Prague Escapades
We walked through a park this morning to the funicular to ascend the great hill here on the way to the monastery, with plans then to walk to Prague Palace, an enormous gothic structure that commands what seems like all of eastern Europe. Then the fun began.
There were malfunctioning ticket machines at the funicular terminal that not even local people could get to work. I guessed at the coins and type of ticket, kept hitting buttons, and eventually the machine spit out two tickets and a raft of change. It was like winning in Vegas. We entered a jammed tram, the kind that’s at 45 degrees to begin with, standing room only, divided into four compartments. A gruff woman who would have been more expectable as a Russian apparatchik closed the doors and entered the driver’s compartment.
The funicular rapidly gained speed for about 50 yards until it stopped so abruptly that people were thrown all over the compartments. There were a lot of teenagers on a school trip who laughed uproariously. After 20 minutes without so much as an attempt to inform us what was wrong (I had already found the emergency door opener and was prepared to grab Maria and exit at any time), I saw two maintenance guys trying to rush down the hill.
When they arrived, all the doors opened so that they could enter and re-engage the cable (see the photo below), but two of the girls leaped from the doors, one hurting her leg, both swooning. Boys and teachers jumped to help. Eventually, two dozen people walked back down the slope (see the photo of one injured girl being helped down), but the mechanics fixed the cable, and the now mostly emptied car climbed the mountain.
No one apologized.
We had a huge breakfast before we left the hotel, which we walked off three times over. The Palace is stunning, with St. Vitus Cathedral smack in the middle of it. On AlansForums.com I’m known as Doge of Venice, since when I visited the Doge’s Palace I decided that’s what I was meant to be. Having seen these digs, I’m thinking Holy Roman Emperor (which I didn’t qualify for in Venice, but qualify for seven years later, here) wouldn’t be too shabby.
In any case, we’re back in time for our massages, then an Italian dinner. We fly home via London tomorrow.
One of the mechanics dealing with the cable below the floor of the car.
An injured girl being assisted back down the hill.
The Prague Palace, which can probably be seen from Moscow and Madrid.
The main alter in St. Vitus.
One of the ubiquitous gargoyles.
An example of the incredible detail of the statuary in side chapels.
One of more than two dozen altars in the church.
© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.
