1999 Biking East Europe

Saturday, September 18 – Prague, Czech Rep – Sport Camp, 400Kc

Slept long and well in our basic little room. Not even disturbed by the four young men partying on the adjoining stoep. Trammed to Cafe Patio for an extravagant and delicious ‘salty breakfast’ consisting of a boiled egg, ham, cheese, three small baguettes, fruit juice and cappuccino (290Kc) – all served in a divine setting. High, mini-arches-in-small-bricks ceiling, with a profusion of dangling lights and fans. Seated on a couch (very civilised). Indian artefacts, newspapers on a stick, eggs served in an iron snail.

After this great if extravagant start to the day we dropped our washing at Laundryland (Londynska 71, Metro stop Namesti Miru). Then took tram 22 all the way back across the river and up the hill to the back end of Hradcany. From where we strolled down cobbled roads, past shops selling junky beer mugs and classy antique musical instruments and icons, into the palace complex.

There to visit the St Vitus cathedral – begun in 1344, completed in 1929! ‘Good King Wenceslas’ rests here (he was murdered by his brother) and the Bohemian crown jewels are stored here – though not for public display (including apparently Wenceslas’s gold crown studded with some of the world’s largest sapphires. The door is secured by seven locks, the seven keys kept by seven different people starting with the president. The security is in part to prevent pretenders to the throne from trying on the headgear – an allegedly fatal act. In fact, the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich tried it on for size and was assassinated later in the streets of Prague – though not specifically for this particular act!).

The church is magnificent. It is built on the site of a sacrificial altar to the heathen fertility god, Svantovit, but was dedicated to Saint Vitus who allegedly exorcised the Emperor Diocletian’s son and was thereafter known as the patron saint of epilepsy (St Vitus Dance!). But what stands out most in my mind are the beautiful if inappropriate modern stained-glass windows – some funded by financial institutions, all completed in the early-20th century. In spectacular colours: green, purple, aqua, rose and red.

We trammed across town again to collect out washing and back to the centre of things to change in the loo and attend the Original Prague Mozart Company’s The Best of Mozart. Held in a small room overlooking the river and the Charles bridge, with only four musicians, two or three opera singers and a very avant garde stage setting and skits – none of which I could relate to the music which I do not know. But the music itself was lovely.

Another great day – we could easily spend a couple of weeks in this city.