Biking Czech Republic
6-10 July 2023, Prague, 41.51km
Prague Camping 408kč [R339]
How's this for a cycle-friendly lane into a capital city? It was occupied only briefly by a police car (not listed!), otherwise we had it to ourselves. Sadly, it did not last near long enough...
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Only around 40km done today between Lysá nad Labem and Prague, but another lovely day on the road.
We entered the old city at the "Powder Gate... The construction of this 65-metre-high late-gothic city gate began in 1475... After moving the royal seat in 1483 the gate lost its significance. It gained its present name in the 17th and 18th centuries, when it became a gunpowder warehouse... At the end of the 19th century, it was restored... In April 1945, after the liberation of Prague from German occupation, the gate became a place of retaliation against the German population." (Wikipedia)
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We are camping for four nights on an island in the Vlatava River just south of the old city. We took a ferry from the east bank promenade to the northern tip of the island. To our surprise, seniors over 65 are transported free of charge, which encouraged me to ask the campsite reception for a pensioner's discount. Got a good one!
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In the town of Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav (I kid you not), we sat on the steps outside a pink church, the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, having admired its elaborate interior, enjoying delicious vanilla ice-cream in a cone. It seems the Czechs are as obsessed with ice-cream as are the Poles. In one tiny Polish village, we were told there were 15 dedicated ice-cream stalls.
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Today is a Czech public holiday, Jan Hus day. Hus was an early reformist who influenced Martin Luther 100 years later. He was burned at the stake as an heretic on 6 July 1415.
Many shops were closed, but the Czechs took advantage of a day off, biking, boating on the Elbe and Vlatava rivers, and eating out.
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Tomorrow, the Romanian Embassy to apply for our visas.
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Had a sizeable flap of skin ripped open by a very nice man at the Romanian embassy. We were standing outside the door waiting for someone to answer the intercom, when instead someone opened the door. I was resting my hand on a round knob with a sharp back edge which caught me as he opened the door. He immediately brought out his first aid kit and stopped me dripping blood on the lintle. But still sent us away to make an appointment via the website.
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Charl and I forgot we are not in Africa where you pop into the next country's embassy, fill in a form (or not), maybe shake hands with the ambassador, pay a sizeable sum of money (or not), and either leave with the visa or pick it up a couple of days later.
Seems applying for a Romanian visa is as complex as applying for a Schengen visa with forms and itineraries and proof of income and proof of accommodation, etc. We really are going to have to get our act together.
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If you don't already have a crick in your neck, Prague will give you one. For free. A truly special city; a visual cacophony from its manhole covers to its lampposts to the statues and artwork adorning almost every building and rooftop.
It was hot, hot, hot, but a stunning day for photography. Having crossed the Vltava by ferry (a misnomer for the very small boat that ferries a maximum of 12 people at a time to and from the island), we bought a 24-hour public transport ticket (half-price for seniors) and travelled by tram and bus and Metro, not only between destinations, but to take a long break just sitting and watching the city roll by.
We started in the Old Town Square noting particularly the Hus Memorial, the Prague Meridian, and the wonderful astronomical clock, joining dozens of tourists to stand and watch it strike noon.
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Prague Meridian
"The slender brass strip in Prague's Old Town Square was used to tell time from 1652 to 1918. Before the technological revolutions that seemingly shrunk the world, Prague, like many other industrial cities, relied on its own local time. To determine high noon, the city used a shadow cast by a Marian column that fell directly upon the meridian of 14°25’17″ East each day."
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Astronomical Clock
"The clock has been modified, destroyed, and repaired many times since its creation in 1380. It is perhaps the most well-known astronomical clock in the world, with four moving automatons (including a skeleton ringing his death knell for each hour), and rotating statues of the 12 apostles. It displays Babylonian time, Old Bohemian time, German time, and Sidereal time. It also shows the moon’s phases and the sun’s journey through the constellations of the zodiac. The calendar dial, just below the clock, shows the day of the month, the day of the week, feast days and allegorical pictures of the current month and sign of the zodiac."
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I spent six months working in a fish factory in Iceland in 1983/4. One of the people working in the factory was a Czechoslovakian count who had lost everything. I don't remember much about him except that he was tall and reserved, and was too ignorant to enquire more deeply into his history.
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Yesterday we tried trdelnik or chimney cake (thanks Janicy for the heads-up) filled with crushed nuts and pistachio ice-cream. It is a sweet pastry rolled onto a metal cylinder and baked over hot coals. We bought ours from the shop pictured in yesterday's post, but later took this pic…
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Eclectic odd sods seen in Prague…
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Lennon Wall
Located in a small and secluded square across from the French Embassy, the wall had been decorated by love poems and short messages against the regime since 1960s. It received its first decoration connected to John Lennon—a symbol of freedom, western culture, and political struggle—following the 1980 assassination of John Lennon when an unknown artist painted a single image of the singer-songwriter and some lyrics.[1]
In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for Gustáv Husák's communist regime. Following a short-lived era of democratization and political liberalization known as the Prague Spring, the newly-installed communist government dismantled the reforms, inspiring anger and resistance. Young Czechs wrote their grievances on the wall and, according to a report of the time, this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The liberalization movement these students followed was described as Lennonism (not to be confused with Leninism), and Czech authorities described participants variously as alcoholic, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western free market capitalism.
The wall continuously undergoes change, and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by authorities, by the next day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of global ideals such as love and peace.
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Prague's narrowest street with its traffic light ensuring that pedestrians do not enter it from either end at the same time.
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Charles bridge
... a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river... Its construction started in 1357... and finished in the early 15th century.
As the only means of crossing the river Vltava until 1841, Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town. This land connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe.
The bridge is 516 metres long and nearly 10 metres wide... it was built as a bow bridge with 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers... The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, originally erected around 1700, but now all have been replaced by replicas.
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Memorial to the Victims of Communism
Increasingly decayed figures stand as a powerful reminder of the human costs of Czech Communism.
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27 crosses
... in 1618... Protestant uprising... against the Catholic Habsburgs resulted in Thirty Years' War... Habsburgs took their revenge and executed some of the key leaders of the uprising...
... the execution of 27 Bohemian leaders (three noblemen, seven knights and 17 burghers) of the Bohemian Revolt by the Austrian House of Habsburg that took place on 21 June 1621 at the Old Town Square in Prague.
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Our Schengen visa is valid until 29 August. We will cycle through Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to make use of it. Then enter Romania and spend the next few months in the non-Schengen / Balkan states. We will pull together what we need for the Romanian visa and apply in Bratislava as we plan to depart Prague tomorrow.