Puti's and Keiko's journey to Prague and Vienna



APRIL 01: PRAGUE


Two hours in Finnair airplane, regular bus to Zličín subway terminal station, a quick train hop to the city proper, and there we were walking on the streets of Prague.

Many of the museums we visited had photographing restrictions, so only some of our visited places are documented. There are quite many pictures nevertheless. :-)

We stayed in the old town of Prague. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, and its buildings clearly show its long tradition from mediaeval to modern ages, effectively making the whole old town a kind of architectural museum of historic eras.

In Finland the snow was just thawing. Prague, being further into south, was free of snow but only nominally warmer than Finland. However, occasionally we got warm blasts of air from the southern side of the Alps, reminding us of Finnish summer.

















Powder Tower (Prašná brána)


The dark building in the below image is the Powder Tower, built 1475 but getting its name during 1600's, being used as a gunpowder storage. It is also one of the gates of the old town.





The Municipal House


One of the things to note here are the murals from Alfons Mucha.


























Old Town central square


One of the main visiting sites at the central square is the Týn Chruch, built during 1300's in Gothic style. Already 300 years earlier there had been other churches on the same site. Even though this church is now a Roman Catholic one, it was originally controlled by Hussites, a kind of pre-Lutheran group 100 years before the actual birth of Luther. The group is named after Jan Hus, who was burned as a heretic. The Catholics subsequently furnished the church according to their own conventions.

There are also the Old Town Hall with its astronomic clock on the outer wall, and the House at the Stone Bell. The story tells that the stone bell was a protest against the restrictions on the religious freedom of the Christians. The Easter Market on the square had music events, colorful shows, and merchandise with varying relationship to Easter. There I tried the helix-shaped pastry called trdlo.