Out with the Old

Day 31

New Years Eve in Prague started in a fairly quiet & relaxed manner.  Breakfast was included at our hotel and then we headed out on tram #9 for Wenceslas Square.  Two small Xmas markets were still running so we had a quick wander, surprised at the people chugging back the Czech version of mulled wine at 10am..  Its a fairly unremarkable square, rectangular in reality and split in half by a tram line.  The National Museum at the top of the square is under scaffolding while it undergoes a front facelift and the King Wenceslas himself sits atop his steed out the front. 

From here we wound our way through the heart of the Old Town to the Old Town Square, the famed Astronomical Clock and another Christmas Market. 

Dating from 1410, the Astrological Clock has three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.  The clock itself has recently undergone some restoration work and the tower it is housed in is also currently covered in scaffolding and sarlon.

The architecture round this part of town is gorgeous. Till now the streets had been relatively quiet and we actually remarked on how ‘un-crowded’ it was….. oh boy!

Ready for a coffee we headed away from the Old Town Square and explored some really sweet little back alleys – each more surprising than the previous one.  We found the Powder Gate, build in 1475 it was one of the 13 original gates that allowed entrance to the Old town of Prague in the middle ages.  It’s name is derived from the gunpowder stored there during the 17^th century.

Aware the crowds were growing, we made our way back towards the famed St Nicholas Church.  By this stage the crowds were growing and the tour groups dutifully trotted along behind their respective coloured flags/umbrellas/dolls on sticks. 

The beautiful St. Nicholas Church at the Old Town Square has had a varied and somewhat fascinating history.  Completed in 1735, it replaced a parish church mentioned in records dating back to 1273. The stunning Baroque interior was supposedly inspired by the chapel of St. Louis-des-Invalides in Paris. In 1781 all interior decoration was removed on the orders of Emperor Joseph II and  in 1870, St. Nicholas then became Russian Orthodox.  During WW2 Czech army units began reinstating the decorations, working with local professional artists – boy they did a great job. After the war, St. Nicholas was handed over to the Czech Hussite movement. 

I’ve always been fascinated by religious architecture and we’ve visited temples, churches (all denominations) and mosques but I’ve never visited a synagogue.  Today that changed when I visited the tiny, very simple but old Old-New Synagogue.  Built during the late 1200’s it is the oldest Jewish building in Prague. 

The Jewish Quarter was really quite crowded so we headed for the Danube … to escape the crowds we thought ….. wrong!  The views across the Danube to the Castle side of the city are lovely – and everyone else visiting Prague for New Year obviously thought the same.  He crowds on th famous Charles Bridge were so thick human traffic appeared to be almost at a standstill.  Yikes .. we took a few photos and scarpered out of there as quickly as possible.

Manes Bridge 

Gate on Charles Bridge - jammed with people

We’ve been hearing fireworks (mostly bungers) going off all afternoon and having checked out the comments on the Trip Advisor forum about where to see in the New Year we decided dinner and watching other cities fireworks on TV was the go.  Prague does their big municipal display a 6pm on New Years Day (so families can enjoy them) and places like Wenceslas Square are variously described as everything from madness to ‘the wild west on steroids’ as the locals set off their own fireworks.  Having experienced DIY fireworks in Munich with Lauren in 2012/13 we really have no desire to do it again.