Art Nouveau Municipal House and Astronomical Clock



This is one of Prague's most photographed cultural and historical monuments, so we figured millions of people can't be wrong and we photographed it too. They hold frequent concerts inside but they were on the pricey side - nearly $100 each. Instead, we're going to attend a guitar concert this evening in a small church close to the river.

Our walk took us past the Powder Tower so named because after it became obsolete as a gate into the Old Town, is was recommissioned as a gunpowder storehouse.



Then we came to my favourite part of the walk, the Astronomical Clock. Try as I might, I couldn't figure it out. On the hour a mechanical parade of saints rotates through two open windows above the clock. Since we chanced upon the clock at 11:45, we decided to wait and then splurged and paid $12 for two glasses of coke so we could sit and watch. The crowd was huge. I can't imagine what it's like in summer.


The skelton you see is mechanical and pulls a string which rings the bell on the hour.





Hans, ever thinking of his upcoming Walk, hiked up to the top of the tower, probably 175'. I guarded our $12 cokes down below. Apparently there's quite a panoramic view from up there, but I'm happy to just admire the photos otherwise I fear the blackout spots in front of my eyes would obliterate the view.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Palace

Image
Wow. Our days are full of strange sights and long hours. In the bus every morning at 7:00, and never home before 5:00. The summer palace was built by Rama V to commemorate the village where he met his wife. How romantic is that! Lo hiding between the antlers The gardens are gorgeous, with topiary herds of elephants, deer and rabbits. Sounds of peacocks echo through the gardens but they remained frustratingly elusive. Their cries were augmented by the screech of other unseen birds in faraway branches. But we did see an amazing variety of bougainvillea in all colours. Hans standing by the elephant's trunk. From the walls in the Reception Hall, yellowing faded faces of Ramas I to IX gazed out from acestral photos. Each Rama is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Other rooms held lacquered furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and stunning teak carvings. As with all Buddhist buildings, we have to remove our shoes and in some cases, we were asked the night before to dress respectfu...
Read more

At Sea

Image
Today we were scheduled to stop in Marseille but overnight the wind picked up and we apparently have heavy swells. Too heavy to allow a vessel of this size to dock safely, so the port was cancelled. Didn’t matter much to us since we hadn’t scheduled a tour and were just planning to take the shuttle into the old part of the city for a walkabout. Instead, we have a day at sea and that’s never a bad thing when you’re on a fabulous cruise liner. Already, I was part of a losing team at a game this morning and now I’m catching up on blogging. Later, who knows? There’s never a shortage of things to do on the ship. And there’s always the fitness room. I can only hope it will be full.
Read more