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Czech Republic parts 3 and 4: The PRAGUE thread!

MisterF

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Prague is the must see destination in the Czech Republic. The city survived the world wars and Communist rule relatively unscathed.
While it's been discovered by hordes of tourists, it's still pretty much off the radar in North America. Some of the
old ways persist, which make it that much more interesting. I decided I'd put all my Prague pictures in one thread.
So this series now has only 3 parts.

The metro: the best way to get around the city.
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The New Town Hall. The New Town is "everyday" Prague - the tourists flock to the Old Town and Lesser Quarter.
Charles Square is in the foreground - I read that it was the third biggest square in the world, but it's more of a park than a square.
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Gehry's Dancing House - Fred and Ginger. Brilliant.
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I'll never complain about the smog in Toronto again!
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The National Theatre
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Prague Castle is on the east side of the Vltava River, overlooking the Lesser Quarter. It's the largest castle in the world,
and still home to the Czech president's offices.
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St. Vitus Cathedral dominates the castle
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pano of the main square of the castle. This place is massive. Scroll >>
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The Golden Lane
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I got yelled at for touching something in the dungeon. Oops.
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The red roofs of Prague
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City of a Hundred Towers
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The Pancras district (Pankrác in Czech) is to Prague what La Defense is to Paris. I didn't get a chance to see it
close up so I used my trusty 12x zoom :D
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I'm pretty sure this is a memorial to the war. The Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938.
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A metro station nearby. The Prague metro gets some impressive ridership - 620 million passenger per year with only 54 stations and
3 lines. All the lines go through the city centre, and a new one is planned.
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3 generations of trams
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The Czech Republic is definitely not flat. Even in the cities you get dramatic secenery.
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Most of suburban Prague looks just like the pics I already posted of suburban Pilsen and Rokycany.

The Lesser Quarter. I was in this area twice so my pictures from both visits are mixed in together.
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The Kafka Museum
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The Charles Bridge. If you've seen only a few pictures of Prague before, chances are this bridge was one of them.
It's an amazing place to take a walk and linger for a while. If you can stand the hordes of tourists.
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The medieval streets of the Old Town
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Another pano, the Old Town Square. And what a square!
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The Astronomical Clock
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Lots of restaurants in this area. Customer service is pretty bad. Wait staff have an attitude of superiority, as if
we should feel priveliged that they were serving us. A couple of them didn't get tipped. Of course there were some good
waiters and waitresses too but they were more rare.
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Wenseslas Square. Not really a square, more of a long boulevard. It's the main shopping district of Prague and it caters
to locals and tourists alike.
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Just off the square is the old home of the Communist government.
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The Old Town Square may be the centre of the city, but Wenseslas Square is the modern heart of Prague.
It was here that the Velvet Revolution toppled the Communist government in 1989.
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The National Gallery at the end of the Square
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The Prague Opera House
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Main train station
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Surprisingly small on the inside
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...until you see the more modern, GO Transit style concourse.
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The Municipal House
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Powder Tower
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Jewish Quarter
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Old Jewish cemetery. Bodies are buried ten deep because Jews had no other place to bury bodies for centuries.
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The Rudolfinium
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Dobrou noc!
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i rode these babies when i was visiting back home in odessa. gotta say they're horrible to ride in cuz they are so loud, but definitely indestructible.

thx for the pics!
 
Oh my God. I heard great things about Prague but it's even more beautiful than I expected. Great pics... I'll have to check it out.
 
Yes, yes, I get it. :)

But as I have said so often before - bad Architecture is bad Architecture, and this surely qualifies on a number of different levels, regardless of whether it is an example of Modernism or something else. (I doubt if this building would be welcomed anywhere with open arms, but then I've been surprised on that score in many places this year, without naming the obvious.)

On the other side, one might have thought that a Frank Gehry contribution in Prague would never fit in just in general, unless isolated somewhere on the fringes, but it has, in a very odd sort of way. Perhaps this is the result of a combination of similar cladding to nearby buildings, and a less 'over the top' look for a Gehry sculptural abstraction. I compare it to his Toledo (Ohio) Art School building which did the same restrained use of shape with similar cladding to a nearby Museum.

This is all rather grey, subjective, and interpretative - in the final analysis. The locals have apparently fell in love with Fred-and-Ginger, and not the rubbish leftover from the communist period. This time I think they got it right, and what they have not changed is authenic and impressive, even if it were probably not the result of preservationists, but a lack of monies to tear down and rebuild on a massive scale.
 

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