Time enough for exploring

That’s the joy of having a week to visit a city: there’s time enough to explore beyond the big tourist pulls.

The day began in the Municiple House: the main concert hall in Prague: an art nouveau gem!  It also houses 2 restaurants and a beer hall.  Bit overpriced, but we splashed out for coffee and cake just to enjoy the surrounds.  At 10.30am, we were their first customers and we had the place to ourselves.

Fortified by far too much sugar and too many calories we set off to find another David Cerny gem:  The Head.

It’s located outside a shopping centre off the beaten track - and its oh so striking!  This art installation isn’t static: it twist and turns.  Each layer rotates, at the same time as the whole statue moves.  The head keeps reshaping itself, but always metaphorsises into a model of a famous Czech writer.  The fact that it is also reflecting its surroundings makes even more arresting.

Now for more controversial stuff outside of the traditional architecture: the Dancing House - or sometimes called “Fred & Ginger”.  Especially surprising because it was designed and built right at the end of the austere communist era.

Now back to the more traditional: another sandwich bar, similar to the one we ate in in Vienna: this time bigger sandwiches, and even smaller shop.  

This has been a real foodies holiday!

We’ve met up Mandy (who went to a gallery this morning while we chased the modern), to visit the Jewish Quarter.  

The Old Spanish Synagogue - 





This synagogue (Pinkas Synagogue) now functions as a memorial to all those from the surround ghettos who lost their lives during WWII.




One level of the synagogue houses children’s paintings: paintings done as art therapy for them while in the ghettos.

Apart from a few buildings around the synagogues, the area has been rebuilt into a very desirable suburb from the ruins of the ghettoes.

And David Cerny turns up here too!