In the afternoon, I took walk over to Staroměstské náměstí, a.k.a. Old Town Square. It too was lousy with tourists.
The main site in Old Town Square is the historic Astronomical Clock.
It is on the side of the Old Town City Hall tower.
I guess I should go back tomorrow and go up into the tower. It doesn't look unmanageably high. Anyway, the clock was built in 1410 (not a typo), making it the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the known universe (and third oldest of all time). Crowds gather there every hour on the hour for the cuckoo-clock like show. And there's a light show on the side of the Old Town City Hall after dark, which also draws a crowd of tourist.
Let's face it. Everything in Prague seems to draw a crowd of tourists. According to Wikipedia, it is the sixth most visited city in Europe, after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin. That means Prague outdraws tourist meccas like Barcelona, Venice, Vienna and Pag Island, Croatia. (I threw that last one in there because I love Pag so much.) And when you're on the Charles Bridge, you think everyone of those tourists giving Prague that #6 ranking are right there on that bridge. And when you are in Staroměstské náměstí, you think they moved over there. This is a tourist town.
And I'm here in my capacity as a tourist, so it's all good.
But if you come as a tourist, wear sensible shoes. When I was in Staroměstské náměstí tonight, I saw this young girl (young girl now means early 20s), dressed to the nines, unsuccessfully trying to navigate the cobblestones of Old Town in the dark in stiletto heels. She was being propped up by her two girlfriends who were wearing sensible footwear. Kinda funny, Kinda sad.
Which reminds me of another point. Prague after dark is dark! This is not a very well-lit city. Yet it's perfectly safe, except for some minor street crime.
Before the late night visit to Old Town Square, I had a delicious dinner at Restaurace Na Zlaté křižovatce, the all-gluten-free Czech restaurant. I had a delicious dish called beef goulash, served with potato pancakes, but it was more a beef bourguignon than a goulash. I'm not complaining! Just commenting. It was served with a side of potato pancakes and I washed it down with a Celia, a draft gluten-free beer. Which tasted like regular beer. Which is the whole point. The strawberry and cottage cheese dumplings were "eh," but I'm not sure if that's the gluten freedom or just because it's the one clunker on an otherwise delicious menu.
What the &#!$* was I thinking? Answer: I wasn't. I returned to Old Town Square to check out the on-the-top-of-the-hour ringing of the astronomical clock. And, for some reason, since I already was there, I decided to do the climb to the top of the tower above the clock and above the square.
The tower may not be skyscraper-tall, but it's high enough. I climbed a few flights of stairs, then walked up the winding ramp (about eight or so levels, if I recall) and reached the top of the tower. And then I finally remembered that me and open air heights are not a good mix. The views of Prague from up there were nice:
I tried to keep a smile on my face:
Generally I was good looking out over the city. The only problems were when I tried to look straight down onto the square below. Anyway, the on-the-hour show was nice in that "ultimate 15th Century high tech" sort of way:
There are four figures around the upper clockface. One symbolizes vanity, another greed (looking suspiciously Jewish -- they weren't known for political correctness back then), there's a third symbolizing something else, and finally there's death. Anyway, top of the hour, death pulls a string and the show begins, with various saints appearing in the windows above the clockface, culminating in the golden rooster above the clockface crowing. Maybe you can see the saints better in this one:
It's not the Bellagio Fountains, but for when the astronomical clock was installed, this was the absolute ultimate in gee-whizzery.
