
You cruise toward the roundabout at Vezenska and Dusni and pass the Frans Kafka Monument, an unusual bronze sculpture by Jaroslav Rona based on Kafka’s story, “Description of a Struggle”: a mini-Kafka sits on the shoulders of a larger empty suit, as this story is written from the point of view of the narrator riding on the shoulders of an “acquaintance” as though he were “a horse.” An eloquent statue—perhaps not one of Kafka’s finer tales.
You head west on Siroka and stop in at the Frans Kafka Café for your first coffee of the day. You’ve heard it’s impossible to find a bad café in Prague, and your first cup lives up to the myth—but perhaps it simply has more to do with being in Prague than double shots or a brewing process? You order a strudl (Czech spelling) to go with it—a Bohemian-fairytale breakfast. While you chew slowly in your dark wooden booth, you gaze at the furnishings, the frosted glass, and engravings of an earlier Prague in black & white, and you believe you feel—what is it?—an energy, a presence, a weight. You begin to wonder if Kafka might be riding your shoulders right now.
When you leave the café, you continue walking west toward the Vltava and reach the quay. The first thing you observe is the Svatopluk Cech Bridge; it is adorned with art nouveau sculptures and is one of Prague’s eighteen bridges that span this river, one of over 300 in the city.
You walk upriver and notice several tour boats of various sizes tethered to the dock. There are also “botels” here, offering staterooms right on the river. You make a mental note that if you return, you might like to stay in one of those river boats moored on the Vltava with a view of the castle on the hill, which you see from here. And on the other hill across the river in the distance, you spy the Petrin Tower, which you hope to climb later today as part of this quest if you have time; if you have time—because you notice that you are not only walking slower than usual, you are also stopping to gaze at everything along the way. Prague may live up to all its venerable names but truly is a symphony of stone.
Sitting on the quay beside the river, on slabs of granite or cobblestones, is something most everyone does sooner or later in Prague. What is it about a slow-moving river that forces one to slow down, sit down, and watch it flow by—perhaps, something inherited in our DNA from when we bore gills? Some people believe that the saying “Go with the flow” was actually coined in Prague—easy to imagine.
You wander closer to the famous Charles Bridge, now one of the most-photographed bridges in the world, which will take you across the river into Lesser Town. You make a mental note to stop at one of the quay-side eateries on your way back, maybe for dinner.
You soon begin to realize you need to get up fairly early in summertime to miss the tourist traffic on Charles Bridge. Perhaps you’ll decide to return to Prague in winter, with fewer tourists and off-season rates?
Prague, if nothing short of magical, is a city of statues and spires, harboring architecture spanning millennia: Medieval, Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance, Communist, Modern. Prague is a city that has somehow—magically?—weathered the ravages of history and human error that compromise most cities.
As you cross the Charles Bridge, you look east and consider the majestic buildings on the riverbank, and you wonder what the view might be like from that particular restaurant cantilevered over the river—another fine dinner option.
From the bridge, you look down and notice several more small tourist boats ferrying people along the river. Apparently for many, merely sitting beside the river is not enough.
The gothic, stone Charles Bridge connects Old Town with Lesser Town; its construction began in the mid-1300’s by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and was completed some 50 years later. The bridge is made of sandstone, cemented with an egg yolk compound to better hold it together—so says the once-scientifically-proven-yet-recently-contested legend. Thirty Baroque statues sculpted between 1706 and 1714 adorn the bridge.
Perhaps the most famous of these statues is St. John of Nepomuk, a priest who was thrown into the Vltava from the bridge for not revealing to King Wenceslas IV the confessions of his queen (not good king Wenceslas I, from Christmas-carol fame).
Legend states that if you make a wish and touch the cross on the bridge a few meters before the statue (marking where St John was tossed over), your wish will come true, and you will “return to Prague.” Some people believe you should touch the plaque below the saint, it is worn smooth and gold from the touch of wish makers.
You believe in magic, so you brush the plaque with your fingertips, like thousands of believers. And, unwilling to take chances, you walk over and brush the cross—because who knows what reality really is or if fairies alone will ever transport you back here again. And perhaps, what we believe…is what is true, for us. Maybe if we believe in magic, magic appears; if we believe in our quest, we prevail.
As you approach the far end of the bridge, you near Lesser Town and notice the Frans Kafka Museum off to your right, and the Manes Bridge in the distance—a “modernist” bridge of concrete, and Prague’s shortest. You imagine the restaurant overlooking the river here might be a good place for lunch.
2. LESSER TOWN
At the end of the bridge, two towers rise. The taller one, the Lesser Town Tower, is the ancient gate into Lesser Town. The smaller one, Judith Tower, is the only remnant from the original Prague Bridge built in the 1100’s and destroyed by a flood in 1342 (they, obviously, used no egg yolks in the mortar on the original).
If you take the stairway down to your left just before entering the arch in the Tower, you discover a friendly, inviting area with benches, cafes, and restaurants bordering a central, tree-lined park.
Another five or ten minutes further through a shaded, bucolic woodland along this path, and you come to a not-quite-beautiful David Cerny exhibition of bronze statues, known as Crawling Babies. Apparently at one time, Prague held a competition for the ugliest building in town. The unconventional Zizkov Television Tower won the honor. Cerny decided to beautify the tower, and so created a number of miminka, crawling babies, and attached twelve of them to the sides of the tower. Locals say it didn’t help.
But if we’re objective, the tower is not that ugly, it’s just not Prague-ish, nor stone. And skewers the sky rather sore-thumbishly above low-lying neighbors. But get this: the tower now holds an upscale, one-room hotel in one of its pods that you can rent for something like 600 bucks a night. Pragueans are not known for their creative naming of things: Old Town, Lesser (smaller) Town, Castle Hill, Old-New Synagogue. The name of this one-room hotel…you guessed it: One Room Hotel.
You take the loop and backtrack on the other side of the park you just walked through, dense with blossoming yellow lindens, and you come upon the John Lennon Pub—perhaps a good spot for your first Urquell of the day, or a glass of Moravian grape. You turn left here, and a few meters up, you find the John Lennon Wall. A one-man band serenades visitors with Beatle tunes. Imagine. You get the notion that there is an energy, a benevolent presence, residing here, also. You begin to wonder if Prague may be one of earth’s vortices of energy, like Sedona or Aspen or Easter Island.
You drop a few Czech korunas into the musician’s guitar case and continue your quest strolling back toward Charles Bridge. You cross it before the Tower into Lesser Town, and cruise down the other side of the bridge. You meander along narrow, ancient streets near the Vltava—the same cobblestones walked on by Rilke, Kepler, Einstein, Branjelina. Presently, you discover the Frans Kafka Museum, which you previously noticed from the bridge.
Apparently, David Cerny is something of a rogue artist. His sculptures are not your average, ordinary-style art. At the Kafka museum, this sculpture, which swivels sideways at the hips, depicts two men peeing into an oddly-shaped pond that is actually the outline of the Czech Republic’s borders.
A little further downriver, a whiteness of swans floats offshore near a nicely shaded shoreline with a peaceful view back across the Vltava to the east side of the Charles Bridge and the Old Town Bridge Tower.
You’ve perused the map, and realize the next phase of this pilgrimage is going to be mostly uphill. You saunter up Mostecka, and hang a right on Tomasska. Luckily just opposite the Malostranske tram stop, you notice a Starbucks housed in a marvelous Baroque building with curved interior walls and vaulted ceilings, and entered through well-crafted arched doors. From here, it’s going to be a long schlep, and all uphill—maybe we’ll just make it a double espresso?
3. WALLENSTEIN PALACE
You wander toward Valdstejnska and soon arrive at the Wallenstein Palace. During the time the palace was built, the law did not permit citizens “other than nobles” to live on the mountain where Prague Castle sits. So Albrecht of Wallenstein, a shrewd and venerable general in the Habsburg army, built his impressive Baroque palace in 1630 just below the king’s castle, with the intention of being just as monumental in size and splendor—at one time over 700 people lived in Wallenstein Palace.
This may have backfired, however, because the king, perched just above in his own palace, was forced to look down on Wallenstein’s tour de force, and maybe got angry, or perhaps he imagined the calculating genius and immense wealth of the general as a threat to power. So he had him killed. Just one more historical example of why you should never piss off your king. Or religious extremists. Or Taylor Swift.
The expansive geometric gardens of Wallenstein, covering acres of land, are quite magnificent, and include a grotto, a huge pond with an island harboring a Baroque fountain, numerous other statues, and a massive “dripstone wall” of artificial stalactites (an interesting artistic palisade, but lacking a certain je ne se quoi).
When you leave the grounds of Wallenstein and begin your uphill quest again along Valdstejnska, you come across the St Nicholas Church.
Lonely Planet says St Nicholas is “the most impressive example of Prague Baroque.” The architecture is marvelous, and so are the frescos, especially the one by František Xaver Palko inside the 230-foot-high dome. Mozart once performed his Great Mass in C minor in this church—its organ is massive with over 4,000 pipes; the sound, celestial.
Imagine this: fairies magically transport you back in time a couple hundred years to Prague in 1785. You sit in your pew here in St Nicholas, surrounded by well-heeled aristocrats in sartorial splendor, and Mozart—arguably the first A-list rock star—prances onstage, well preened in a powdered wig, red silk jacket, linen lace, and brocade vest. He sits at that organ, and performs his own masterpiece in C. After the standing ovation, he invites you backstage to party because you have “TROUBLE” silk screened on your T-shirt.
Next week: Strolling Through Prague: Part II—Ascension
More Jo’s Monday Walks: Here
More DP Discover Challenge: Here and Now
More Lucile’s: Photo Rehab
More DP Photo Challenge: : Quest
Badfish & Chips Cafe 
Hi Baddie! What a fantastic post which should go viral m! Anyone who hasn’t yet been in Prague, or would like to return, must read your narrative and see the city through your eyes.
There was something like traveling B.B (before Badfish) but now we have you. And we will get more next week? A treat!!
I was thinking if there still priests like this one…what a story!
Bring more. Thanks.
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Lucile…Hey girl. Thanks, and let me know when you see it go viral. And I suppose travel WB (with Badfish) is kinda cool…glad you are along for the ride. You know, I never did figure out how to log in to that site with your photos. But I still like to connect to your thing±!
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Hey you! How nice to see you around when I’m (finally) around. I’m feeling like a blogger deserter. Way behind with reading and commenting and hardly posting.
I’d only make time to make your post go viral! Go travel WB!
You’re very kind to still link to my blog. You’re da man and a loyal blogfriend.
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Right…loyal, but a little tech-challenged! And time challenged. I too have been neglecting posts and comments. When is someone going to figure out a better way to get money than to work for it is what I want to know today.
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That’s fine! You don’t quite well for a self-proclaimed tech-challenged person!
I like this idea of getting money without working. Shall we create a start up? I guess we just kick off crowdfunding as we are a good cause to fight for, right?
We are not doing anything bad to the world, on the contrary, so people can invest in us!
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YUP! Crowd funding it is. We the good guys. People should love giving us money. We love getting it.
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When should we start our joint venture? And should we invite Debbie?
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we can start any time. And right Debbie is in!! if you write @spaceshipchina does she get notified?
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@spaceshipchina let’s include her but my impression is that this doesn’t work well unless the blogger is connected to our blog as editor. Is she linked to yours? Have you tried it and has it worked?
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i don’t think it works, does it @spaceshipchina?
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HI Lucille!!! Waving madly! I’ll get the proprietor to whip up dessert and join you at your table!
Could you find a table near the window overlooking the signs of Bright Street and Cheery Street? Baddie says that’s the addy. I guess he’d know. And crowdfunding for a blog-o-book sounds like a grand idea! Does Baddie’s Bridge live up to your Red Bridge? Good to see you around 🙂
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LADIES NIGHT…TWO FOR ONE!!! ONE FOR ALL! Nobody’s bridge is quite like Lucile’s.
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Consider it done! There’s a table waiting for you over at the Green Fairy Post, (Baddie’s latest) Lucille.
I’ve got a table by the window and Baddie’s given us a bottle of absinthe on the house.
Hurry up and get there already, this stuff is very heady without someone to share it!! 🙂
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hey…no slobering on the furniture girls
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no, but she gets mail notifications from LDG’s red bridge blog and BF&C Cafe blog, and she ALWAYS checks both! and so sorry baddie, we were both so busy slobbering all over the Green Fairy and her Furntiture, that I have no idea what the startup was about. Lucille? do you remember? anyhow… yeah, count me in, whatever… lol. Waiter, more absinthe! and more music! and take that dude impersonating Kafka outa here!
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Hey lady, quit pestering the clientele. That IS Kafka, and his buddy there is Elvis. Here, you need one more sip of this absinthe in this green bottle here.
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well i got here somehow, @badfish, and @coolredbridgeinamsterdamsomewhere..
🙂
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did you get notified because we wrote it like that? Or do you have nothing else to do with your time and stroll through blogs looking for wayfaring sentences?
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you could say that im on my own personal work-to-rule campaign and that the only blog comments i always read all of are badfish’s , as the replies to the comments are usually funny, sometimes so funny, and often the comments themselves are cool – today i’ve laughed out loud at least three times. just what the doctor ordered. if im taken to task about it I’ll say i have a dr’s prescription. “two panadols and read more badfish posts”. i had to scroll all the way back to reply, god knows where the reply will end up, and found out this whole sad tale was about some joint venture?!?!@badfish….. and @redbridgeinamsterdam…..
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yeah…got it! we’re all the way back here in Prague! History repeating itself, eh? you really read all the comments? don’t they have lives in China, girl?
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oh ps, if you ever need a new blog title it could be Wayfaring Sentences. I like it.
( see what i mean about the work-to-rule campaign?) 🙂
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see, you shouldn’t offer me no options, because then I just might take you up on it, and then I have to change titles or names or countries! Please don’t suggest I move to China and buy an OPPO, please. But then, I could photograph that weird building.
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when i have time or nothing better to do, i read all the comments because they make me laugh and smile. not all the time. just when i have time or if im procrastinating. …..
and so many replies in a thread goodness knows if this will even appear in order as a reply to your question!
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yeah, I know, I don’t know why it happens sort of out of sinc sometimes…sometimes I don’t know what is what with some replies!
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Where’s the next cafe? I need caffeine urgently!!! 🙂 🙂 All the best views are at the top of a hill, aren’t they? You may have just persuaded me to start saving up for a room/suite in on e of those botels. Me and those swans would get along famously. Thank you so much for linking up, Mr. B. It’s written with your usual eloquence and I smile and nod approval all the way through. Hoping I was a little less trouble to find this time? 🙂 Have a great weekend!
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One huge Badfish and Chips Cafe is right where you want it to be! Cyberville on the corner of Bright and Cheery. Glad you like the post, thought of you the whole way to the top…in part II. see you there
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Will do 🙂 🙂 I’ll be out of action for 2 weeks after Monday’s walk. The Algarve is calling! I’ll catch up with you soon as… Obrigada! 🙂
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that dang Algarve…I’m gonna need to go there and see what all the fuss is about
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I found a house boat. Stunning location. Just need to check it out.
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To buy or rent? Where do you go, what town or area? Obviously near water…ocean or lake?
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I will be posting about it when I’m home. Waiting for an appointment to view but you might need those mega bucks!
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Well all right then, can’t wait for that post! Mega bucks…I can rob a bank.
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This was a wonderfully enjoyable post. I’ve never been to Prague before, but I’ve heard it said that it’s one of those cities like Rome in which it almost doesn’t matter in which direction you look, you’ll always see something beautiful. I hope you enjoyed your visit and didn’t turn into a giant beetle. (I always hate when that happens.) 🙂
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Bun, HA! I actually tried to put a mention of a metamorphosis in this post, just couldn’t quite figure out where. Maybe in part II? And yeah, Prague is like that, it’s a hard city not to like. Impossible to call ugly.
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It has been near the top of my life of must-see destinations for a long time. Your post just made me feel even more strongly that I really should get out there and see it for myself someday. 🙂
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Yeah, I first wanted to go there in 1969, but the Russians had just decided to slip in there. So….
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Oh, those darned Soviets! 🙂
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yeah, and now they’re back!
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Badfish! A wonderfully enjoyable post and just what the doctor ordered. Three tubes of itchy cream, to counter chickenpox itch, one carton of anti-inflammatories, and a Badfish post to read at night.
There, better already!
Well I do owe you a big THANKYOU for FINALLY channelling Kafka. Well, almost. An odd presence you assumed was Kafka will do, for now. the photos are equisite, the magic fairies just divine — and, well , the Symphony of Stone enough for me to change my mind and consider Prague might be a good destination. Until I saw the garishly coloured Kafka museum, the weird statue, and decided again, nuh-uh. nup. I highly advise against reading Kakfa in high school, enough to turn one off Prague for life. lifetimes even.
So that’s the addy of the BF and C Cafe. You’d think since I named it, I’d know its location, but there you go. Maybe its a pop-up???
Finally, Badfish, one thing to correct in your post. Of course there are dragons. Dragons are everywhere, particurally here. I mean everyone around me claims authentic descendancy from dragons. ((ve been wondering what to quest after, for the WP photo challenge. maybe i should quest after dragons….))
Please send the Magic Fairies over here. and BTW< where DID you end up eating?
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You have chicken pox? Yikes! Is that how they cure people in Venice? Dragons…right. I am descended from dragons, I’m sure of that. My lizard brain works overtime, my other brain does not work at all.
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It’s been 2 years since I was in Prague and your post made it all come alive again! Yes, it is one of the most magical places I’ve ever visited.
And yes, I was one of those people who got up REALLY early in the morning to walk along Charles Bridge with no tourists creating congestion along the way. Even the vendors were just starting to arrive. I could pretend I was stepping back in time.
And the statues of the crawling babies? Loved them 🙂
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Joanne, I know…magical, right? I would have guessed you would be one us on the bridge early! I think I want to go in winter next time. snow on the bridge
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I like the idea of travelling off-season – really off-season – like winter. The summer is just too hot and full of tourists – like me 😉
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I know…you went to Niagra during winter didn’t you??
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whaaat!!! Winter is off-season in Canada? 😉
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Ha! Well…in some places I guess it is the time to GO, like Banff. Maybe there is no off season, at least not for you, eh!
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I think Prague tourism could hire you Badfish. A remarkable tour of beautiful Prague. Eloquently written and I felt as though I was in a fairy tale. Did you really get invited backstage?
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someone should hire me, dang it! And yeah, in this fairy tale, Mozart did invite me backstage.
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Badfish, this is a very enjoyable post to read. You’ve got a lot of interesting things in Prague covered, with some funny and thought-provoking photographs as well. I haven’t been to the Czech Republic and everyone I know said how beautiful Prague was, up to a point where cliches of the city began to form. This post of yours, however, gave me a fresh perspective on the Czech capital.
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thanks so much Bama, glad you enjoyed. I think there may be some cliches in Prague, and in summer, you’ll run across them all. I’ll go again, but in winter, or off season. Too many people is too many people, and ruins a good thing, even a fairly tale.
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Hmmmm, cannot but agree on what the other commenters say – eloquent and brilliant – a gorgeous dream ride. Prague is always on my list…do not understand why I haven’t been there yet. It might be the fact that I still haven’t been visited by fayeries –
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Yeah it took me a very long time to arrive at a place I longed to go to, also. What’s up with that?
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Thanks for the tour and your slant on the usual and not–your enthusiasm for the city is added to a long list of others that equal your encouragement to “just go there.”
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Sally, well, maybe that’s my job, eh? Get your bottoms somewhere? Or maybe just to show you what I saw? Who knows. Glad you enjoyed this, though.
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Saturday morning coffee and a BF post. Ahhh….
As always, very enjoyable read with fantastic photos. I love the theme, too. Gives it emotional context as well, beyond just saying, “I love this place.” Looking forward to Part III and if you discover a way to make a living without working that doesn’t involve advice from stockbrokers, buying lottery tickets, or resenting your parents for not making you a trust fund kid. Apropo of this post, however, I’d follow any rainbow to the leprechaun’s post of gold! In a heartbeat!
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Coffee and a badfish…sounds like a good combination to me! Lottery ticket…you know, you only need to buy one…the RIGHT one.
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What a great post BF. Thanks for the walking tour of Prague, it was indeed magical. I look forward to reading Part 2.
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Don, thanks buddy, glad you enjoyed. It did seem rather magical to me, also, when there. A bit surreal, actually. I would love to return, now that the hype has softened into reality.
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You sold me Prague…great post, on the “quest” list…
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Vicky…well, cool. Glad you liked it. And thanks for hanging out and commenting!
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Thanks for bringing me back to lovely, fairytale Prague. yes, it is beautiful. The only thing I didn’t like was the masses of tourists. I was stunned. But other than that it sure is a lovely city!!! It was fun to go back this past May as it had been since 1993 when I was there last.
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Thirdeye…right…masses of tourists. That was a bit of a bummer, but maybe I’ve been to so many places with masses that they no longer bother me…at least until I leave. Then I look back and go, wow…next time go in winter.
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If it is OK with you, I am going to keep some of the fairy dust because this trip was magical! Oh wait–Starbucks?? OK, as long as you did not say Wal-Mart. Cannot wait for Part II of our wonderful travel. I will buy your coffee…. 🙂
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you can keep all the fairy dust you can find here!! You know in some places, Starbucks has stores inside Wal-Marts!!! Yikes, eh.
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Oh, man…..!!!
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!
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Now I’m curious about Sedona, or Aspen, or Easter Island. As for Kafka, his “Castle” is one of rare books through which I suffered a great deal but it was obligatory school reading. Yet I still carried with me at all times one of his self-portraits (of which the image you’ve posted reminded me), I don’t know, as a warning not to write like him and at least make chapters? But you do that, you make chapters and points and examples and you know things too. Too bad you didn’t quite enjoy that dripping wall though. To me it delivered.
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Sedona is magical. And Aspen, even more so–I lived there for the 70’s. Magic happened every day. You liked the dripping wall? And chapters? What’s wrong with you girl? You from Slovenia or something?
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😀 Do you know how Slovenians introduce themselves? “Sorry, I’m from Slovenia.”
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HA! that’s how I now introduce myself as American!! Don’t get me wrong, I love America. But…sorry.
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Beautiful photos, they look like paintings!
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Jenny…thanks so much, glad you enjoyed!
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That tower is ugly. And the babies don’t help. But your photos are fabulous and the light and the sharpness are beautiful.
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HA! there is actually an uglier building in Prague, and no babies to help distract from it. Thanks much, glad you are here!
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This sounds like the perfect day to me. I’ve sent the link to this post to my daughter who is going to be in Prague in December. Hopefully the crowds will be smaller then.
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Well, all right. Prague in December! That seems like the perfect time to visit. I’m sure the crowds will be smaller, non existant, hopefully. Maybe snow on the bridge!!
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That’s what she is hoping for.
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Echoing others – a wonderful tour of Prague, but I am *swooning* over your photographs! What have you done? Is it a new camera? The clarity, sharpness and light in almost all of them – just gorgeous!
Alison
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Alison, swooning…OK…I love it when they swoon! But no…same camera. Maybe I cleaned the lense before leaving? I think it’s mostly that the light was right in most of the shot. I have so many shots that I think should have been great, and then, they aren’t.
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Fantastic photos BF,Prague has always been somewhere I fancied but I’ve only ever seen pics of the Square. You’ve pushed it up the list of places I want to see and can’t afford!
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Shall we save up, Gilly? Wouldn’t it be fantastic? You start nagging Jude while I’m gone, and it’s just a hop, skip and a little jump for Meg 🙂 🙂
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and me…what…I just sit home and read your posts on Prague, is that how this goes down?
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If you like! Come with us. Why not?
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OK…my kind of women!
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Gilly, thanks…and I hope you get there, but go during off-season!!
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Loved Prague and you’ve captured it beautifully. So much to see and do
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Tina…I know, I walked all day, every day when I was there. Got tired, but never bored.
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OMG, sold! Now I want to visit Prague. I have a book on its coffee/pastry places that look like the Helmsley Palace (did) and have always wanted to sample them firsthand. Now, you have! Anything Kafka transports me instantly to the dark side of the soul, something that seems so antithetical to the fair tale place you show in those amazing photographs. Honestly, if you don’t do a book, I will be so mad at you!
I have to read this again. Going back up …
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Beth…I have to say the pastries there were better than most places. Kafka…yeah, he can take you to the dark side pretty quickly. And I bet there was a bit of darkness in Prague during the ages. But now…it’s partyville. Try the absinthe. Thanks for reading and then rereading…now I guess I HAVE to write that book, don’t want you mad at me!!
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fairY tale … sheesh
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a fair fairy tale
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Prague is so beautiful at Christmas – you should go! https://worldwidewanderingblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/prague-czech-republic/
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Xmas seems like it would be the BEST time to go. Actually I have some time off at Xmas, you may have just talked me into going there instead of Madagascar.
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It’s beautiful at that time of year! Mind you, Madagascar sounds amazing too!
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the movie makes it sound great!! monsoons…not so much
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[…] Strolling Through Prague : One fine day- Part 1 […]
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Loved the unique tour and agree with others that I should eventually put this fairy-tale city on my list. (I want to unsee the bronze baby, though, especially with that living child perched at its bottom …) I studied your Lennon Wall photo for my claim to fame but, alas, not the right section, I guess!
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I know…unsee the babies!! And you didn’t even see the unfaces on them. Too bad you didn’t see your claim to fame on the wall…but I like it on your header!!!
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Beautiful city and stunning photos. I went there many years ago when I first started traveling and it blew my mind. Now that I’ve seen more of the world and started taking photos I want to go back! Thanks for sharing.
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Yeah, make sure you go during off-season, because you won’t get those Planet Bell photos during summer…without a bunch of tourists in the shot.!!
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Wonderful photos! I’ll have to go look at my Prague photos and relive my adventure!
We were there a few months after the 2002 floods, so a lot of landmarks and activities were still closed and there weren’t all that many tourists.
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Margie, glad I could help you relive your adventure. But luckily…few tourists, eh!!
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Beautiful – pictures and prose make me want to go. Now.
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Anabel…thanks so much and thanks for stopping by and letting me know.
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Fabulous post, so eloquently written and wonderful photos – don’t have time to say more because I’m off to book a flight to Prague ASAP!!
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So glad you enjoyed the writing…and good for you…go to Prague and send me photos! or write a post!
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Working??? Gadzooks, you need a little more fairy dust! Here’s another enchanted castle.
https://restlessjo.me/2016/09/26/jos-monday-walk-a-royal-odyssey/. Take care till whenever… 🙂
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Working…yeah…it pays for the traveling. But I’m about done. I want to write and not work. I want someone to give me a million dollars, too. But one of those is not going to happen.
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I don’t need the million but I love to write x
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well, I don’t NEED the million either, I just prefer it! I guess I’d prefer two.
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Beautiful description and photos of a beautiful city…. the river side reminds me so much of Seville in Spain. Enjoyed the walking tour with you.
Peta
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Peta, thanks. You know, I’ve been to Spain, but not Seville. I will have to go there, I heard they have a good barber there.
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Very funny!
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How very beautiful. You made me feel like visiting Prague myself!
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I should work for Prague tourism, get paid for this stuff, eh
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You should…
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With that wonderful Crawling Babies picture, I thought you might have given a shout-out to the Prague Proctology Polytechnic?
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Hahah…you’re sick, dude! But yeah, it’s a funny photo, huh.
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Very funny photo.
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would of been better if the babies were turtles, eh
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Now there’s a metamorphosis.
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good thing this post isn’t any longer….I could hardly hold my breath so long as it is! I have to put Prague on my list of Must-Do for my next life. Great post! It even inspired me to write a thing myself….. I see the RE-BLOG button, so I think I’ll take you up on that. 🙂
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yeah…I think you have to breathe when you read posts, girl!!
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I always save your posts for reading later…try not to lose them.
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What…like you take your laptop to the john?
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no…never…just make a mental note “hey, Self, don’t forge the Badfish post.” Sometimes its a couple days and I have to search yahoo, which is always an adventure in itself.
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It got so bad for me that I put a folder on my bookmark bar and stuck my bloggers in there, so I can find them easy…I can’t figure out that Reader, there’s no organization to it, that I can figure out?
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Reader is very mysterious. The folder on the bookmark bar idea is good…I have been a computer whiz since 1983…but they manage to keep ahead of me! Some things humans just aren’t supposed to know…woowoowoowoo (Twilight Zone music) 🙂
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HA! I was resisting computers in 1983, a friend of mine sold IBM computers, it made me crazy!
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I had been saving up to buy an IBM Selectric 2 typewriter…when my husband mentioned that my typewriter fund could be converted to a computer. I have had numerous machines over the years…and they have been trying to beat me! They are getting closer 🙂
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Ah, the IBM Selectric…a very fine machine! But for word processing, you just can’t beat a computer!! It’s the best thing they do, and simple.
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right…the Selectric2. was The thing then. Word Processing is still most of what I. do. I wouldn’t know a spreadsheet from a rattle snake.
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me too…but I’m pretty sure a spread sheet IS a rattle snake, isn’t it?
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could be. So…you shall be ever known as the “golden haired son of the blogging gods!” I LOVE that….having been completely enraptured in regretting never having tried absinthe. Nice break from listing stuff on ebay. 🙂
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well, I used to have blonde hair, but not sure about my lineage!! You sell stuff on ebay? I’m going to try that.
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I sell books on various venues. Now trying to unload some of the goods I had in my shops.
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oh, how cool. I have things to sell, I might try it.
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its fun sort of…if I can stay sort of sane. The postage price code alone is enough to bring me to hysteria…actually gave me a headache trying to find out the shipping cost from Ohio to Wisconsin. Geez…
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ha! look up the price to Abu Dhabi…that is a true horror
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I was just trying to send a little box from Ohio to Wisconsin…and I developed such a terrible headache I had to quit. Each of the zillion countries in the world has two zillion postal zones and 584 categories like Air…truck…camel…foot runner…kid on a goat…it boggles the mind.
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why can’t things just be simple like they used to be?
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when was that? I’ll bet the Pony Express guys had to depend on smart horses. The zig-zag postal routes is sort of like the airlines…connect in Houston flying between Oregon and Ohio.
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we always credit our Viking ancestor. My son is blond/blue eyed…my cousins, sisters, two of my daughters…etc. I had very dark hair back in the day. Those Vikings got around.
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they say the Vikings got to America long before Columbus. I too had blonde hair and blue eyes…but Dutch
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my genes go back to early England, various of them traced to a lieutenant in the revolution. Why always lieutenants? weren’t there any lackeys? I could belong to the DAR, but I’d never want to join a group that had to vote on me.
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DAR…ha…don’t let them vote on you. I think my genes do go back to a lackey
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I have a neighbor who belongs to the DAR. She thinks it is the greatest honor in the world! I have never told her that I, too, am eligible for the eliteness…because I don’t want to burst her bubble. I hate snobs! (She isn’t a snob, just a farm girl grown into a pleasant woman.) 🙂
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we are what we believe, eh!
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I yam what I yam…like Popeye. Somc like me, some don’t.
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my grandfather was born in Australia, his father and grandfather as well…we like to think they were distinguished officers of some great German war. But actually convicts used to be sent over there… nah! Grandpa ran away on a sailing ship at age 16.
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I’d like to hear his stories
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yeah, especially in Minn and those states. Columbus and his band of merry men and big huge dogs completely wiped out some Caribbean tribes. Nasty people! But I will skip that tirade for right now. 🙂
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no wonder we don’t care much for history…it doesn’t read well sometimes
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I remember in high school government class (required) once I literally had tunnel vision…like looking at the teacher’s face through a telescope. He had to have been the most boring man I ever listened to.
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it happens
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ah, history is relative…whoever wins the war gets to write the history about it. 🙂
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and they are usually men…with egos
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men with egos…novel concept! 🙂 By the way, today the 28th was my wedding anniversary…44 years…great guy! My second husband that is. 🙂
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yikes…I’ve never done anything for 18 years! especially stay married
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My first didn’t pan out too well, five kids notwithstanding. 🙂 Second one very good, total opposites and more of a mutual admiration relationship.
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ditto on the first, not ditto on my second
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well, I’m no prize myself…although I was a lot cuter back then… my second hubby was crazy about me for some reason (he was pretty crazy) ; bragged about my job, writing, educational aspirations…I like that in a husband. LOL
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been there, done that…
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Oh, this post! So, so good! Your photos are magnificent! Love your comment about stilettos and cobblestones. Wise. I would love to go back to Prague someday. I was there years ago, right after Xmas and it was absolutely brutally cold but it is still one of my most favorite trips, and favorite memories drinking hot spiced wine at the holiday market in the main square. Such a beautiful place. Awesome post, BFF! 🙂
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Reblogged this on SOMETIMES and commented:
Leave it to my friend Badfish to spin tales of adventure and mystery…I am reposting this here for the enjoyment of anyone who happened to miss it originally! I liked it so much I even wrote my own poem about it yesterday…thanks BF for the great post and for letting it be re-blogged.
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Gradma…well, thank you SOOOO much for this! What a treat. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I’m glad you shared it on your blog. Is your poem on your blog?
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yep…its called …uh…just go to my blog and search “Prague” its the post before the re-blog of yours. 🙂 its a pome… (poem) maybe “Dreaming Imagination” which is a dumb title…
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got it!
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yep, the day before the re=blog of your post.
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https://mumbletymuse.com/2016/10/01/dreaming-imagination/ Wow! I posted several things since my Prague poem…t needs a different title. (I clear out my notebooks now and then of all the stuff I write, and post it on te site.)
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Well, I believe in magic….you just make me want to see all these places…hopefully the fairy dust will take me someday!
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like Jiminy says: wishes come true
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A magical tour, Badfish. Even found I was wearing my mouse ears!
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Well, well, I was just over at Spaceship China, where Debbie talked about synchronicity and I happened to give her an offering of a quote from Unbearable Lightness of Being, set in Prague and as I was looking for the quote I wanted, I noted that Umberto Eco made a reference to Kafka. THEN I go back to the reader and the next post up is Part II – but I had some catching up to do.
NEVER in a million years, could I have described Prague so eloquently. I feel I have to go back and learn to look properly.
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Oops – not Eco, but Milan Kundera
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got it…!! But Eco is cool too.
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Very cool 🙂
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Safar, RIGHT…synchronicity! What was the quote you gave Deb? I’m a quote saver/user…love it when someone writes something that makes sense. And thanks for reading and liking this post…it was fun and interesting to write, and to walk! I feel like I have to go back, too…dang the luck, eh! Meet you there, under the Charles Bridge at midnight.
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Midnight eh? Done! The quote is somewhat long, but here it is:
“But is not an event in fact more significant and noteworthy the greater the number of fortuities necessary to bring it about?
Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup…..
Necessity knows no magic formulae-they are all left to chance. If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi’s shoulders…..
They [human lives] are composed like music. Guided by his sense of beauty, an individual transforms a fortuitous occurrence into a motif, which then assumes a permanent place in the composition of the individual’s life. ….Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.
It is wrong, then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences, but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.”
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That is a long one…this is the line I like best: Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.
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I also like that being blind to such coincidences in daily life you deprive your life of a dimension of beauty (but I don’t think it’s right to chide).
But I think my favourite line is ‘If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi’s shoulders.’
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yikes…that is a good one, too! I think I’ve had some of those fluttering-down moments…long ago
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We become so much more cynical with age!
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Safar! Your quotes are amazing!
fortuitities fluttering down like birds to Francis of Assisi’s shoulders!
how beautiful!
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This was great (both parts). Your photos are absolutely gorgeous, but what I love best are your narratives. You are my favorite tour guide!
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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Madelyn…thanks so much, glad you enjoyed. It was fun to write, and fun to walk!! And now, fun to guide you!!
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Blog buddies who travel and take me with them are my very favorite people! Although I’m stuck in the US, currently, I am seeing the world through your eyes. Thank you so very much.
xx,
mgh
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Maybe that works two ways. People who stay at home and have favorite people who travel are what makes writing these travel pieces worthwhile. Seems a shame to waste them all on other people who travel, eh? So welcome aboard here, buddy! I read you were having trouble with CSS. I don’t have the slightest clue what that is or what that does. Should I?
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Well, I am somebody who LOVES to hear about the trips of others – and to see the pictures. So keep ’em coming.
CSS is a sort of global formatting “styles sheet” that is supposed to allow one to avoid html coding – though I spend way too much time fixing the html for my CSS to be coded correctly!
If you don’t know, it probably means it’s working on your blog. You know what they say — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
xx,
mgh
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yeah, but if you don’t even know what it is or does, you might not know if it’s broke!
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Suspect CSS snafus if you have ongoing problems with your site (like photo resizes don’t stick, indents disappear or duplicate on or after saving, etc.)
If you can do what you want to do and your posts look the way you want them to (and stay that way, even if you edit something later), don’t mess with success!
xx,
mgh
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got it…all is well in badfish land/waters
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Glad to hear it. Like they say, if it ain’t broke . . .
xx,
mgh
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So pretty, thanks so much for the recommendation, sounds it is a perfect city to strolling around..will be heading to the second part!!
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Indah…yeah, as far as cities go, Prague rates pretty high on my list!
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WOW – what a tour! Brilliant!
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thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out!!
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I believe in magic and this post is a dream indeed! I love everything Kafka and want to stay on a botel! The one room hotel would be pretty awesome too! So many but my favorite was the crawling baby on the Crawling Baby. Great timing.
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ha!! yeah, a crawling baby on the crawling baby…not many people got that!
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