Saturday, September 23 –
Bishop’s House is an incredible property, fashioned from an actual bishop’s house. In one section, there is a vaulted ceiling, and one of the walls is completely covered with growing plants of many species including pothos and other vining-style growers. That room was where we mostly met up for coordination of activities, etc. Allen referred to it as “The Green Wall.”
A few of us got up early to head over to the Charles Bridge to see if we might catch sunrise over the city. The forecast was for more clouds and rain to begin mid-morning on Saturday, so we hoped to have a clear morning. Alas, it was foggy, which offered its own splendor and we enjoyed the cool wet with very few (relatively speaking) other tourists crowding our photos. Then, after breakfast, we assembled at The Green Wall to get our marching orders for the day.
Unfortunately, at this point in our trip is when began the progress of illness that eventually, to one degree or another, hit half the folks in our group of 21. From the perspective of today, September 30 and the end of our cycle adventure, I can say with some authority that only Craig E., Bruce, Rosemary, Dave, Dennis, Richard, Bill, (possibly Ann?), and I were the lucky ones that did not come down with some degree of cold, flu, or bronchitis. Craig A. and Jack might have been patients zero, as they suffered first, back in Cesky Krumlov, with sinus/cough/headache and overall malaise. Jack took an afternoon “off” back in CK, and Craig took some time off in Prague to recover – but at about this time, Allen, Kathy, and Michael began to have symptoms. Further along in the tour, John, Damarius, Katherine, Pearl, Laura, Larry, and finally, Mary got whacked. Each had varying levels, with John and Michael getting the worst of it (John was able to ride only 2 days, and Michael only the last day), while Mary was taken down pretty hard the night after our final ride. Anyway, back to Sept. 23.
After breakfast, we all trundled up the hill at a punishing pace (trying to keep up with Allen, who had booked our tour and needed to get up to the castle and meet our guide.
Seen along the walk up to Prague’s Castle.
We enjoyed an excellent guided tour of the Castle’s St. Vitus Cathedral. This guide was truly spectacular, and he made short work of ushering our crowd through the many other guide’s crowds, stopping at the significant points of interest around the structure. Jack and I were reminded of the guided tour we received in St. Petersburg, when we went to the Hermitage. We noticed there (as here) that the guides had a “secret code” they used with each other, to keep all the groups moving along, and to signal when each was ready to move to the next “station,” which indicated the guide standing and talking about that point of interest had to move along.
Inside the cathedral. For the first time during our trip, the sun came out with some regularity and I was taken by the colors from the stained-glass windows thrown on walls when the sun shone through them.
He also took us to see sections of the fortress, St. George Square, and the Basillica of St. George, where we enjoyed a grand view of the cityscape from high above. We were just outside of a room (the Bohemian Chancery) where the uprising of the Bohemian Estates against the Hapsburgs began in 1618, with the Second Prague Defenestration. For you history buffs, there’s more about that event and the players and consequences below.*
Next, we enjoyed a guided tour of the Strahov Monestery’s Library, led by an earnest fellow whose accent was so strong, few of us were able to understand him. He did, however, demonstrate that he loved his job.
Among the most interesting sights in the library was a small bookcase filled with exactly 38 short but thick volumes (about 8 inches high and about 4 inches wide). Each was crafted to reflect separate species of the 38 trees they have in the Czech Republic/Bohemia. Inside, however, were not pages of illustrations and text. Each volume was a wooden box made from the wood of the tree it described, and inside were twigs, seeds/nuts, leaves, pieces of bark, and samples from the cambium of each type of tree. Finally, the books were “bound” with cambium layers, bark and even the lichens natural to each tree species. I was unable to get a photo but these volumes were truly clever and easily fascinated me. I know the “books” were old but I could not catch when they were made, unfortunately. In this place, however, I can imagine that they were carefully crafted by monks at the beginnings of scientific thinking and research.
After the library, we were set free to do whatever we wished. A couple of our group had signed up for a “food tour” of Prague, while others set off for shopping. A sub-group had tickets to one of the many multitudes of musical performances in the city, and they headed back to the hotel to prepare for their concert, having an early dinner beforehand.
Lunch was definitely in order, however, so a small gaggle of us stopped at the Kolcavka Brewery for a brew and a light meal. Good beer, and excellent grub sitting on benches around a long table.
While the others made their way downhill, Jack and I stayed on the Castle Hill to stroll along the “Golden Lane” where tiny cottages are set up to resemble a tavern, a goldsmith’s workshop, a cobbler’s shop, and so forth, representing the ways of life among the castle’s commoners during the 16th Century. There was also a prison in the Dalibor Tower (or Daliborka) that we ventured into (with very close quarters—one dungeon had but one narrow stairway in and out so the crowd at the top had to wait for the crowd at the bottom to move up or down, so there was often a wait at the bottom that was not pleasant) to see the tools of torture used in the “olden days.” Pretty scary stuff.


After a nice walk back to Bishop’s House along the river, picking our way along through strange streets without a map (where I got more photos of random sightings) we showered and checked email. Then Jack and I went back to Pod Vezi for a quiet dinner for two, which was delicious, and enjoyed more of the wine Allen had introduced us to the night before. We had heard that Prague was a great place for wild game dinners, so Jack had rabbit and I had wild boar. Good stuff. We even got the same waiter and sat in the same area as our group had the night before, although our table was quite a bit smaller <grin>.
Here are some random pics of our journey back to river level.
*The uprising of the Bohemian Estates against the Habsburg rule began with the Second Prague Defenestration in 1618 and ended wth the defeat of the Estates on White Mountain on November 8, 1620.
Those who had taken part in the event were representatives of the Bohemian aristocratic anti-Habsburg opposition headed by Jindrich Matyas Thurn and Vaclav Budovec. Under their leadership, a group of aristocrats broke into the Bohemian Chancery on May 23, 1618. At that time, the royal governors, Vilem Slavata of Chlum and Jaroslav Borita of Martinic, were at work there. Both governors were firm Catholics who pursued an uncompromising pro-Habsburg policy in their dealings with the Bohemian Estates.
The insurgents accused them of disturbing the peace in the Bohemian Kingdom. In the ensuing pandemonium, Slavata, Martinic and the scribe, Fabricius, were thrown out of the window of the Chancery (the definition of “defenestration”). Surprisingly, the men survived the fall [Our guide told us that they all fell into a rubbish {read “offal”} heap which cushioned their impact, although it covered them in poop]. The fact that they only suffered minor injuries was later attributed to a miracle. Fabricius fled, while Martinic and Slavata sought refuge in the nearby Lobkovic Palace.
The consequences of the defenestration were immense: it sparked one of the greatest European conflicts in modern history — The Thirty Years’ War.