Europe Trip Day 13: Dresden, Germany

We headed out of Prague Thursday morning, March 27 to go to Berlin. We decided to spend time in Dresden on the way. We were all feeling a bit tired of walking around cities all day, and Nate's leg was bothering him, so we decided to change things up and take a boat tour down the Elbe River of Dresden. After arriving in Dresden, we had some time to spare before our tour left, so we walked around the old town area. Dresden has a picturesque skyline with a number of interesting buildings. Much of the area was destroyed and/or damaged during WWII and then rebuilt or otherwise restored. It was a UNESCO World Heritage Site until recently when a new bridge was built across the Elbe River. UNESCO decided that this ruined the landscape, although I personally don't see what all the fuss was about. It seems that the bridge was probably needed in the area given how long it still took us to get across any bridge due to heavy traffic.

The Semper Opera House

Looking out to the Theaterplaz from the Zwinger

Hofkirche on the left

Hofkirche

The Procession of Princes (Fürstenzug in German)

Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady)

Our boat tour turned out to be quite nice. We sat on the top of the boat with good views of everything, and the narration was clear and easy to understand. We were really glad that is wasn't like our Venice boat tour!

Austin on the boat

Lingner Palace

We learned that the Linger Place got its name from Karl August Lingner, the inventor of the world's first mouthwash, which is still sold today. He invented the mouthwash in 1892 and called it Odol. It was made mixing essential oils with an antiseptic. He grew wealthy enough from his inventions, particularly mouthwash, that he later opened the German Hygiene-Museum and bought the palace.

Eckberg Palace

Karl August Lingner was not the only man into mouth and dentistry products to own a palace along the river. Dr. Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg, who manufactured the first machine-made toothpaste, bought the Eckberg Palace in 1926. His toothpaste was sold in a metal tube.

Albrechtsberg Palace

The Blue Wonder

Our boat ride took us just past the Blue Wonder, a bridge that at the time of its completion in 1893 was one of the longest to not be supported by pillars. It got its name because it was painted a vibrant blue.

Augustus Bridge - oldest standing Dresden bridge - built around 1910

Royal Art Academy

After finishing our boat tour, we continued on to Berlin for the night. We arrived later than we had hoped due to bad traffic, but it wasn't too bad. Our hotel in Berlin was another matter though. It was the worst of all the places we stayed at. It was another relatively unmarked hotel found up a flight of stairs in the middle of an apartment building. There was no reception desk, no kitchenette (one was mentioned in the listing for the hotel), and worst of all no heat in our cold room. There were definitely no extras of any kind there, including no garbage cans in the bathrooms. The place only had two shared bathrooms, only one of which had a shower, for roughly 15 rooms. Luckily, the place wasn't very full while we were there. It certainly wasn't what we were expecting. Luckily in the end, we were given a discount for not having any heat in our room.

Europe Trip Day 12: Part 2 of Prague, Czech Republic

Wednesday morning, March 26, we got up, prepared and ate our breakfast, and  set out to explore the city more on our own. We ordered food from the hostel during our stay there to prepare and eat in our convenient kitchenette. Our suite was actually quite nice for a hostel. It wasn't fancy, but we had lots of space. In fact, our suite was divided into two rooms, which was unexpected but particularly nice.

Our hostel room included a convenient kitchenette

There were a number of places we hoped to see in greater detail that we had learned some about on our tour the day before. For example, we wanted to see the famous astronomical clock as it went off! The clock was installed in 1410 and is the oldest astronomical clock in the world that still works. As the clock chimes, two doors open allowing viewers to see wooden figures representing the twelve apostles as they circle around. Below these doors on either side of the clock are the figures of Vanity looking at himself in a mirror, a miserly Jew holding a bag of gold, an infidel Turk, and the skeleton of Death, who carries and hour glass while tolling the bell, reminding the other figures that time is passing and death is approaching. Meanwhile, the other three figures shake their heads signifying that they are not ready to die. Below these figures are four more stationary figures representing virtues: a chronicler, an angel, an astronomer, and a philosopher. As the tolling comes to a close, a rooster at the top flaps his wings and crows, and then the bell chimes the hour.

As our tour guide had explained to us the day before, legend has it that Master Hanuš was responsible for building the clock. The city councilors loved the clock and became concerned that Hanuš would go off and build another clock like it for another European city. To prevent this, they invited Hanuš to the Prague Castle to "see something" they wanted to show him. Suspicious, he at first didn't go. However, being curious, he eventually decided to go against his better judgement. Once there, he was taken, tied down to a chair, and a hot iron stick was used to take out his eyes. He was then let go. However, without his eyesight, he was unable to pursue his normal activities or his career. Depressed, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the gears of the clock he had created, jamming it up and rendering it dysfunctional for a century until someone else came along who was able to fix it.

We also visited a couple of churches. Prague is full of old churches and places of worship. Interestingly enough, many of them are not used as churches any more. That is because, as our tour guide had explained to us the day before, 70% of the population there is atheist. This probably helps to explain the widespread drug use, high alcohol consumption, and other inappropriate pastimes and problems common to the area. Our tour guide had speculated that the high percentage of atheists there has something to do with the volatile religious history of the area. I would also be inclined to think the the Nazi and Communist occupations of the area also were damaging to the religious beliefs of the population given that such totalitarian philosophies discourage any loyalties (including God) being placed before loyalty to the state, and often seek to make the state the "religion" people turn to, so to speak. In any case, many of the churches there have been turned into or at least double as concert halls or museums. Our tour guide even mentioned one church that ironically had been transformed into a bar.

We stopped by the St. Nicholas Church which is currently the worship place of a Hussite congregation. There were a lot of displays inside the church detailing the history of the area, particularly as it pertained to Jan Hus and the Hussite Church.

Jewel thief's mummified arm

We also visited the Church of St. James. A couple of interesting stories are associated with this church. Count Vratislav of Mitrovice was accidentally buried alive inside the church when he was really only unconscious. After his burial, people could hear noises coming from the tomb, which they attributed to the count's spirit not being able to find peace. They sprinkled the tomb with holy water. After a few days the sound went away. Several years later when the tomb was opened, they found the the count's remains outside the damaged coffin. This church is also famous for the mummified arm hanging near the tomb. The story is that a thief tried to steal jewels from the statue of the Virgin Mary on the high alter. Mary grabbed the thief's arm and held it fast, and monks had to cut it off in order to release the thief. The arm was then hung as a reminder and warning to other potential thieves.
 

Inside of St. James Church

Next we decided to explore the Jewish Quarter, previously known as the Jewish Ghetto. This area of the city has a fascinating history in and of itself and is home to what probably the oldest Jewish community in Bohemia. It is believed that Jews settled in the area sometime during the tenth century. Over the years they experienced periods of great persecution as well as periods of prosperity and relative freedom. At some points in time, Jews were only allowed to live in this section of the city, and it is said that at one time 18,000 Jews were crammed together living in this small area. It was actually renamed Josefov in 1850 in honor of Josef II, the Holy Roman Empire who guaranteed the Jews a number of freedoms in 1781. About 90% of the Jews from Prague died during the Nazi occupation. Paradoxically, this area today boast one of the best preserved Jewish Ghettos in Europe with one of the best collections of Jewish artifacts thanks to Hitler, who planned to make it the “Museum of an Extinct Race.”

Old New Synagogue

The legend of the Golem is a well known tale from Prague's Jewish Quarter. Our guide from the previous day told us the legend. There are a number of variations of the tale, but basically Golem was a creature created by Rabbi Loew from clay along the banks of the Vltava River during the reign of Rudolf II. The rabbi then brought Golem to life with special Hebrew incantations. The purpose of Golem was to protect the Jewish people in Prague's Ghetto from those wishing to harm and/or expel the Jews. The Golem had a shem, which is a paper with the name of God written on it, put into his mouth. This shem brought him to life, but it had to be removed for the Sabbath so the Golem could rest on that day. One Friday evening, Rabbi Loew forgot to remove the shem, and the Golem went on a destructive rampage. Rabbi Loew decided that it was time to put a stop to the Golem for good, so he removed the shem and the Golem was destroyed. It is said that the Golem rests in the attic of the Old New Synagogue. Prague's Golem actually provided the inspiration for Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.

The Old New Synagogue is also the oldest active synagogue in Europe. The tale behind its name is also interesting. It is said that the stones used to build the synagogue came from the Temple in Jerusalem "on condition" that they will be returned when the Messiah comes. The words for "on condition" in Hebrew sounded similar to "Old New" in English, and the English version stuck.

We didn't go inside the Old New Synagogue, but we did visit a number of other synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, most of which had been turned into museums. We walked through the Pinkas Synagogue, which serves as a memorial to Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. The walls inside are covered with the names, birth dates, and death/deportation dates of these victims. We also walked through Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery after visiting a museum about it and Jewish burial customs. It is against Jewish law to remove tombstones or destroy Jewish graves, but space in the Jewish Ghetto was very limited. Consequently, graves were built up on top of each other for centuries in the cemetery. There are twelve layers of graves and somewhere around 100,000 burials there. 12,000 tombstones are currently visible.

Last of all before lunch, we went to the Spanish Synagogue, which was quite elaborately decorated inside with golden Islamic-style gilded patterns. No pictures were allowed from inside (although there are a number available online for anyone wishing to see some), but there were lots of displays about the history of the Jewish Quarter and the persecutions faced by those living there, which were very interesting.

Spanish Synagogue

 

The Metronome

After that, we returned to our suite for lunch before walking up to the Metronome, which was installed in 1991 where an enormous monument to Stalin had previously been. The Metronome sits in the center of Prague up on a hill overlooking the city, so it is a great place to go for a good view.  There is a skate park up there too. We really enjoyed the afternoon on the hill walking along the sidewalks and enjoying the spring flowers. It felt nice to be out of the crowds and surrounded by greenery instead of buildings for a change.

View from the Metronome

Panoramic view from the Metronome

We also headed over to the Hanavský Pavilion, from which there is a great view of the Vltava River with bridges spanning across it.

Hanavský Pavilion

 

From there we continued back down the hill and to the Charles Bridge. On our way there we noticed there were lots of swans along the river bank, which was fun to see. The Charles Bridge was started in 1357 and finished at the beginnings of the 1400s. It replaced another bridge that had been badly damaged due to flooding. The Charles bridge provided the only route across the river in the area without a boat until 1841, which also made Prague an important trade route between Eastern and Western Europe. The bridge is lined with thirty statues and has towers on either end.

Statue of John of Nepomuk

The statue of John of Nepomuk is interesting. As our guide had explained to us the day before, John was the court preist of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and of Bohemia. It is said that when John of Nepomuk refused to tell the king what sins his wife confessed, the king had the priest thrown into the river where he drowned in March 1393. John of Nepomuk became known as a national saint of the Czech Republic. He is the patron saint against calumnies and the protector against floods. Below his statue of two reliefs: one of the queen confessing in which a knight is petting a dog, and one of the priest being thrown into the river. Touching the dog in the relief is supposed to bring bad luck, while touching the priest in the other relief is supposed to bring good luck.

We were able to catch the sunset from the bridge, which was very picturesque. From there we shopped a little in the souvenir shops and got dinner before retiring to our suite.

Sunset from Charles Bridge

National Museum & Wenceslas Square at Night

Europe Tour Day 10-11: Part 1 of Prague, Czech Republic

We headed out again from our apartment on Monday, March 24. First we went to the car rental place to get yet another rental car since we weren't allowed to take the car we had been driving to the Czech Republic. From the rental place, we drove to Prague. We arrived that evening, checked into our hostel suit, and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. That all actually took a great deal more time that we thought it would because when Nate went to park our car in the parking for the hostel, he couldn't find it. He didn't find any helpful people to direct him either. In fact, most people he met were quite rude. For example, after pulling into one garage, he asked the garage attendant if he was in the right place. The attendant told him he wasn't and insisted he still pay the parking fees for an hour's worth of parking to leave.

We actually found Prague to be the least hospitable place of all the areas we visited. As we quickly found out from Nate's parking experience, there are a good deal of unhelpful to downright rude people living there. This was confirmed to us at other points too, such as when our tour group the following day was yelled at with deplorable language by a young man trying to get by us. I was sadly not really surprised to read this story soon after we returned about people not stopping to help a man in the Czech Republic who got clipped by a train. There are plenty of other reasons that I am more than a little happy we don't live in the Czech Republic too. We are not exactly into the high beer consumption there (the Czech Republic is known to have the highest beer consumption per capita in the world - averaging over a bottle of beer per person per day), not to mention the rampant drug usage, or the prostitution. Restaurants all have smoking and non-smoking sections, most of the time right next to each other, making it difficult to find a place to eat where you don't suffocate from the second-hand smoke too.

Church of the Virgin Mary Before Tyn

That all being said, Prague turned out to be an absolutely fascinating place to visit. Luckily, not everyone there was rude; we did meet some very nice and helpful people too, including our tour guide. Tuesday morning we went on a free tour of the city (free meaning the freelance tour guides rely on tips from the tourists). This tour was my favorite of all the tours we did during our trip. Our tour guide was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and a bit eccentric. She spoke clearly and made everything especially interesting, plus we didn't have to listen to her talk through microphone with ear phones.  She told us about the history, legends, art, and other essential things to know about being in Prague (like watching out for ripe off currency exchange rates). us Starting at the old town square, we walked around the city with her as she explained various buildings, sculptures, and other landmarks all while telling us of Prague's history. I would have to write a short book to include all the information included in the tour. I found myself completely fascinated by the story of Prague's history, which is wildly turbulent, frequently bloody, and painfully violent. We also learned about the city's art and culture on the tour.

Our tour started at the Old Town Square. Here we saw the statue of the Czech priest Jan Hus and learned about how he was the first reformer of the Church after John Wycliffe. He was ultimately burned at the stake for heresy in 1415, but after his death his followers, the Hussites, rebelled against their Catholic rulers, and the Hussite Wars followed. The Catholic rulers were defeated, and a century later about ninety percent of the population of the Czech lands were Protestants following the teachings of Hus.

We also learned about the defenestrations of Prague. Apparently, Prague is famous for its defenestrations, and in fact, the term originated here. It means to throw someone out a window. Defenestration most often ends in the death of the person being defenestrated. The First Defenestration of Prague occurred in July of 1419. A Hussite priest was leading a procession through Prague's streets when a stone was thrown at him from the town hall. This angered those in the procession, so they stormed the town hall and hurled the judge and thirteen town council members there out the window to their deaths.

The Second Defenestration of Prague occurred while Czech lands were under the rule of the Habsburg Kings. Initially, this dynasty allowed Protestants to worship freely. However, in May of 1618 a group of Catholic regents brought a letter to the Prague Castle ordering Protestant Estate Lords that they could no longer have churches on government owned land. This ultimately ended with all but two of the Catholic regents being defenestrated by the Protestant Lords. Somehow the regents survived their fall though. Some Catholics attribute this to rescuing angels while the Protestants said it was because the regents landed in a dung heap.

Ultimately, after this, the Catholic and Protestant sides began gathering and preparing for war. The Battle of White Mountain, an early battle in the Thirty Years' War, soon followed. The battle was between King Ferdinand II who sought to impose Roman Catholicism on the subjects of Protestant King Frederick (The Winter King), the king of Bohemia. Ferdinand II, who heavily supported the Catholic Counter-reformation, won the battle and subsequently had the 27 Protestant nobles beheaded in the square. The twenty-seven white crosses in the cobblestones mark a memorial to the nobles who were killed.

Prague and the rest of the area now constituting the Czech Republic remained in control of the Habsburg Dynasty until the end WWI. At that point it became part of Czechoslovakia, also known as The First Republic. However, the Munich Agreement of September 1938 put sections of the country under Germany's control as Western Europe attempted to make any concessions necessary to avoid war. Other areas were annexed by Hungary and Poland. The remaining weakened country, known as The Second Republic, lasted a few months. In March of 1939, its president, Hácha, surrendered to Hitler. Germany forces moved into the area, and Hitler announced the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from the Prague Castle. While this protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia had its own government, the real executive power for the region lied with a Reichsprotektor (Reichs protector) from Germany.  However, during Germany's occupation, the president of The First Republic, Beneš, set up a Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile that was recognized by Allied countries, and Czechoslovak forces fought alongside the Allied forces during WWII.

In May of 1942, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, two specially trained Czech soldiers, parachutted into Boheimia on behalf of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile and attempted to assassinate the acting Reichsprotektor in his car. The ensuing fight left the Reichsprotektor as well as Gabčík and Kubiš wounded. The Reichsprotektor later died from his wounds due to blood poisoning, but Gabčík and Kubiš escaped and were sheltered by the Czechs. A massive search for the missing assassins was ordered, and eventually the two men were found in Cyril and Methodius Cathedral in Prague. A six hour gun battle followed killing fourteen Germans and wounding others before the cathedral was taken. However, most of those inside committed suicide to avoid being taken. In retaliation for the Reichsprotektor's death, it was ordered that any village that had harbored the assassins should be burned and leveled. Consequently, the town of Lidice just northwest of Prague which was suspected at the time to have harbored the assassins was surrounded. All men were shot while woman and children were sent to concentration camps where nearly all were killed. Men who were absent from the village at the time were also found and killed. Even all the animals at the village were slaughtered, and the remains of those at the town's cemetery were dug up and destroyed. The town was leveled. Only 153 women and 17 children lived to return to the village after the war. Soon after the massacre at Lidice the small village of Ležáky met the same fate under the hands of the Nazis.

Czechoslovakia was liberated from its Nazi occupation by the Soviets in September of 1944. The Third Republic was established, in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) was initially favored. However, the KSČ collectivist ideas and other policies came into disfavor with many after a few years. Knowing the party was unlikely to win upcoming elections, a coup was planned, which is known as the Czech Coup of 1948. The communist head of the National Police Force illegally ousted all non-communists from the force and refused to reinstate them when ordered to do so. Communist police took over Prague, and communist demonstrations were set up. The KSČ leader, Klement Gottwald, gave a speech from the balcony of the Kinský Palace in which he threatened a general strike unless Czechoslovakia's President Beneš agreed to form a new Communist government. Beneš, who was worried about the Soviets invading and civil war, capitulated to Gottwald. The communists quickly took over, firing and arresting many people. Other dominate political parties were taken over by communist sympathizers, and a new constitution was approved by parliament. However, it was so close to that of the Soviet Union that Beneš refused to sign it. Beneš resigned and was replaced by Gottwald.

Statue of Jan Hus with the Kinský Palace behind it on to the right

Czechoslovakia remained a communist dictatorship until the non-violent Velvet Revolution of 1989. The Velvet Revolution started when riot police shut down a group of student protestors demonstrating in Prague. Subsequent demonstrations spread across the country and were followed by a general strike of the population. This lead the resignation of the president, the dismantling of the communist party state, and the first democratic elections held since 1946.

We also walked down Wenceslas Square during our tour. The song "Good King Wenceslas" that is often heard around Christmas was about the same man that this square is named after. Apparently King Wenceslas was not really a king, but a duke who lived during the first part of the tenth century. However, he was declared a king and a saint after he was murdered.

At the end of Wenceslas Square is the National Museum, which was closed while we were there.

National Museum

It was in Wenceslas Square that a student named Jan Palach famously committed suicide by setting himself on fire in 1969 to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union's invasion ended the short lived Prague Spring, which was a period of about eight months in which a communist elected official named Alexander Dubček attempted to loosen restrictions on civil liberties and change things to a more democratic and decentralized government. However, Czechoslovakia was under Soviet control, and the Soviets didn't like what Dubček was doing, so they invaded. Jan Palach's grave site became a symbol of those unhappy with the Soviets. Today there is a cross in the pavement to mark the spot where Jan Palach and where a month later, Jan Zajíc burned themselves in front of the National Museum. There are also other memorials in Prague to Jan Palach, including the plaque with his death mask pictured below, and the plaques that sit in Wenceslas Square above to the left.

The Czech Republic has changed hands and been a part of so many different governments in the last century! Our tour guide told us that her mother-in-law lived in the same house her entire life and yet was part of nine different countries.

Below is a picture of the Powder Tower, which is one of the thirteen original Gothic gates into Old Town Prague. It was originally called the New Tower and was not built for defense, but in the 17th century it was used to store gun powder and thus received its present day title.

Powder Tower

Above is a statue of the author Franz Kafka, who was from Prague. There is a design of a beetle worked into the cobblestones below the statue in reference to his strange story The Metamorphosis. There are a lot of strange sculptures and cubist buildings in Prague. Our tour guide seemed to have one overarching theory concerning any remotely controversial piece of artwork: "It is not rude; it is art."

The sign on the building above reminded us the current tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The threat of an aggressive Russia expanding its influence into surrounding countries seemed all the more real in a place like the Czech Republic.

Overall, we enjoyed our morning tour so much we decided to stay on with our tour guide for a pre-paid afternoon tour of the Prague Castle. This tour was also good, although harder for us to follow since Austin was getting tired by then and was less inclined to cooperate with the tour than he had been that morning.

Prague Castle

Basilica of St. George

The castle is said to have some representation of all the different architectural styles from the past millennium since so many things were added at different times. The first walled building of the castle was the Church of the Virgin Mary, which dates back to 870. The church is no longer standing though. However, the Basilica of St. George, which was founded during the first part of the tenth century, is still there today. The Basilica of St. Vitus was founded close to the same time as the Basilica of St. George, but was re-built as a Gothic Cathedral starting in  1344. However, work on the cathedral came to a halt during the Hussite Wars, and a fire also severely damaged it in 1541. The cathedral remained half finished until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when a renewed effort to complete and renovate it emerged, and the front facade was finished during the 1920s. It is the tallest and most visible portion of the castle.

St. Vitus Cathedral's front facade

The Rose Window, which depicts the creation

Inside the St. Vitus Cathedral

East end of the St. Vitus Cathedral

Decorative gate on the side of the St. Vitus Cathedral

Chair used for torture

While at the castle, we also enjoyed looking at a collection of armor on display and got to see a small room full of instruments of torture. We enjoyed the various courtyards and watching the changing of the guards. Unfortunately, my camera battery died after we left the cathedral, so I didn't get a lot of good pictures for the rest of the day. After the tour we were pretty tired, so we found a place to eat dinner and then returned to our rooms.