Eastern Europe: Orientation Day 5

    

 

This morning we toured the Old Town Hall.  This was established in 1338 as Prague’s oldest town hall on the basis of a remit to do so issued by the Czech King, John of Luxembourg (no relation to me). It  was established as one of the houses on Old Town Square.  Throughout the following centuries, the town hall was extended to include other buildings and it went through several phases of reconstruction.  It is currently used for ceremonial purposes by Prague’s Lord Mayor.  The photo on the left is from the cellar.  The streets flooded in the 13th century so the streets were artificially raised.  What you see is underground areas which are used as cellars. (Too bad this is a beer town and not a wine town; they could rent out wine cellar space.) The photo on the right is a portion of the ceiling in the main vestibule.  It is done in mosaics.  In order for the art to be not destroyed during the second world war, it was covered in plaster.  The Germans will never find it!  It was uncovered in 1947.

We went from the cellar to the top of the tower.  See photos taken here.  Brenda didn’t tell me there was an elevator to take me to the top!  Remember the Celestial Clock from the other day? Well this is the tower on which the clock is installed.  The 360 degree views from the top are quite stunning.

    

I’ve mentioned the throngs of people. It was particularly bad this morning as we tried to walk to our 12:20 tour.  The damn people are everywhere - just sauntering, looking here and there, not knowing where they’re going, taking pictures.  Can’t we have an express lane?  I now have a pet peeve, much more stressful than Segway's. It’s “selfies”, worse yet “selfies on a stick”.  They’re everywhere.  On the road.  On the sidewalk. In front  of every monument.  I saw a guy today with a selfie in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Agggggggggggggggggah! At the lookout on the top of the tower, a very crowded place, the kids in front of us would take a selfie, walk three  feet and take another.  How can anyone be so f___ing self-centered?  Maybe I’m getting too old for this world. Anyone know of a senior center on a circular bike path – and with continuous wine service?