Prague, Day 3

Today was a walking tour of some of the areas we haven't been to, where the architecture is different. A lot of art nouveau influences in this part of town.  First, the old city gate, which is obviously not....

....and the concert hall, which definitely is...

Wenceslas Square

The National Museum.

This is a statue of St. Wenceslas in front of the museum. See all the red candles around the base - you may have read that former Czech president Vaclav Havel died in December. He was an activist against the communists and spent time in prison.. after the fall of communism he became the first president and was much loved. Those were mostly candles around the base of the statue, but there were also pictures of him, flowers and other tributes.

Nearby in an art nouveau shopping mall, Lucerna, there is another statue of St. Wenceslas, this one by David Cerny (the pissing men guy) I guess poking fun at the original.

Here is some of the neat architecture we saw:

Here, for contrast, is a communist era building. Good thing they didn't bulldoze all the beautiful buildings. I heard a guide in the Jewish museum refer to them as ignorant uneducated low class idiots.

And here's one for the "what was the architect thinking" department.  The blue building might not be totally ugly, but it sure doesn't fit in with the neighborhood!!

We ate typical Czech food for lunch at an Irish Pub called O'Che's, after Che Guevara.  

We've noticed that when we order beer here, they never ask what kind, only what size. I guess you just get whatever they have on draft unless maybe you specify if you want a particular kind. One of the brands here is Budweiser, but not what we get at home. Seems Anhauser-Busch decided to name their beer Budweiser in 1876 because in Czechoslovakia it stood for very good beer. It probably didn't matter back when they first took the name, but now with everything distributed worldwide, it matters a lot. Apparently they've been in a trademark dispute for years. There's more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser

Here are a few more scenes from our neighborhood. All over the place there are stores that sell marionettes.  All sorts of characters, including Michael Jackson, Charlie Chaplain, Jack Sparrow, but haven't seen any Elvis.  They also sell nesting dolls all over the place. And I have seen Elvis nesting dolls.