Wandering the streets of Prague

I didn't come with the bulk of the tour group, since I live in Georgia. I flew a circuitous route from Atlanta to London to Amsterdam to Prague, arriving late Sunday night. The next morning I walked around the city looking for interesting "street scenes". For the most part I ignored the main attractions (castle, bridges, opera house, …) because we'll see those as part of the tour.

Here are a few shots I thought were interesting.

The restaurant in our hotel, where we have breakfast each morning. It's very modern and very cheerful, with lots of light from the wall of glass.

An art installation in the middle of one of the hotel's hallways. A number of tree trunks are suspended about 8 inches above the ground, an unexpected sight.

It's not clear to a non-Czech speaker what this restaurant serves, other than Coca-Cola.

Bubble tea is a popular item in the Portland food carts, and here it is in Prague.

I've seen decorated statues of geckos in Orlando, donkeys and elephants ("party animals") in Washington, DC, lions in Edinburgh, and a cow in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, but never a cow decorated quite like this.

This gentleman is not merely bronzed, he's actually bronze.

Money-changing booths are all over the city, each more garish than the last.

An open-air restaurant in the center of Wenceslaus Square, between the two streets that form the square. There are many such restaurants, and they can be delightful.

Hmm. I thought we were in Prague, not London or Bristol. There's a Marks and Spencer just down the street.

All roads lead to fast food.

 

Prague is famous for glass. Some of it is beautiful, some is gaudy. This display was in the window of a nice shop on Wenceslaus Square.

Then there are the ordinary souvenir shops and stalls, with all manner of things that say Praha or Prague.

A food stand with a no-nonsense approach to advertising.

The woman passing by in the left photo seems unsure of what she's seeing. The man appears to be holding the woman over his head using a simple stick. I didn't see how the trick was done.

 

There were lots of people riding Segways. Some were Segway tour groups (I've done that once; it's huge fun.), some were individuals, and some seemed to be shills for the Segway tour operator or Segway distributor.

Name your poison at this shop.

There must be a whole guild of people performing as living statues. I've seen the same in Vienna (half of them were Mozart) and in London.

 

Take a sightseeing ride in a vintage open-top car.

This food stall was selling pastries cooked wrapped around a heated mandrel, so that they come out as spirals. There don't seem to be enough vowels in the name.

Everything I've shown so far is primarily for tourists. This market has tourist things, but also lots of fresh produce for the locals.

Two kinds of paprika peppers (each about $1 per pound), figs from Turkey, apples from Bohemia (about 50 cents per pound).

   

These carousels could be tourist ware or toys for Prague children.

This stall covers all the bases: it sells "original oils" along with bananas, apples, and figs.

Wooden vases with wooden flowers. From an earlier trip to Prague, I have one of the tulips. They're very nice if you can find one that doesn't have "Prague" or "Praha" on it.

Enamelware mugs, souvenirs all.

Some of the colored glass can be a bit over the top.

This item is well beyond the souvenir category: the horse costs about $500.

What could be more appropriate for an All Classical trip? They must be classical musicians, since they're all wearing tails.

 

A narrow passageway leading to Old Town Square.

It's easy to find the Moser Gallery (very fancy and high-priced crystal) — it's directly across from the Sex Machines Museum. Hey, it's Prague.

The medieval Astronomical Clock is one of the attractions in Old Town Square. I happened by at exactly noon, so the statues above the dial are going through their act.

There's always a big crowd watching the clock.

I was struck by the fancy decoration on this old building.

For the truly self-absorbed, there's this device which allows the user to take a better selfie.

Another human statue. This one looks like a Mozart wannabe.

Statue of Jan Hus, a religious reformer ahead of his time.

Horse-drawn carriages are popular with tourists. Think Central Park in New York City.

There are a few stall selling souvenirs and "collectables" at Old Town Square full time, but on weekends there's a much bigger market there.

The open-air restaurant where I had lunch. The local beer (Staropramen, in this case) goes well with almost anything.

A woman in the same restaurant watching a Segway parade.

The crowd at Old Town Square is thinning out now; Monday isn't the busiest of days.

At this point I headed back to the hotel to do some photo post-processing, and then to attend a tour meeting and a very nice dinner. See the next post for those.