August 14, 2003
Last thoughts on Prague
I remember when I was in the Sixth Form. My results at that stage in my career could be described as minimalist. When I took the picture below I was reminded of a friend who had a beer belly at seventeen, he used to tap it and say “my belly is more expensive than yours I drink lager and you drink bitter- the fact that I had not got a beer belly seemed not to be important.
The beer in Prague is cheep. Looking at this gentleman in the park in you can see the effect it has!
About two hundred metres from our hotel was a building called the Municipal building a name, if ever there was one, to confuse. Its function is to provide the classiest venue imaginable for the people of Prague to experience the arts.
Originally built at the turn of the century in Art Nouveau style. It is a wonder to behold; the communists let it rot. It has recently been refurbished at an unknown price. I asked our tour guide how much the renovation had cost, she said she did not know. if I had not been in a group of thirty-five people and scared of her I would have asked how I could find the information. I made the Google searches but to no avail. A beer in the bar costs a pound we had a number of them. It is class personified. It was designed, built and then refurbished down to the very last detail - they went back to the italian coffee machine makers to get the same ones as they had in 1903!. A palace for the people for before and after communism. I would have loved to take photographs inside the building but the tour guide, a woman in her early sixties, hinted at the consequences, that was enough to make us follow her instructions to the letter.
There are some remnants of the communist time like the building shown below.
It was very hot on Wednesday and we were full up with culture, and so I thought with food, but a visit to the self-service vegetarian restaurant proved otherwise. We were not going to have any lunch that day!
A last word about that man with the forked tail seen here in a supporting role. Why oh why is he involved with medicine?
I have my doubts about this rams’ intentions.
A church with its door half open. An example of a church with gold knobs on.
A statue that I like because I think they look like people!
