I have become a fan of Rick Steves, the European travel expert out of Seattle. If he ever writes a guidebook on how to go to Heaven buy it and follow his suggestions WORD FOR WORD! Thank you Jason for agreeing to carve up his books by cities so we both had only the parts we needed just as Rick suggested.
Today I decided to revisit the St. Vitus Cathedral and then take Rick's advice and visit two of Pragues more interesting museums in the afternoon.
Part of why I revisited the Cathedral was that Rick said that if I liked Czech artist Alfons Mucha's 1931 Art Nouveau stained glass window, I would love his museum.
Alfons Mucha's Stained Glass Window in St. Vitus Cathedral
Well I loved it! The theme is the Czech people's nationalism with local Saints Methodius and Cyril at the top and young St. Wenceslas and his grandmother St. Ludmila the middle.
From the Cathedral it was a nice lazy walk to
The Mucha Museum
Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed but I broke down and bought a book of his work. He is easily my favorite Czech artist of all time!
Then there was the nearby Museum of Communism
41 years of Soviet domination are chronicled here. Very grim but also a tribute to the human spirit. In their video presentation there was great footage taken by Soviet under cover cops at demonstrations to help identify demonstrators who usually wound up being beaten on tape in the streets.
For homework tonight, Google Jan Palach. His story of commitment was a source of inspiration to the Czech people during these dark times.
Lenin's statue was once very prominent in Prague
NOT SO MUCH ANYMORE!
The Communists loved to use sport as a form of proof of the superiority of their way of life as these vintage posters attest.
Homework assignment #2: What Czech athlete won three gold medals in the 1952 Olympics and in which events? For extra credit name this athlete's wife, also a Czech, and in what event she also won a Gold Medal in that same Olympiad.
Rick Steves did NOT recommend this museum so I DIDN'T go in!
3 comments:
George I don't know if Christie and Jay have mentioned me but I am Terry Ainsworth Christie's dad's girlfriend when he passed away. I can't get any of my emails to go to Christie - I know they are in Spain. Can you get her to email me at Ainsworth.terry@gmail.com. Love your blogs and it was so nice to see your wife when she was with you. Terry Ainsworth
Most of all I liked Mucha museum. A small but perfectly formed museum which has a very interesting and enchanting history of this very impressive decorative artist. Mucha was the Phillipe Stark of his day - a very prolific designer in graphics, posters, advertising and also package design. Anecdotes tell you some of the influences and directions with a light touch and also some of the lesser known serious works from his later life.
There is a video charting the artist and leads you to investigate more of his work within the city - Mucha's stain glass window in St. Vitus Cathedral and the exemplary Municipal Building which you can see sitting in Prague restaurants and having lunch.
Prague museums are all seems interesting..I think I should visit one day..
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