Polished in Prague

Thursday May 24.  Today Patti and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  God has blessed me with a wife and friend that complements me so well.  I pray for another fifteen and many more after that.

 We arrived in Prague on Wednesday evening and monkeyed around a bit in Old Town and found some food for the tummies but spent most of the time in the hotel as the kids wanted to swim.  Patti found a credit card reward deal, surprise, that is enabling us to spend all four nights in Prague for free.  The first night was at a five star Marriott.  That is definately not our style as we show up with backpacks on and kids in tow to the stares of the business suit clad clientele.  That was the only place we could find a pool for the kids.  They shrivel up if left out of the water for an extended period.

Prague was home to an early Christian reformer by the name of Jan Huss.  He preceded Martin Luther by a century and differed from Rome in a few key areas; he wanted to decentralize church control and localize the leadership, he also wanted to localize the language so folks could understand what the Bible said, also he wanted the people to be able to partake in the wine as well as the bread of communion.  He brought a written language to the Czech people in his efforts and is highly regarded to this day as an inspiration to the independence of this people.  His reward for his opposition to Rome was being burned alive.  Here is his memorial in the Old Town Square.  You can seen the script that he introduced.  His name might have been as known as Luther's if his life coincided with Gutenburgs printing press as had Luther's.

Jan's church is also in this square.  Jan was a proponent of the simplicity of the forgiveness of Christ for our salvation.  The church he built reflected the truth of that simplicity and was a distinct contrast to St. Victus Cathedral.  After his death and the reestablishment of power by Rome, they took they liberty and the insult of adding all kinds of gothic ornaments as you can see here.

The Good King Wenceslas, remember the Christmas carol, is honored in Prague and there are a number of reminders about town.  Here is a statue of him riding out at the top of the square that bears his name.

St. Victus Cathedral, on the castle grounds, is a gothic wonder and was awe inspiring even from across town.  Such a contrast to Huss's simplicity.  Up close it had many complexities including flying buttresses and gargoyles.  Inside it had some beautiful stained glass windows for which my camera does no justice.

One wonders if the Europeans died of thirst before bottled water.  Being from the land of high and dry (Colorado), Patti and I drink a lot of water.  Our source for this water is the tap, not bottles, chiefly for economic reasons but also for convenience and the environment.  When in Venice I happened to pick up an English language magazine where the kick off article was a Frenchman lamenting the practice of the French bottling their water and shipping it to Italy and the Italians shipping back to France.  Patti and I have always drank tap water when in Europe but this trip so far we have only had two restaurants serve us tap water.  When we ask they always give us a look of horror.  There might be a profit motive behind that answer though :-)  We were blessed to have been able to travel to North Africa twice and we did drink bottled water there.  The trick was that you had to make sure that they did not refill it with tap water.

My soon to be released 'Manhole Covers of the World' coffee table book was first inspired by the covers of the Czech Republic. It was love at first sight with this Cesky Krumlovian cover.

At the hotel today, the kids had discovered the shoe, er sandal polisher, and they're putting on their best shine.

The Prague pics are linked up on the right side of this page.