A Perambulation around Prague or Prague through a window. Fri 15th Sept

Today we have planned a cruise on the river, a visit round the Stare Mesto (old town), a look around Wenceslas Square and finally the climax of the whole journey The Marriage of Figaro performance this evening.
Actually we tried to ride the historic tram first only,  after waiting for a fair while,  to discover that it only runs on Saturdays and Sundays. The perils of the small print in a Czech tram timetable. So onto the boat, one hours worth of up and down the river. It was fine but with a tedious commentary in 8 languages. For example "Karluv most... Charles bridge... pont de Charles... Karlovbuch... etc... etc see what I mean? Why not have a look at some pictures instead.

Some signs are just plain unnecessary.

The Ministry of Industry, a memento of when communism kidnapped Czechoslovakia. Behind this building lies the old town. We head to the iconic square for a bit of lunch, rather like eating in St Marks square. We choose potato soup in a loaf, which I took to be the usual risible mistranslation of soup and a roll. It was in fact soup in a loaf. As the hour approached we, and half of the rest of the square, gather around the astronomical clock. This was first reported as being in the square in 1410 and still gives quite a performance on the hour.

The old town hall is currently being restored hence the scaffolding. The lower circle is a calender with the Prague coat of arms in the centre then the signs of the zodiac and the last ring is the months with the tasks that are to be done in them. On the hour the skeleton  (top right) pulls his chain  to open the doors above to reveal life size figures of the twelve apostles trundling round inside. See next picture.

After this uplifting experience, we explore further the delights of the square.

Talking of uplifting, here is a genie coming from his lamp. 

The Tyn church and the building in front is where the first of the three defenestrations of Prague took place. This one led to the Hussite war. In case you haven't studied European history, defenestration means being chucked out of a window (there's a clue in the blog title) and the second one led to the thirty years war. I'll tell you about the third one if you ask me. Next it was time to move on to Wenceslas square, the site of many a protest and was at the heart of the Velvet Revolution. On the way we were asked to donate to a special needs charity by painting a special brick. You know it's not easy just to come up with a painting on demand, but you can see our efforts.

And the finished product.

I think that I will have it printed on to a badge and issued to the 48% of the voters who rightly voted to remain. Right, having got that off my chest we head back to the apartment to change for the opera. This is what we have tickets for :

and this is the auditorium of the theatre.

As you can see it is grand but on an 18 century scale. It was in this theatre in 1788 that Mozart conducted his world premier of his new opera Don Giovanni. The year before this theatre heard The Marriage of Figaro for the first time with Mozart both conducting and playing the piano. The ceiling is quite magnificent.

You can see the proscenium arch in the bottom of the picture then the device that produces the surtitles, in Czech and English. Above these, the central chandelier and rococo ceiling.
No pictures of the performance, of course, but it was brilliant. Every character was very strong, obviously with the singing but especially with their acting, not something that you always associate with operatic performances. As well as some of the most moving arias, this opera has a lot of humour. There is plenty of farce and "carry on" style double entendre. All combined to make a wonderful and memorable night out. We finished with a night cap in the Ambassador Hotel in Wenceslas square.