Jeff Adams

We slept in this morning. Hey! We´re on vacation!

After finally pulling ourselves together we headed out via tram and metro to the southern part of the city to an old fortress called Vysehrad that is purportedly the oldest seat of Czech nobility, legendary princess Libuse and the first Premyslides. The fortress dates to the mid-tenth century.

Cheryl Coming Out from Graves

Today, what remains is a collection of old buildings surrounded by a beautiful park on a high knoll with spectacular views. One of the highlights is a beautiful Neo-Gothic church and a fascinating graveyard where many important people have been buried since the 1800′s.  We enjoyed this little excursion very much and it was so refreshing to be away from the swarms of tourists.

Have you ever heard of Alphonse Mucha? Maybe not, but you have undoubtedly seen his work. Mucha was a fantastically successful graphic designer and illustrator. Born a Czech in 1860, he studied in Munich and then Paris. It was there he gained great fame by doing posters for the most famous actress in the world at that time, “The Divine Sarah Bernhardt.” His unique style soon found its way in designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, theater sets and many other applications. In time, Mucha would be recognized as foundational to what is called French Art Nouveau. Go ahead, Google him.

He lived for a time in the United States where he was also widely acclaimed. His purpose, though, was to find funding for his master work that would take him 18 years to complete. Though looked down on by some art “purists’ for his commercial success, Mucha continued to develop his skills and learned to be just as accomplished with oils. His Slav Epic is a series of 20 enormous canvasses depicting the history and character of the Slavic peoples.

This afternoon we visited a small museum here dedicated to his work. I have to say that it was one of the most nifty little museums I have seen. We thoroughly enjoyed it and there was quite a nice video that told the story of his life and work. He died shortly after Hitler occupied Bohemia and Moravia in 1939.

Mucha is one of three larger-than-life personalities whose influence is still felt in Prague. The other two are composer Antonin Dvorak and writer/philosopher Franz Kafka. Just as I know you have seen the influence of Mucha’s art, I also know that you have heard Dvorak’s New World Symphony whether you knew the name or not. It is also possible that you have read one of Kafka’s dark and enigmatic stories such as The Castle or The Metamorphosis.

Our Hotel

Dinner tonight was fabulous! We found a very cool little Italian restaurant in a basement out of the tourist path. What great food! The owner, who also waited on us, is Italian. He spoke to us in English, German, Czech and Italian – pretty much all at the same time. We got a little bit. At the end I asked him in Spanish about his pasta. Knowing we spoke Spanish, and knowing our languages are so similar, he launched into a cooking lesson all in Italian on the proper way to buy and cook pasta. It was fun. And, we understood most of his Italian.