Bratislava – Day 12 – And Prague

I got up earlier today so we could maximize the amount of sightseeing we could do before getting the train scheduled for 330pm. We have barely scratched the surface of what there is to do here.

We packed everything, and checked out by 745am, then walked to the tram stop. It is Liberation Day today, a statutory holiday, and the tram seem to be running on a less frequent schedule, which meant we had to wait about 10 minutes. We transferred from the tram onto the metro. We wanted to experience it while we are here. Prague has three metro lines each of which cross the river. The system is almost as large as Toronto’s, in terms of the number of stations and total length, but has 2.4 times the annual ridership of Toronto’s. And this is in addition to the extensive streetcar network. Prague has a population 1.2 million people.

The ride down the escalator was almost dizzying, and was steep, and long.

The first few stops weren’t very busy, but then we had to transfer onto another line and, the platform and cars were very full.

There is a Metro stop in the main railway station. We found the luggage storage area to leave the suitcase, as we didn’t want to haul it around with us. It’s very difficult, pulling a wheelie suitcase on the cobbled surfaces in this city.

There was a sign to measure what size locker you need. Then you enter your personal information on the screen, including a phone number, and are texted a code. Once you put the code in you are given a locker number, and it opens five seconds later. You stow your luggage, and close the door. When Michael retrieved it at the end of the day, he had to enter the six digit code he was texted at the beginning of the day, and the locker opened.

We decided to walk to the Žižkov TV Tower, about a 25 minute walk from the station up another hill, because, of course, TV towers are put on the top of the hill for better coverage. On the way, we saw this street art celebrating the Prague spring which was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in Czechoslovakia, which ended with the Soviet Union, invading the country to suppress the reforms.

Žižkov is a communist era tower, which was once considered one of the ugliest buildings in the world. Its weirdness is what attracted me. Here is our first sighting of the tower.

After observing all of the activity and cafés around the Petřín tower yesterday we expected to be able to find breakfast here, but the café wasn’t open yet. We found a lovely restaurant about 100 m away, though. They had a mug almost as big as my head, but unfortunately, weren’t selling lattes in this size.

On the observation deck, they had a display of towers from around the world, and how this tower compares.

The views from the tower were lovely, and we were fortunate to observe seven planes flying in formation, emitting the colours of the Czech republic in smoke for Liberation Day, while we were on the observation deck. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture very good images with my iPhone, but if you look closely in this image, you can see the planes and smoke.

They had a fun area with hanging chairs and models of the tower. I have a picture of myself in this exact chair in the lobby of The Laundry Rooms, a boutique hotel in Hamilton.

In 2000, the Czech sculptor David Černý, whose work we saw yesterday, and the day before, and who had a reputation of protesting late Soviet communism in Czechoslovakia, attached giant crawling babies,with barcodes for faces, to the side of the tower. Unfortunately, you couldn’t see the babies from the observation deck, and from ground level, you couldn’t make out the details.

In Atlas Obscura, I discovered that the original babies had been removed due to structural concerns, and replicas had been re-mounted. The are also replicas in Kampa Park, on the other side of the river near the Charles bridge. We decided it was worth a 25 minute walk to see them up close.

Near the tower we saw this interesting, modern church.

This is a very typical Intersection with stunning buildings on all four corners.

On our way we passed the New Town Hall, and I realized that this was the location of The First Defenestration. I reenacted the result.

The crowds around the Charles bridge were phenomenal.

Here we are with the barcode babies. They are quite disturbing.

At the same location there was a line of bright yellow penguins. They are made from recycled plastic, and are meant to warn that man is damaging the planet, and the survival of the penguin is dependent on us addressing the climate emergency.

We then retraced our steps past the astronomical clock, and through a number of arcades and courtyards to the railway station.

We bought lunch at Billa, a grocery store with a location in the station, and sat outside to eat it.

We entered the station to check the schedule board and it appeared that our train would be departing on time.

They had an amazing Lego display of the station that contained 2705 kg of bricks numbering over 340,000.

About 15 minutes before our scheduled department departure the platform came up on the board. We made our way to the platform, but there was no indication of which side our train would come in on. Just as the scheduled time arrived a message came up on the board confirming that we were in the correct place, but that the departure would be delayed 15 minutes. Here we are smiling because the train has arrived and we are about to board.

The train ended up being about 30 minutes late into Bratislava.

The bus from the train station back to the hotel was one of the most crowded I’ve ever been on. Fortunately it hard four double wide doors for boarding.

Returning to the hotel room and not having to check back in and unpack all our belongings again made for a relaxing return.