Charles Bridge, Prague

One of the must see sights in Prague is the Charles Bridge, built in 1357 by Peter Parler at the request of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. In 1657 a bronze statue of the crucifixion was added in the middle of the bridge. It was so popular that 30 other statues were added. The views up and down the Vltava River are quite impressive. We enjoyed our early morning walk to and on the bridge.

At first we saw the bridge and the castle above from afar.

Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral on the other bank of the river

Charles IV Bridge

Happy walkers

As we approached, we tried to take a short cut which was really a dead end. It worked out for Jacob since we saw a waterfall and a handsome statue of Bedrich Smetana, famed Czech composer. A museum dedicated to Smetana is nearby.

Awesome waterfall

Awesome composer Bedrich Smetana

Awesome view

Coming back around the dead end, we found the entrance to the bridge. Nearby were several churches, one part of the Klementinium, a Jesuit university founded in 1653. The other is dedicated to St. Francis Seraphinus, also from the 1600s.

One of many churches in the Klementinium

St. Francis Seraphinus Church

The bridge begins with the bridge tower. Statues of Czech kings and saints look down on the pedestrians.

Bridge tower

Detail of tower

Nearby is the ubiquitous "lovers' locks" left by couples who declare their love by putting a padlock with their initials on the fence. Keys are traditionally thrown in the river to show that they'll never break up. We've run into this before in other cities like Heidelberg.

Lucy, Froggy, and the locks!

Nearby flowers

Passing through the gate, we found the great variety of statues on the bridge. Here is a sampling.

Charles IV, Emperor for whom the bridge is named

Madonna and St. Bernard, founder of the Cistercians, c. 1709

St. Ivo, 11th c. Bishop of Chartres, c. 1711

Sts. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas with the Madonna and child, c. 1709

Hebrew Cross, inscription is "Holy, holy, holy Lord" c. 1657

The views from the bridge are quite spectacular as well. We noticed these buildings that were built on the water with the river running underneath them!

A river runs under it

Manesuv Bridge down river

We didn't go all the way across the bridge since the children's energy was flagging. We headed back into our side of the river and looked for a snack. We spotted some more interesting buildings along the way.

Which way do we go?

Pretty building

Interesting decoration on a building, not sure what it means

Rail trams and cars share tunnels

Our next destination was the Old Market Square, which is coming next!

Awesome Key, Bad Lock

Our first night in the UK, I decided it would be a good idea to lock the door for the evening. The door to our apartment is rather old-fashioned, as can be seen by the key that locks it:

A key to make Dickens proud!

The keyhole goes all the way through, so you can use the key on both sides of the door to lock or unlock it. I guess that's why the notches are palindromatic. The door also has a mail slot with metal flaps on the outside and inside, presumably to improve the insulation. We don't expect any mail but the children found it interesting to look through into the apartment. But I digress.

Locking the door from the inside wasn't such a problem. The trouble came the next morning.

We got up at 10 a.m. (which is 5 a.m. back where we came from) and went through as much of a normal morning routine as we could. Lucy and Jacob had cereal while Mommy and Daddy had bagels with cream cheese (I'll write another post about the scones and clotted cream later). We dressed and got ready to meet our sponsors at 11. They would take my wife to work for a few hours to get her access cards and to complete some preliminary paperwork.

When we heard the knocking on the door, we came to answer it. Forgetting that we had locked it, we tried the handle without success. Then I got the lovely key and put it in the lock and turned it. Well, tried to turn it. It wouldn't quite go clockwise. So I tried counter-clockwise. That didn't work either. So I tried with more force one way, then the other. The lock stayed locked. I tried jiggling and jaggling; inserting the key only part way; inserting it as far as possible. The only thing I didn't try was WD-40, only because we didn't have any.

Then we had the brilliant idea to pass the key through the mail slot to the sponsor, who was rather amused at this point. Then she tried from her side of the door. She also tried rotating it left and right, back and forth, with no positive results.

I started thinking about window access to the outside. We are in an upstairs apartment and our door is on a small outdoors landing. Not a good plan. I would say I thought about tossing Lucy and/or Jacob from the bathroom window onto the landing, but surely such a statement would bring Child Protective Services breathing down our necks. Or it would, if its agents could get through our door. But I digress again.

Finally, our sponsor passed the key back inside. My wife tried a few times. We were almost desperate enough to let Jacob and Lucy try. I tried one more time and it finally opened. I have no idea what I did differently, but my wife rushed out the door and spent more than a few hours at work.

The kids and I went for a walk later (to a playground, which I will also blog about later), bravely locking the door behind us. We had a fun time, so much so that Jacob did not want to come back to the apartment. I don't know if it's because he loved the playground so much or he was afraid of our crazy door lock.

We did make it back in and still have trouble with the lock. I maintain the habit of locking our door at night. We just need to plan some extra time in the morning for getting through the door.