A week in the Czech Republic. Trip to Prague and surroundings
This state which is separated from Slovakia in 1994 is composed of two regions: Bohemia and Moravia to Prague with Brno
Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, the fifth richest, has about 2 million inhabitants, is crossed by the Vltava, or Moldau and has a glorious past. It was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and one of the most important and populous cities.
The city impresses with baroque facades of the buildings but the main attraction is the Charles bridge of stone that has become a living room with its painters who sell their work alongside the religious statues that adorn the sides while you admire the towers 'input and output, the boats that cross the river to the delight of tourists while admiring the hill overlooking the castle and other buildings with elegant and old that are aligned along the banks, especially the Opera House.
The other attraction is the main square with Tyn Church with two towers and above the astronomical clock tower.
Turn the narrow streets of Old Town is like shooting for the streets of Venice, and always meet new surprises as the home of Franz Kafka, the famous Prague writer of German language that has left many traces around: a statue with a strange man no head on his shoulders another small man, the birthplace and home of his sister in the alley and payment history is right on the edge of the castle.
In Prague you visit the Jewish ghetto of Josefov to admire the old synagogues and even one in 1270 that Hitler had ordered not to harm and in which he ordered to bring together various objects of Jewish culture because he thought that people would have had the curiosity to explore the evidence of an extinct race.
Impress the Jewish cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried also, he too jew. The small cemetery contains about 12,000 dead buried in several layers that come at great depth.
Another interesting area of ??Prague is home to the town hall with a beautiful Art Nouveau façade, a town well known and loved coffee and a concert hall, an old tower overlooking beautiful buildings all around and in a square that is a landmark also for the important station of subway below.
The castle is a huge tower block with different courts and hosts the President of the Republic and various museums of the two most important are those in front, one of baroque art and the national gallery of the palace Sternberg and I visited an art gallery that houses rich with works of great painters of Italian, French, German and Flemish, statues and other works of art contained in beautiful frescoed rooms that sometimes affect more of the works on display.
At the castle, in addition to the street with low houses in pastel colors including the home of Kafka's sister, is also found a tower prison with a torture chamber.
There is also a beautiful vineyard and panoramic villa with a luxury bar and restaurant that I have crossed the river to go down and meet the building housed the Senate in the beautiful Wallenstein classical villa with a large Italian garden with classical statuary, walls that recall the strange 'inside of a cave and even a pond and a beautiful fountain.
Across the river the scene with the statue of the composer Dvorak and some university faculty building palaces including the suicide frequented by the hero of the Prague Spring, the famous Jan Palak in 1969, after the Russian invasion set himself on fire and immolated himself in protest.
Him and another committed suicide hero, Jan Zajíc, there are the graves memorial in front of the palace of the National Museum in Wenceslas longitudinal huge square with a statue of that saint on horseback.
The square is another landmark of the city along its sides as there are many beautiful buildings home to luxury hotels and palaces of representation as well as many elegant shops.
I remember the castle in a beautiful park and the high wall that contains colorful graffiti written in tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles next to a bridge with many locks that lovers have attacked as a sign of love in the vicinity of an old mill wheel .
In Prague alloggiai nice hostel in a central, Down Town, where I met many nice people including a local boy who one evening accompanied myself and another guy a guest to visit the hill of Vysehrad on the Vistula, which is home to the beautiful church is S . Peter and Paul and a small cemetery with the graves of Svetana and Dvorak, the two great musicians Prague.
That evening, even admired the fireworks near the castle lit up with special effects and spectacular.
Then we went to a local restaurant to sample some local specialties and have a drink good beer that was just invented by the Czechs, exactly in the city of Pilsen, including Budweiser, which is the czech Budeovice even if they have been created in the U.S. in another fight legal name.
I visited the museum of contemporary art in a 5 storey modern building with lots of pictures and statues i.
There is also a hill that housed a statue of Lenin or Stalin, and now has been replaced by a giant metronome, an object that marks time for musicians.
The next stop was the town of Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic's second tourist attraction, in the UNESCO list since 1992 and about 5 hours by bus and is located almost at the southern border with Austria.
This beautiful town has a baroque castle and Renaissance belonging to prominent families and a historic center of the Austrian pedestrian in the bends of the river Vltava, which form an island almost. Along the river dozens of canoes, and rubber boats travel the circuit, the current favorites powered by gradients that challenge hikers.
I spent a lovely day strolling through the narrow streets and squares and beautiful shores at sunset, enjoying a good beer in a rooftop bar and then through the park of the castle which is located at the top.
Then I reach by bus after a trip of about 5 hours the beautiful capital of Moravia, Brno, named short and difficult, and for the most famous sport motorcycling for the circuit that is what they told me to close for lack of funds.
Brno is a beautiful city very elegant, clean, with beautiful parks and gardens, squares with beautiful old buildings and modern buildings that blend with the other and alternate.
In particular, the attractions are a white tower of the town hall, the beautiful central square with a column of Liberty to commemorate the end of a plague, and the palace with the giant statues of 4 seem to support it, the market square with a fountain and many old stalls selling fruit and vegetables in the midst of ancient buildings, the hill with the cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, which dominates the Old Town and the city where you can enjoy the view and then the incredible fortitude that Spielberg brings to mind the story of Silvio Pellico and his book "My Prisons." In fact, in this castle jail dissidents were imprisoned all of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including our hero-writer remembers that a plaque on the walls, in Italian, some of his famous phrases praising the freedom and democracy.
The fortress is now transformed into a giant museum exhibits and art shows that I have not had time to visit.