After our late evening at the opera, it was hard to wake up early and be ready for another adventure. I think we both wished we had another day or two in Vienna. But we need to be on our way to Prague because after two days in Prague we will begin our cruise down the Elbe River. The good part of scheduling everything in advance is that you know you always have a place to sleep and will not miss some important events or attractions. The bad part is that sometimes a little spontaneity is a good thing, too.
We again used Day Trip to get from one capital to another. Our driver this time was named Marek. He was a nice guy, but we did not quite bond with him as much as we had with Davor. He picked us up promptly at nine o’clock. His Mercedes was not quite as spacious as our previous Land Rover and I wished I had more room in the back. As usual, John was more chatty than I was. I admire his ease in not only making small talk but sometimes plunging into topics of conversation that I probably would have avoided.
Our stop on this route was Lednice Castle. This was originally one of the many palaces of the ruling family of Liechtenstein. In fact, Lednice, the adjacent estate of Valtrice, and the surrounding farms which provided income to the family covered nearly 200 square miles, significantly larger than Liechtenstein itself. The family, with its close ties to the Hapsburgs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, considered this to be home until 1939.
This stop should have been more carefully planned I guess. When we arrived, there were no more tours for about three hours, and we could hardly wait that long. Instead, we walked around the outside of the castle. As it appears today, the house is a classic Gothic revival structure from the middle of the nineteenth century.
John and I immediately thought of a line from Beauty and the Beast when we saw these windows.
Of course, that’s the point where Gaston sings “I use antlers in all of my decorating…."
The original house, underneath all the Gothic Revival decor, is much different. The riding stables nearby were not updated to the Gothic style. They give a sense of what the original house must have looked like.
Extensive gardens, done in the English style, still remain. One of the characteristics of that style was to build “follies,” small buildings that only serve to decorate the garden. In many English gardens of this period fake ruined monasteries were built. In this case, the “folly” is a minaret, supposedly the largest in this part of Europe, and certainly the only one not attached to a mosque.
After about 30 minutes of walking about the grounds, we had a coffee and continued on to Prague.
We arrived in the Czech capital about mid-afternoon. Few cities look attractive seen from their industrial and commercial suburbs, and Prague certainly seemed if anything bleaker than most. Things did not seem much brighter when we arrived at our hotel. John and I did not plan this leg of the trip: we decided to splurge on a Viking river cruise down the Elbe. As a result, Viking had selected our hotel for us, and it was certainly not one that I would have chosen on my own.
Marek gave us a little background. The Prague Hilton was one of the last construction projects of the socialist regime. It was primarily designed to house western tourists to the Czechoslovakia — at that time, the government tolerated tourists in large, carefully controlled groups — and the building also was the center for annual party meetings at the adjacent “Congress Hall.” It is about half a mile from the historic center of Prague, but directly adjacent to an elevated highway.
Inside, it looked about as sterile as it did on the outside. Typical of that era, it had a large atrium in the center and several floors of rooms opened to the the atrium. There were the inevitable glass elevators, of course. John found the enormous arrangement of artificial flowers particularly horrifying.
John and I checked in with Viking, and we received our room keys. One of the local representatives seemed helpful, and we asked her where we could take laundry to get washed. She seemed to understand that with two weeks of dirty clothes we had no desire to pay the Hilton’s laundry prices. She recommended a place not that far away. We went up to our room. It was utterly sterile as we expected, but at least reasonably spacious. It would have been even more spacious if we can get rid of the trundle bed they they put in there.
It was not altogether easy, but we found the laundry on the lower floor of an open air shopping center. The woman who ran the small shop was not happy when we said that we needed it all done by Friday, but she promised, in halting English, to do her best. No longer carrying a large box and a couple bags of dirty clothes, we went on to the center.
Prague was a bit grittier than I expected. I suppose I thought it would be a somewhat larger version of Dubrovnik. It is also more Slavic than I thought it would be. These two ladies could have been straight from Warsaw.
We walked about a bit more. Prague does have all that historic architecture, but it is also overrun with young American tourists. I am not completely sure why they are here. So far, the prices I see here are cheaper than Paris or London, but still not exactly dirt cheap. But there are thousands of them filling the streets.
Tomorrow, we will do some more serious exploring of this city.
