Eiffel Tower revisited (15th September)

We're up at a respectable time, but that doesn't always mean that we leave the hostel at an early time! But we munch on more cheese, get out, figure out the tram system and get into the heart of Prague by lunch time. This is good timing because while wandering the city we come across a fair, selling traditional charcoal cooked sausages in Wenceslas square (remember the Good King from the Christmas carol?). After a small amount of Christmas shopping we make it to the town square in time for the free walking tour of the city. As always, these tours depend very very highly on the guide -and our one isn't too bad at all. He's only been in the city for 7 months, but he seems to have learnt the New Europe script pretty well and leads us around some of the important city buildings. The Czech people have a very chequered past (sorry - couldn't resist the pun) and have frequently been taken over by a large power, that ultimately ends up capitulating and then being taken over by another large power. This is partially because the country is in a central part of Europe with large powers all around it. An interesting piece of trivia is that officially "Central Europe" is now made up of only one country - Czech Republic! Our guide loves this fact and often refers to things as being 'the best example in all of central Europe'. The guide also bemoans the fact that Czech people never get the recognition they deserve for their inventions. These include the microwave, contact lenses and the word robot. The didn't invent robots... just the word for them! Prague also has two buildings of cubist architecture - the only place in the world where you will see it because it's quite ugly and as such never took off! Prague is quite unique in that it never got bombed in any of the many wars in the area. Everyone wanted Prague for themselves and as such they never bombed it. We also went past the Museum of Communism, Karl Marx would turn in his grave if he knew that it was next next to McDonalds and under a casino!! The tour ended with the story of the Prague uprising, the only time they've fought for something. At the end of WWII the Nazi's were loosing badly and the Czech's gave them a kick in the butt on the way out by taking on the remaining might of the SS and SA with only 3,000 civilians and home made weapons. The Nazi's had surrounded the city and the people of Prague were loosing the battle. They heard that the US/British army was only 90km away at a town with one of the oldest breweries! The called for help, but were refused, because of a predetermined "line of liberation" agreed between the allies and the soviets. The allies knew that the soviets really wanted Prague, luckily the red army arrived 2 days later. After the walking tour we wandered back into the the old town square to watch the famous astronomical clock. On cue and exactly as the walking tour described it, we witnessed on of the lamest tourist attractions of the modern world. The show starts dramatically with the skeleton moving it's arm slightly (ringing a bell) which is followed by 3 other figures rotating their heads a very very small amount. The display isn't even close to over at this point however, as two windows open and 6 apostles move past each window and you can just see what they are holding. This is the 'procession of the apostles' and is what this clock is world famous for. Awesome times. The astronomical clock does have an interesting feature. On it are the day names. In the Czech Republic you can't just pick any name like Laura or Lawson you have to name your child the name of the day. For example: 1 January could be Shona or Michael. They have extended the list so that now there are 1,000 names but you still have to pick from the list. Prague is famous for the Charles bridge and so after the walking tour we wandered along looking at the various market type shops that were there, the statues on the bridge and river flowing beneath us. Across the bridge is Petrin Hill which we find out was set up as park by the Czech Recreation Club many years ago. We catch the funicular to the top and as the sun is setting we climb up the mini Eiffel Tower to get an amazing view over Prague. It's not quite like the Paris one as the lift is broken so it means walking up heaps of stairs while Mike who is afraid of heights tries not to look at the ground getting further and further below us. The view is well worth the climb and it's cool to watch all the lights of fairyland starting to turn on in the city. Mike thinks that the view is actually better than the Eiffel Tower because the height of the hill gives a great aspect over the old roofs of the city, the castle starts to get lit up just nearby and in the other direction you're looking out into the countryside. We pop under the tower to use the toilets and find a remarkably interesting mini museum dedicated to the works of Jara Cimrman. We'd never heard of him either, but he turns out to be a creative, diverse and very nutty inventor! For example, he invented car washes before cars had roofs, taught Amundsen to telemark ski and told Eiffel to change the legs of the tower in Paris to stop it falling over. We try to find our way down the hill (we figure we'd walk down for the exercise) we happen upon another attraction the mirror maze. We figure why not and pay the entry fee 75pp. Unfortunately the maze was totally lame and even Shona who is not good with glass and mirrors could easily navigate her way around. However the concave and convex mirrors at the end meant we could get heaps of funny photos of extra long legs, big heads and us as ompalompas. The journey back to the hostel was not so simple. We find the tram stop easily, however there is no ticket machine to purchase the ticket on. We could just run the risk of using the tram without paying, but if a collector comes to check, then we have to pay a fine, so we decide to wander along the tracks to find a ticket machine. Finally at the 3rd stop we ask someone who points us to the subway station next door. We'd never have known that! It's all good though because the tram takes us to our favourite Prague restaurant where we order pizza, pasta and Mikes favourite side of beans. The perfect way to end the day!