What the &#!$* was I thinking? Answer: I wasn't. I returned to Old Town Square to check out the on-the-top-of-the-hour ringing of the astronomical clock. And, for some reason, since I already was there, I decided to do the climb to the top of the tower above the clock and above the square.
The tower may not be skyscraper-tall, but it's high enough. I climbed a few flights of stairs, then walked up the winding ramp (about eight or so levels, if I recall) and reached the top of the tower. And then I finally remembered that me and open air heights are not a good mix. The views of Prague from up there were nice:
I tried to keep a smile on my face:
Generally I was good looking out over the city. The only problems were when I tried to look straight down onto the square below. Anyway, the on-the-hour show was nice in that "ultimate 15th Century high tech" sort of way:
There are four figures around the upper clockface. One symbolizes vanity, another greed (looking suspiciously Jewish -- they weren't known for political correctness back then), there's a third symbolizing something else, and finally there's death. Anyway, top of the hour, death pulls a string and the show begins, with various saints appearing in the windows above the clockface, culminating in the golden rooster above the clockface crowing. Maybe you can see the saints better in this one:
It's not the Bellagio Fountains, but for when the astronomical clock was installed, this was the absolute ultimate in gee-whizzery.
What the &#!$* 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.
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