PRAGUE HIGHLIGHTS

                                             A  Lovely Ancient City

            Prague is a huge city full of history and wonderful architecture and has required several posts to just scratch the surface. Here are a couple more highlights. Our local docent divided our city tour into four days so we could really see and appreciate the flavor of the city.

        Charles IV, whose mother was Czech, dominates the city, and is credited in transforming Prague into a modern city.

The stone Charles Bridge, nearly 1700 feet long, has sixteen arches, and sports thirty 17^th century sculptures, one on each of its supports. A photo favorite, it is the most famous of the bridges spanning the Vltava River. Tower gateways flank each end of the bridge, which connects Old Town and Lesser Town.

The present bridge is the third. The first wooden one was destroyed by a flood; the second was of 12^th century stone (Judith Bridge) and also was destroyed by a flood. The present bridge was built in 1357, after consulting an astronomer. It has been called Charles Bridge since 1870.

Charles Square, on the Old Town end of the bridge, has a larger than life statue of Charles IV in the center. Surrounding Charles Square is the Jesuit complex with five different architectural styles of buildings sitting side by side in a rather pleasing manner. The tower gate was part of an 11-meter high fortification wall around the medieval city.

Bertramka

            While in Prague, late one afternoon we visited the small Mozart museum, Bertramka. We had time to wander through the museum before we attended a private concert by a string quartet. It was a most enjoyable surprise.

    Afterward we gathered outside on the manicured lawn where we partook of some champagne while a docent told us a little about the house. A rich man from Lesser Town built Bertramka in 1743. The home has gone through many owners, but it always has been a summer home. Mozart visited in 1787 and wrote Don Giovanni on a table still on the hill behind the house. Mozart’s last visit here was in August 1791. He then returned to Vienna where he died four months later.

            I’m not a big champagne drinker and I’d certainly had better, so I watered the lawn before climbing up the hill to touch that famous table. It was more of a hike than it looked, but I had no problem and did it.

            Before leaving we enjoyed a wonderful dinner there at the restaurant. It all was a neat experience.

 

The Famous Church on the Square

Cathedral of Our Lady of Tyn dates to the14^th century. By the end of the ninth century, churches were the first buildings to be made of stone. Stone did not replace wood and earth in castles until the 11^th century.

This church has distinctive towers and every time I see a picture of it I know exactly where it is. In addition it is the site of the famous clock described in a previous post.

MONKEYS

                                             Entertaining Animals

         There are many species of monkeys, but I’m only going to relate experiences I’ve had with three of them  in Costa Rica.

        Costa Rica is home to four distinct species of monkey. The deep guttural sound of the howler or the rustling of leaves overhead is a telltale sign that monkeys are in the area.

        Capuchin monkeys , also called white face monkey, are native to the tropics, but not to Africa as movies sometime depict. They are agile, medium size and make good use of their long prehensile tail. They inhabit diverse habitats from the high altitude rain forests to the lowland mangroves. White face monkeys will eat anything

Howler monkeys are named for their distinct eerie call that can be heard as far as a mile away. They are large black animals that seem ferocious because of their physical appearance and their deep howls. It is believed that they mark their territory with their guttural sounds. The howler monkeys we saw in Tortuguero seemed much smaller than the howlers I’ve seen elsewhere in

the country. Only the males make the growling-grunting sound. In the presence of humans they are quite shy and stay higher up in the canopy. They are common and easy to spot in dry tropical forests. Howlers are vegetarians and eat early in the day because they need sunlight to digest their food. Their scrotum is white and that is how they thermo-regulate their bodies. On one trip to Costa Rica we were awakened early each morning by the howling monkeys that sounded like they were right outside our window!

Spider monkeys are long, slender and dark brown to black in color. They prefer the high canopy of primary forests. Although very adept with their prehensile tails they actually travel through the canopy hand over hand. They are often seen along the edges of Tortuguero’s jungle canals and that is where we saw them.

            Squirrel monkeys are the most endangered and rarest of Costa Rica’s monkeys. These small brown monkeys have dark eyes surrounded by large white rings, have white ears and chests, and long tails. Predominately fruit eaters, they  travel in large bands. So if you see one, you’ll see several.  We saw them at Manual Antonio Park where they entertained us for some time while they scampered down out of the trees onto the beach to see what they could snatch to eat. They were usually successful. Surprised tourists looked on watching the monkeys scamper off with a confiscated cracker.