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Monday, May 12, yesterday we arrived with good weather, today we have some clouds and wind. Proteins stick swallowed with a little water and we are in the street. We will
follow the same path of yesterday to the hunters's island and then we visit the area a little south of the island.
By the time we arrived at the bridge Hlavkuv (Hlávkuv Most in Czech), a little bit of information about Prague.
Called the hundred steeples city (and why there is a plethora true !), We could also call the city of bridges. There are at least 13 on the main Vltava river : the ( best known )
Charles Bridge, Stefanie bridge or bridge Legií. Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, has almost 1,275,000 inhabitants in an Area of 496km². The city is known for its architecture,
but also ( by digging a little ( but not much) ) for its beers. With 148.8L/year/inhabitant, Prague is the first global consumer City beer (Pivo), at the same time, it is understandable
given that the price of beer is cheaper than water (25 crowns for the 0.4L beer against 25 crowns for 0.3L of plain water) and do not forget that there are about 300 craft breweries in
Prague. The oldest brewery in the world is also of Prague, dating from 993 AD, and comes Břevnov Monastery, next to Prague Airport. Another monastery, the Strahov this time, still,
Sv Norbert, with some variations : white, blonde, the amber, black, API ( a beer from India ) and others depending on the season. But I'll return to these stories of beer shortly after.
Meanwhile, we are in front of the bridge that will take us to the island hunters : Hlávkuv Most (hidden behind the railway bridge Negrelliho viadukt ) :
Having passed under the Negrelliho viadukt, blue Czech Diesel train passes over him :
Turning towards the tram stop not far away, I take advantage a tatra T3SUCS to be there for taking his picture (these trams are really beautiful !).
At the entrance of the bridge, large statues stand on each side, in a bare style that makes a bit like Greek statues:
At the entrance of the bridge, the church of St. Anthony (Kostel Svatého Antonína) and new buildings mate somehow architecturally. This church has a bell foundry Meneely bell, and was purchased by the Central European union in October 1918 to commemorate the
establishment of Czechoslovakia at the exit of the First World War and was offered the country's president, Thomas Masaryk. The bell weighs 1'155kg and cost $ 2,000 at the time.
The Hlavkuv bridge offers a nice view of the Vltava River looking upstream towards the city. You can see the bridge Štefánikův, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Ministerstvo Přemysl a obchod) and Petrin Tower in background. And in the center of the bridge, the island hunters (Ostrov Štvanice) on which we will make a turn.
The hunters's island (Ostrov Štvanice), one of seven islands of Prague offers a romantic walk... the sunny days without wind (which was not our case at this time). It houses the rink and the old buildings water turbines (electricity production through the water of the Vltava). It is there now an abandoned house,
a motocross area and an obstacle course for fish. In front of the island, on the other side of the Vltava River, you can see, next to the Ministry of Agriculture (Ministerstvo zemědělství) and the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Česká Akademie Ved Zemědělských): Ministry Transport of the Czech Republic
(České Republiky Ministerstvo dopravy).
Here we are on the other side of the Vltava and we headed east with the district of Prague 8. Modern architecture of the neighborhood is that the said district, was
completely rebuilt after the floods of August 14, 2002 (the two thousand year flood of the Vltava who sent under water several entire neighborhoods, including Prague 8, but fortunately
without touching the old town and making only material damage). Suddenly, the Prague were released architecturally and we have erected buildings really like this particular triangle style
building with a hole in the center :
Or this building, called'' Titanic'' because of its shape bow front (and has a split stones fountain behind )
We cross the area to go to the street to Sokolovská small garden in front of the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius (Kostel sv. Cyrila has Metoděje).
The church of St. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church is built between 1730 and 1736 by Kilian Ignatius Dientzenhofer . It served as a refuge for paratroopers Czech resistance fighters during the assassination of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich 27 May 1942
(anthropoid operation). He died June 4, 1942 as a result of overwhelming sepsis caused by injury grenade that resistance fighters launched. On 10 June, in retaliation , the SS Division ''Prinz Eugen'' encircle the village of Lidice and rifled the
184 men of the village and some of the women. The remaining women were deported while on 105 children in the village , a dozen corresponding physical criteria will be sent to Aryan German families to be re- educated ( in the Lebensborn ), others will be
sent to the extermination camp Chelmno, where only 17 return.
To hide their crime, the Nazis burned the village and then razed without dynamite and even emptied the cemetery of his dead. To justify this massacre, they accused the people have supported the
resistance against perpetrators of the attack Heydrich . They could never prove it and therefore the village served as a scapegoat.
7 resisters troubadour refuge in the church of St. Cyril and Methodius, betrayed by one of them , were besieged on June 18 by 800 soldiers SS and Gestapo. 3 resistant were killed during the
shooting, the other 4 kill themselves after fierce fighting in the church.
Besides history, the church has beautiful pieces of art , including a magnificent marble font .
We then in the opposite direction, returning to the docks for up to Štefánikův bridge we pass beside the old building of the turbines (the walk is nice, but particularly windy today).
The meal is being felt (it is more than 13h) , we try to return to the city to find a small restaurant . We go through the park to the Lannova Revoluční road we go back to the Republic
Square ( Namesti Republiky ). At the junction with Klimentská street we obviously seen CAFÉ U FÍLŮ. The setting is simple , we feel that it is a place used by people
of Prague rather than tourists . However , prices are more than correct , good food : pancakes (which are actually crepes) cheese / spinach were excellent, about my Goulash people of Prague, it
was weird but not bad. The atmosphere is nice too (for us anyway (TV music channel on 70 , 80 and 90 !) ) . This is where we take our first beer of Prague travel, Pilsner Urquell I found a little
bitter, but still finite. We finished our meal with a pancake for her caramel and honey cake for me.
For the record , the Goulash is a dish of Hungarian origin but the Czech has recovered and quite changed their sauce to make a dish, suddenly, become typical here (and especially Prague ) . The
flat consists of a kind of beef stew served with dumplings , slices of bread as a kind of polenta compressed . In Prague especially , this dish can be served as a ''soup'' in a bread ( instead
of having a bowl !) .
In Prague the people do things quickly, whether for work , for walking across the street ( our little game on the spot . Happen to cross the street before the guy does revert to red
When there only 2 or 3 seconds to cross the street, it is very, very short) . But as soon will Praguers regarding eating . Indeed, where we put about 1:15 , the other guests ( local ) rather have 25-30 minutes. So, we were quickly spotted
as tourists (as if the clothes and the almost constant use of the card was not enough !) .
After having eaten well and bus, we set off again quietly circling the block. We pass the Episcopal Anglican Church of Saint Clement in Prague , it is closed when we passed before , I just take a normal photo and a photo using
reflections in the opposite building.
15:30, we decided to go shopping and then go quietly to the inn. We go up the road to Namesti Republiky where there is a supermarket Albert (with a name like that... ).
We take a little bit of everything, but especially important : beers, bread, juice, breakfast cereals, nachos, stuffed with milk bread, canned hotdogs, jam, a box of Laughing Cow, tuna salad and tortillas. Here, the prices
are really cheap, so our ''cart'' weighs about 30 € !
On the way home we stopped (yet) to a mini-market to get some chocolate (feeling of the moment... ) and smoked ham with cheese (the cheese is smoked ham... very particular... but very good, like everything here).
A little information for the end of the second day in Prague: here, there are mini-market absolutely EVERYWHERE, and still held by Vietnamese ( it's a bit like a sort of mafia... I do not know nothing). The mini-market,
they are, as their name suggests, a kind of small grocery-stores-offices-of-tobacco, it's funny .
We spend the rest of the evening quietly watching a movie and eating canned hot dog on tortillas with Laughing Cow... isn't this called ''like a boss'' ? Good night !
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