Prague, Czechia

Wernigerode - Prague - The Castle - Hann Munden

Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis by David Cherny, Prague

Somewhere in Germany we took a wrong turn, after taking an energetic U-turn my 1988 Citroen CX started to splutter on acceleration - I guessed some debris lifted in the fuel tank and may have plugged the filter, but driving gently we were able to make it to Wernigerode and Hotel Erbprinzenpalais where we had booked an apartment for the night. We were on our way to Prague for a week to visit Liam who was studying there for a semester. The German countryside is beautiful in autumn, so much of the land remains forested and the golden leaves fluttered in the breeze. As long as I accelerated gently we were able to drive at 120KMH on the highway, trying to avoid the Germans going twice that speed. Crossing the highlands (600-700meters) into Czech we crossed what was politically called the Sudetenland, a ring of Czech border highlands which were settled by Germans many centuries ago and which Hitler annexed in a runup to World War 2. In the 1938 Munich agreement Britain, France & Italy conceded the territory to avoid war, but war came anyway - the allies won, restored Czech borders and the German people who had lived there for centuries were expelled, eliminating Sudetenland and settling the area with Czechs. The lesson learned is relevant for Ukraine who should not cede any of it's territory to Russia today as it would only lead to further over-reach.

We settled into a wonderful ground floor apartment with garden in the center of Prague off Wenceslas Square, parking the Citroen below for the week, retaining it's strength hopefully to get us back to Leiden. Each morning I say relaxed with coffee on the street side along Wenceslas Square for an hour watching Praguers of all sorts go by their daily lives. My last visit to the city was in winter of 1996, just a few years after independence and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, a name I still sometimes inadvertently use, probably to the consternation of the people.  Visible then was the poverty and drain four decades of communism had levied on the country: "If you put the Communists in charge of the Sahara desert, there will be a shortage of sand in five years", a quote from Churchill we read at the Communism Museum has been proven. Although the Czechs are of Slavic origin, centuries of integration in central Europe and a long history of wealth resulted in their chafing under communist rule and their push to liberalize in the 1960's was met with an invasion by Russia, The Prague Spring. Eventually the Velvet Revolution brought the collapse of communism in 1989. With the Sudeten crisis in memory, along with the Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution, the Czechs are squarely in the Ukraine camp as can be seen by flags and support throughout Prague. Although Slovakia and Czech split in 1993, they remain close in political and cultural perspective as our Slovak guide reported at the Cold War Museum. During the week we would witness the historic wealth of the City of Prague which screams from the facade of every ancient building to the heights of Prague Castle, and the modern buildings like Frank Gehry's Dancing House. Such a history puts even more starkly the depth to which the city was thrown under communism, as evident in many of the city museums, and the Kafkaesque nightmare people experience under a totalitarian autocratic tortuous surveillance state. That battle between freedom, individual and human rights versus the person as a surf to a totalitarian state is evident in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How could a kleptocratic state like Russia who has siphoned off trillions of dollars from the people for yachts and personal retain their grip on power with a free and prosperous Ukraine next door who has the potential to be as wealthy as Czech, twice that of Russia, which has changed from communist totalitarianism to fascist totalitarianism under Putin, neither of which adds to the prosperity of the Russian people.

Speaking of the Kafkaesque, I had been lured in by the writings of Franz Kafka who lived much of his life in Prague and looked forward to exploring how the city influenced him. Not that Kafka's writings make any specific references to places, but on reading "The Castle" one can imagine it being set in some central European region, to where a land surveyor K has been summoned, on arrival finding an intrigue embedded in absurd bureaucracy. K could have just left and I could have stopped reading, but one of Kafka's strengths in writing is leaving enough unsaid, one can't help but explore further, which we both did. Our first outing in Prague was across the Vltava River to Malá Strana, where we visited the Kafka Museum, appropriated located in Lesser Town, which one could imagine being the village in The Castle and The Prague Castle itself being The Castle, but I rather imagine another more remote location for the setting of the novel as there are references to a more rural aspects. There were only a few people in line for tickets, but twenty minutes of fumbling through procedures by the teller was an appropriate reminder of Kafka's focus on weighty bureaucracy. Surely he had good insights from his first job after graduating in Law with Assicurazioni Generali -  he left after a year as the demanding hours interfered with his writing, but his longest employment was as an insurance adjuster which  suited his passion for writing as he had afternoons free. The museum charts his life and works and best visited after reading some of them.

One gets a sense that there is deeper meaning to everything Kafka writes, or multiple meanings and each will take their own meaning. His study in The Castle of hierarchy, bureaucracy and helplessness under it's weight is something everyone can relate to at some point in life, but none so extreme as that under communism where policy is set at the top, people are surfs run with stamps and rules rather than any free will.  Prague was not under communism when it was written, but there was likely enough proxy for the concepts for him to pickup from the leftovers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. To understand Kafka one has to see his as an amplifier of concepts to extremes, which is quite effective, but also the real way he experienced the world. His father Herman was hard working, but his bombastic, self aggrandizing, domineering, judgmental and critical demeaner, which may have been brushed aside by most sons, was picked up in amplitude by the sensors of Franz' psyche, which was full of neurosis and insecurity, requiring a more supporting relationship. In "Letter to Father", which was never sent, he does not blame either of them for their personal characteristics, but makes clear the effect of their interaction results in an absolutely destructive outcome for him, and perhaps for Herman also in a way. There are similarities as a father figure between Herman Kafka and Fred Trump, both of whom have had potentially distorting impact on their sons. Another theme Franz Kafka explores is the elimination of the separation of private and public, a core tenet of communism. He seems to write not from a political perspective, but building on his own insecurities and perceptions. For example, K with fiancé Frieda accepts a job as janitor at the school, but on the basis that he lives in the classroom, moving things out each day for classes, and along with two young men assistance, whom The Castle has sent as helpers, or spys (we don't know which), they all sleep together the first night, but being exhausted for various reasons, they slept in and woke, all four of them surrounded by a classroom of gawking children - very funny. Kafka's happiest time seems to be the year he spent in isolation up in The Castle grounds in a little cottage at No 22 Golden Lane where he write short stories, including A Country Doctor, a dream-like tale of being called out in a snow storm to see a patient, ending in tragedy and betrayal. Golden Lane is located within the castle walls and served home to gold merchants historically, today No 22 is a book shop, where I bought a copy of The Trial. Prague is strewn with places of Kafka's life there, his birth place, the home Minute House where they lives 1989-1992, etc. He attended Charles University to study Law and associated with German-Jewish intellectuals of the day, including Albert Einstein who lectured at Charles University 1912-1913. Rainer Maria Rilke was born and spent early years in Prague, but left before likely overlap with Kafka. Antonin Dvorak, author of Slavonic Dances, lived in Prague.

Kafka has attended performances at the theater in Lucerna complex around the corner from our apartment, which was built in 1910 by the grandfather of Vacslav Havel. It is hard to describe the wonderful architecture of Lucerna, but to say "old world modern" well lit and appointed with modest art novena features. An elevator there ran without any doors, one jumped on of off which seems like an planned accident, but they seem to work. The complex is home to a jazz festival, where Louis Armstrong played in 1964. Passing through the passages of Lucerna as many times during the week to explore the antique camera shops, lights, reflections and atmosphere. Challenging society's reverence of historic figures, a proud Saint Wenceslas sits on a dead upside down horse hangs in a main hall, sculpture by David Cherny, famous for his many statues throughout the city. As an art student he and friends painted a Soviet military tank pink (The Monument to Soviet Tank Crews) one night in 1991 for which he was arrested and the tank repainted green upon protest by the Russians. A few parliamentarians with immunity repainted it pink in protest at Cherny's arrest, which worked and he was released. The tank was repainted green and pink alternately a few times before being removed to a  museum. "Metamorphosis", a massive bust of Franz Kafka comprising disks which rotate and transform the head in steps stands on Vladislavova. He used the disk structure also in Piss, a statue of two life size men facing each other and pissing over a pond in the shape of Czech, their bronze penus' flowing pond water for effect - they're even capable of pissing out a text in pattern of the pond. Climbing babies and men hanging from wire are strewn around the city. Two large male asses and legs stand in the Futura Gallery where one can climb a ladder and look into the assholes to see a video of Czech President and Art Director eating to the tune of "We are the champions".

"The Physical Possibility of Death in the mind of Someone Living", a living art display of four cars blown-up in eastern Ukraine in the early days of the latest invasion in February 2022. Tatyana, a young lady who had finally bought her dream car, a brank new Mini Cooper fled the area to a family safe haven, and was heart broken to learn her car was destroyed by Russian bombs - however, she said her loss was nothing compared with the human damage of Russian brutality on Ukrainian people. The Russian playbook is centuries old, foment unrest in Russian speaking populations of foreign countries, send military support for to grow their resistance and run a sham election to annex the region, as they did in the Donbas in 2014 and in Crimea - hopefully, like the Sudeten Germans in Czech, the Russian sympathizers will be expelled from Ukraine and the border restored.

We started a mid October week warm and sunny (22C) and ended cool and rainy (3C), but mostly the weather was good and dry while yellow leaves carpeted the parks and sidewalks. While not visiting museums, of which we must have seen at least twenty, we explored the city streets of Prague 1, Letna and Holesovice. There are two numbering systems for each house we would learn, one is the street number on a blue plate and the second representing the numbered building in the area on a red plate, the second number usually being larger, as the area has more houses than a street. Florence also has two numbering systems, the red for business and black for residents. We had no numbering for houses in rural Ireland, just a house name, like my parents house, Avilion, but Ireland recently introduced location specific zip codes which are individual for each house or business, leapfrogging the area code plus street number approach used in most countries. Prague is packed with monuments and symbols, including artistic building facades, plaques, graffiti and statues which are dominated by the works of David Cherny, but with space for others. The monument to victims of communism shows appropriately hollowed out partial bodies of dead people walking, which represent the system itself as well as the victims. Founder of the Nation, František Palacký has a grand monument near Zitkovy park. A temporary exhibit on cigarettes was just installed there and the crew filmed a banner "don't let 19 million people die", but was not sure where the figure came from - apparently 0.5 million die of tobacco each year, so maybe they refer to a longer period. Nearby a Pagan shop intrigues me and a quick tour revealed a mixture of legend, lore of pre-Christianity mixed with middle ages armaments, plus some Celtic items from early Ireland or Scotland culture. Also nearby was the Frank Gehry dancing house - an interesting museum to Kaja Saudek, a famous comic artist from the 1970's to 1990's who was mostly banned by communist sensors during the peak of his career, catchup up on publishing in the 1990's after independence.

Headwaters of The Vltav river emerge in the hills of southern Bohemia, Czech and gathers to quite a wide force of water by the time it reaches Prague on the way north to the Elba. Numerous grand bridges connect Mala Strana with Prague 1, plus some pedestrian bridges and river boats. In old town the six century old Prague Astronomical Clock attracts a crowd each hour as it chimes and figures pass by open hatches above. City of sciences, Johannes Kepler lectured here for a decade as well as many more scientists, including Einstein. Trickle, sweet and glitter marks shops of the old town touristy areas, plus a slew of drug shops which have limits of the strength of their offerings (as of 2022, word is that more legalization is being considered). 

Museums were our entertainment for the week. Horrors the Czechs suffered under the German during WWII were presented in the Heydrich Terror Museum. The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, close friend of Hitler, a key designer of the Holocaust and fully deserving of his fate, was bravely carried out by Czech resistance in 1942 under code name Anthropoid. Their gun jammed, but a hand grenade did the job. Hitler retaliated with even more brutality to find and executed the perpetrators, murdering thousands in the process, but silence held until Karel Curda, dissident turned collaborator, revealed the safe locations for money. A vault under Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral provided shelter and hiding for the perpetrators, where they were found and are now memorialized in statues with their brave history reported. Painful consequences for the Czechs, but a glorious mission to show the Germans they were not invincible. 

More terror was revealed in the Museum of Communism. One may start with a 38% vote for the party post war in 1946 and a coup in 1948 cementing the communists for the next four decades. Czechs were more liberal than Russia and move in that direction in the 1960's which was sharply reversed when the country was invaded by Russia - as usual the Russians thought they would win in four days, but lasted eight months with much resistance, until Czech fell back in line. Political student Jan Palach burned himself alive on the steps of the National Museum in protest, showing how horrific communism was for the Czechs. They finally prevailed in the Velvet Revolution, 1989, but what stark evidence of the decades of poverty under communism when compared with the wealthy history and future of Czech.

Sarah Bernhardt was one of the most famous stage actresses in the late twentieth century as evident in so many writings of the day and her collaboration with famous Czech illustrator, Alphonse Mucha, who collaborated with her for a portfolio of advertising posters over a decade or more. Mucha absorbed the heights of Art Nouveau in Paris and reflected it back in his posters, which combined with the fame of Bernhardt, made for powerful advertising for many front running brands. A number of museums display his works, including the Mucha Museum and National Gallery, but also a temporary exhibit of collection by Ivan Lendl (famous tennis player) housed in the Art Nouveau masterpiece, Municipal House, which is in itself worth a visit.

Sex, that which is thrilling, terrifying, disgusting, beautiful, unfair, exciting, abused and definitely the most powerful development in biological history, deserving a great study, which could have been taken up in the Sex Machine Museum in old town Prague, but unfortunately not. On display were a history of awkward clunky looking machines, like the steam engine penis driver, maybe a little over industrial for interacting with the sensitive human body. Missing was any context or explanation of how these fit in the big picture - save your money! One can walk into any sex shop in Amsterdam for free to view a much better modern collection of sex accoutrements and read great books on the biological history on the subject. Kafka had a number of potential marriage partners, non up to Herman's standards, but viable prospects all the same, however, he could never land the deal for one reason or another. He often visited brothels of Prague while between partners. It only dawned on me after a few days in Prague there was a brothel around the corner from our apartment and then I noticed them everywhere, Darling Cabaret, Hot Peppers, Goldfinger, all serving the oldest trade.

Communist museums of Europe have a similar theme in that they are like watching a train wreck, but each country experienced the "ism" differently. Czechs are Slavs, but not Surfs, and with their wealth and integration in central Europe had them itching to break free, as outlined at the Museum of Communism in Prague and very much an inspiration for the Ukrainians today. The informative lady at the Saudek Museum had put me onto the Retro Museum which I found located on the fourth floor of a department store. I wasn't sure if this was a gathering of throwaway goods from cold war households or an inspiring analysis of what means of production was delivering under 1960's communism, but upon departing I felt the articles for sale on the third floor may well have been included in the museum, so not sure what to make of that visit. Far more interesting was the Cold War Museum, 

On a small grass park along the Vltava River at the end of the Manesuv Bridge there is a memorial to Jan Palach, who self immolation at the invasion of Czechoslovakia to put down the Prague Spring in 1968. Jan wrote letters to politicians calling for the abolition of censorship, eliminate the Soviet propaganda newspapers, for the people to go on general strike and the resignation of pro-Soviet politicians. He proposed that there were many resistance fighters prepared to self immolate to reach these demands, and said "these demands are not extreme". He confirmed on his deathbed that he was protesting the intolerance of Soviet occupation. A month later Jan Zajic followed suit, burning himself to death with petrol, followed by a number of others, including in Hungary. Czech-American architect John Hejduk designed a memorial to Jan Palach "The House of Suicide and the House of the Mother of Suicide" two boxes with spikes reaching to the sky.

An example of the repulsive tactics of the Soviet machine which repulsed Jan Palach was on display at the Cold War Museum, one of the better experiences on our visit to Prague. Housed in the basement of the Jalta Hotel basement the museum if by guided tour only. Recognizing the tour guide in his green Soviet uniform waiting in the lobby, I asked him to register me for a tour as I could not do online which he helped me do. I was the only person for the tour, so to give him some time off I offered to join the next tour, for which Annette was also able to join. Built in the mid 1950s, The Jalta was a grand project on a bombed out site and built to specification of a cold war Soviet Union to house important Soviet officials on official business and also foreign visitors. As such the basement was built into a grand bunker for Soviet spy network who lived behind giant steel doors with backup ventilation system to help outlive a nuclear war. Gas masks and chemicals to cleanse the air of the officers offices and living areas. There were rooms for interrogating people, a war room for monitoring the nuclear armaments and the iron curtain and a weapons room. Most interesting was the surveillance room, which had a network of listening and sensing devices and recording equipment for all the rooms in the hotel. 

High up in Prague Castle in an alcove off the great hall stands a window facing east and high over the grounds below making it an ideal conduit for the defenestration of tow Catholic regents by Protestants which started the brutal and destructive 30 years war in 1618, a battle for power between Catholic and Protestant, the Hapsburgs and Bourbons. The two regents survived, an act of god claimed the Catholics, but war raged regardless. The castle complex is huge, with churches, halls and towers, gardens, squares and lanes. Reinhard Heydrich made the castle his home during world war two before his assassination in Prague. We had a wonderfully sunny autumn day to tour the grounds having walked up the steep hill from town.

We had great food and bar scene in Prague, Hanoi Square Restaurant Saturday, Restaurace Le Xin Takeout Sunday, Istanbul Kabab Monday takeout - great food, salmon. Visited an American lady who is friends of Liam in the suburbs near Sarka National Park Monday evening, had great discussion. Tratoria Cicala, with A, Liam and Harlan - many celebrities pictures who had visited there as shown by the owner - followed by the Dog Bar, best venue in Prague, sprawling basement with bands, nooks and crannies - one can even smoke there, very unusual. Friday we laded in Namaste Indian restaurant for final dinner in Prague.

As much as we saw and experienced in Prague, there is so much more to explore and remain unseen in a city that offers so much and worth a return. With the Citroen loaded up, we departed Prague on a rainy Saturday for the drive to Leiden, stopping for one night at a house in Hann-Munden, a city known for it's half wooden houses. The Citroen ran well, although with slower acceleration. We stopped in Soest Netherlands to collect an antique wine rack from the 1890's which we fit on the roof rack.

David Cerny's St Wenceslas on a dead horse, Lucerna, Prague

Old world halls of Lucerna, Prague

Facade at 158 Husova Street

Tatyana's precious Mini Cooper, bombed by Russians in East Ukraine

Facade of City Hall, Prague

Piss by David Cerny, 2004

Crawling Babies, by David Cherny

Man Hanging with Umbrella

Antique Camera Shops at Lucerna, Prague

Velvet Revolution Monument, 1989

Vaclav Havel monument

Vlava River, Prague

Memorial to the Victims of Communism

View of Prague from Petrin Gardens

Strahov Monastery Library

Strahov Monsatery Library, Book from 1300's

Four Muscians Statue: Músicos Checos

Reader in an Armchair by Jaroslav Róna

Prague Metronome, Holsovice

Printing Press at National Technical Museum

1928 Indian 402 Motorcycle, Springfield Massachusetts

Scoeity's struggle plays out on facade in Prague

Monument to František Palacký - Father of the Nation

Anti-smoking campaign, Prague October 2022

Life, Kaja Saudek

Oh Americat! Kaja Saudek

Muriel & Andele, Kaja Saudek

Dancing House, by Frank Gehry, Prague

Vault of St Cyril and Methodius Cathedral

Steam driven penis sex toy, Sex Museum, Prague

Astronomical Clock Prague

Flying Reindeer Prague

Sara Bernhardt by Alphonse Mucha

Sara Bernhardt by Alphonse Mucha

Meran Hotel, Wenceslas Square

Ligna Building, Wenceslas Square

Wenceslas Square

Hotel Zlata Husa

Adam’s Pharmacy (Adamova lékárna)

Koruna Palace

Ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj Building

Church of St. Salvator

U Salamouna Building, Prague

Tram of Prague

St Vitus Cathedral

No 22 Golden Lane, Franz Kafka's writing house 1916-1917

Head gear of Knights of The Castle

Battle sticks of middle ages

Battle Armor of The Castle

Gaol practices in dungeon of The Castle

Defenestration window, Prague Castle

Grand hall of The Castle

Important Family shields on roof of room in Castle

House of the Mother of Suicide, memorial to Jan Palach

Closed Ventilations System for nuclear fallout

Gas masks for nuclear fallout

The War Room, blue dots are nuclear weapons, redline the Iron Curtain

With my kalashnikov

Communist party meeting attendance stamps

Surveillance room in basement of Yalta Hotel, Prague

Art of Surveillance under communism, Museum of Cold War

Assicurazioni Generali - where Kafka Worked

Male Nam.2/3 on Little Square Minute House - Kafka home 1989-92

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