Day 5—Bits and Pieces, and “I am NOT walking up the hill!”

Franz Kafka Sculpture.

Our one day pass on the public transportation ended at 10:30, so we ran about hitting a couple of little things.  First, we went to this artwork celebrating Franz Kafka.  I’ll start with saying, I had to read ONE of his works in college, and it was purely awful!!  So, I have avoided anything “Kafka” related.  But, Theresa wanted to see this thing, so…we took the metro to it.

The “art” is a set of chrome plated “platters”, which rotate on a vertical axis.  When they align, they look like a head (presumably Kafka).  They shifted about, twitching, almost, and then every few minutes they turned in no order and then realigned as a head.  OK.  I guess that’s cool.

"Dancing House"

We left there for a one or two stop ride to “Tancici dum”, or “dancing house”.  It’s an architectural…aberration?  No, no, it’s “art”.  Snapped a picture and headed back to something interesting we passed on the way. 

Dancing House in context of its surroundings.

"Dancing House" in Czech.

Plaque memorial to the "Heydrich Terror" Heros.

In 1941, there was an effort to resist the Nazis, and one way was to assassinate Heydrich, the head Nazi in Bohemia.  Not a good guy.  Anyway, about 8 or so Czechs were trained in Britain, then airdropped December 28/29^th of 1941.  In May, they managed to assassinate this guy, and let’s just say things got worse.  They took refuge in St. Methodius and Cyril Church, an Orthodox Cathedral.  (Incidentally, Methodius and Cyril were brothers, who are credited for creating the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet.)  Some time later, the Nazis found them, and about 800 of them assaulted the Church.  The battle is memorialized in the 2016 movie Operation Anthropoid and The Man with the Iron Heart (2017).  One creative aspect of the museum (in the crypt of the church) is a separate area blocked off by a large “door” shaped like an airplane wing.  It is hinged on the side, and there is a sign talking about the severity of going through, and once you cross that threshold, there is no going back.  When it closes, there is a faint crack of light, but on the wrong side of the door, so it is a bit tricky to get out (purposely).  The symbolism is that those who helped the operation took a “one-way journey”, as virtually all of them and their families were executed, and even whole towns because someone helped them.

The Crypt under Sts Methodius and Cyril Church/

Czech off McD's visit!

After all of this, we thought it was a good time for lunch.  Well, those of you who know us, know we have this little…thing…we try to hit a McDonald’s in every country.  So, it was MickeyD time!!  Theresa looked up a few nearby ones, and Bill noted a few were more or less between us and our next objective of the …well the Prague Castle!!  We planned to take the “Royal Route” down as it was scenic and we clearly went the wrong way a couple of days ago!!  Bill suggested we might simply walk to one of them on our way up.  Theresa exclaimed “I am NOT walking up that hill again!!”  So, we walked back to the same mall next to Kafka’s head.  Anyway, McD was good!!  They had a “Swiss King”, which was a patty, Swiss cheese, hash browns (credited to the Swiss), and some weird “cheese sauce”.  Theresa tried the “Coke Zero with Cinnamon”.  Of course, it’s not vacation without ice cream, so dessert comprised of a cherry sundae and a Toblerone McFlurry!!

What the heck are these guys up to?!?
9 liters of water (each), a bottle of Jagermeister (each)
and a roll of paper (towels or toilet?) (each).

To "NOT Walking up the hill!"

Alas, by then it was after 10:30, so we bought a couple of one-way tickets to head up the (unwalkable) hill!  

So, Bill said this was green or orange, and Theresa said, Yellow.

Whatever!  It reminds me of a Metro Station in Moscow
(the one posted Sept 27, 2009, that we could not name at the time).

We went through the machine gun security for the third day in a row.  On the back side of the complex, we headed down the scenic walkway.  But, it was chilly, grey, and getting dark, with spittles of rain.  At the bottom, we (of course) found the Charles Bridge, and Theresa pulled up a “Rick Steves” guide and read it was we passed backwards on his narrated journey.  Once on the other side, we found a press of humanity, 80% going our direction, but not moving and 20% flooding in through our only way out.  It was pushing and shoving and some shuffling for about 10 minutes to get 200 feet passed that mess!  Then we headed home for an early and easy evening off!

Along the Royal Route.

The front side of the Castle.

Schwarzenbersky Palace.

That Schwartzy Palace from the other side.

The Royal Steps as opposed to the Royal Slope. (not official name!)

On this hill, from 1955 to 1962, stood a 50 foot statue of Stalin
flanked by many 50 foot soldiers, overlooking Prague.

They tore it down and put up a metronome
instead.  No idea how that happened!