Bratislava- Day 11 – And Prague

The day dawned cooler than yesterday, and was clouded over. We only had two things on the agenda today – to ride the funicular near our hotel and visit Prague Castle. Otherwise we were going to just take things as they came.

We had breakfast at the same restaurant as yesterday but sat indoors.

We didn’t know anything about the funicular so we asked Google maps to direct us to the nearest station. We were a bit surprised to find our self walking up a steep hill.

After a 10 minute walk, we emerged at Petřín Park. There is an observation Tower here that looks like a mini Eiffel tower and a hall of mirrors that looks like a castle that we’re both built in 1891 for the Prague Jubilee exhibition. There was also a church, formal gardens, observatory, cafes, and the funicular.

We came across this statue called The Kiss by Josef Mařatka, in one of the gardens, sculpted in 1921. He was inspired by his teacher Auguste Rodin, who also had a famous sculpture of the same name. There are quite a few amorous statues around the city including a few in the garden courtyard of our hotel.

We had expected to ride up, but found ourselves at the top station. Our 72 hour transit passes gave us access so down we went. The funicular has three stations and a single track other than around the middle station where the cars can pass each other.

When we got to the bottom, there was a massive lineup of people waiting to go up, so our mistake turned out to be good fortune, because had we gone to the bottom station we wouldn’t have waited in such a line.

We had already experienced great views from Petřín Hill in several places so we didn’t go up the Petřín tower.

The blossoming trees in the park at the bottom of the hill had only recently dropped their petals.

We wandered randomly taking turns as we saw things that were of interest. We came to a small opening in a wall and looked through and discovered the formal gardens of Wallenstein Palace, now home to the senate of the Czech Republic.

There was also an attraction here that I learned of in Atlas Obscura called the Dripstone wall. It was constructed between 1623 and 1630. Grotesque faces of people and animals seem to peer out from the dripping rocks. It also covers the walls of an aviary.

After that, we walked under the Charles Bridge to find a staircase to a restaurant, so narrow that pedestrian traffic lights have been installed.

We decided to stay on the west side of the river to avoid the marathon that was being run in Prague today. In the mid-afternoon we encountered the finish line on the west side of one of the many bridges and a lone runner approaching it.

We could also see some excellent cycling infrastructure, but it didn’t look like it went very far. I had no desire to ride here.

Next we came across a small park called Park Holubička. There was a statue of a girl, holding a pigeon that was enhanced by a pigeon, standing on the sculpted one when we were there.

There is also a “sculptural micro-city created by the artist Krištof Kintera and the collective of collaborators who set the architectural sculptures there – seven Prague architectural projects dating from the second half of the last century”. The artist is concerned about the lack of preservation of buildings built during the communist era, even those of significant architectural interest.

Next to the garden, were stairs leading up to the castle.

It is the third largest castle in the world. It was incredible and seem to go on forever and the pictures don’t do it justice.

The stained glass in the cathedral was incredibly beautiful.

One of the things that Michael wanted to see was the Prague defenestration window. There were three defenestrations in Prague, which occurred in 1419, 1483, and 1618. The one in 1618 happened at the Castle, but we couldn’t find the window.

These buildings are just outside of the castle.

We walked down the stairs lined with cafés to find a café that served Trdlos, chimney cakes, dipped in chocolate, and filled with fruit, ice cream, etc.

This is how they are made.

Our next stop, was at a sculpture by the artist, David Černý, who created the Franz Kafka‘s kinetic head, which we saw yesterday. “Quo Vadis depicts the iconic East German Trabant walking on four human legs. It is a tribute to the many East Germans who travelled to the West German embassy in Prague to seek asylum in 1989. Those to whom it was granted had to leave their Trabbys behind as they fled to the west.” It is in the garden of Prague’s German Embassy.