布拉格的夏天 @ Micky Walker

布拉格的夏天(Summer in Prague)
捷克共合國首都---布拉格，擁有全歐洲最美之城市之美譽，就讓我們來揭開東歐神秘面紗，欣賞這美麗的城市。

Prague, the capital of Czech the Republic, is the most beautiful city of the whole Europe. Let’s appreciate this beautiful city.

首先我們來到Old Town Church Square, 我們看到著名的天文鐘以及舊市政廳(Old Town Hall)，如下圖, 每到整點，使徒(the Apostles)出現在上層窗戶，由死神來敲鐘。這個天文鐘由兩部分組成，上面是日與月的交替及當日時間；下層日曆顯示年、月、日。這個廣場一直是市中心，自11世紀以來就是一個廣大的市集。我們看到上面照片雙塔建築，那就是the Tyn church (Church of the Virgin Mary in front of Tyn)

First we came to Old Town church Square. The famous astronomical clock on the Old Town hall is the most admired attraction in Prague. Each hour, moving Apostles appear in the upper windows, and their walk is determined by the bell of Death and the crowing of the clock. The clock consists of two parts. The upper part shows the revolution of the Sun and the Moon and the time of the day; the calendar below shows the days and months of the year. The Old town Square has been the heart of the city. We have reports of a large market place on this site from as early as the 11^th century.

從地鐵站 (Malostranska metro station) 我們可以超捷徑經過舊城堡台階(Old Castle Steps)上城堡。沿著蜿蜒的台階往上爬，沿著小徑而上是Black Tower (Cerna Vez), 往下俯視是宮廷花園，爬到頂端可以望見河(River Vltava)的兩岸城市，沿著河的上游可望見另一座城堡Vysehrad。

From Klarov on the lesser Side (near the Malostranska metro station) we can take a shortcut to the Prague Castle is the Old castle Steps. To the right of these steps, we can see zig-zagging upward the original route. Above the steps, from the terrace in front of the gate in the Black Tower, we can have a view down on the Lesser side Palace garden, which climb all the way up to the buildings of the castle, and the city on the both banks of the river, and we cut the way to the other castle of Prague- Vysehrad.

城堡中心---St. Vitus 大教堂是波西米亞歌德式大教堂，在西元1344年由法國大師設計，查爾士四世為大主教升等為大監督而成立。教堂內的彩繪玻璃設計是根據重要的捷克畫家及藝術家的設計。

St. Vitus Cathedral is the main church of Bohemia. The gothic cathedral was founded by Charles IV in connection with the raising of the Prague Bishopric to the status of an Archbishopric in 1344. the windows in St. Vitus Cathedral, made according to designs by important Czech painters and graphic artists.

第二天我們來到皇家夏宮( The Royal Summer palace) 。文藝復興式的皇家下宮經常被稱作望遠樓(Belvedere)或安皇后的夏宮，自哈普斯堡皇室的斐迪南一世開始，一直被視為阿爾卑斯山以北最美麗的夏宮。在宮殿前是"歌唱噴泉”，因水低落在金屬鈴上的聲音而得名。從夏宮向北可得絕佳的角度眺望布拉格城堡中古世紀的部分。

The second day we went to the Royal Summer Palace. The Renaissance Royal Summer Palace, often called Belvedere or Queen Ann’s Summer Palace, from the reign of Ferdinand I of Habsburg, is considered the most beautiful summer palace north of the Alps. In front of the Summer Chateau is the “Singing Fountain”, named for the sound of water drops falling on bell metal. From the summer palace there is a gorgeous view of the northern, medieval part of the Prague Castle.

布拉格城堡最受歡迎以及最常被造訪的是黃金巷(Golden Lane)。裡頭的房子大多是沿著城牆邊建築的小巧玲瓏的兩層樓房。其中22號最值得注意，名作家---卡夫卡(Franz Kafka)曾在此居住過一段時間。

The most popular and most often visited part of the Castle is the Golden lane with its small, narrow, mostly two-floor houses, built against the ramparts during the time of the Jagellon Dynasty. The house at No. 22 deserves visitors’ special attention: here for a time lived the writer Franz Kafka.

從山下撘纜車上Petrin Hill，首先我們先看到在Lesser Side旁的觀察塔(Observation Tower)，據說是仿自巴黎愛菲爾鐵塔。附近還有一座可愛的小城堡。

We can take the cable car to Petrin Hill. First we can see the Observation Tower. The Petrin Hill Observation is a free imitation of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Not far away is a lovely small castle.

從Old Town Bridge Tower角度望去，橋上兩邊開放式石雕藝廊令人刻骨銘心，這30座巴洛克式(Baroque)雕像，在19世紀增加了幾件哥德式(Neo-Gothic)和古典作品，是每個來布拉格的遊客必訪之處。聖喬治大教堂白色羅馬式尖塔是這座教堂不朽的全景中重要部份，現今這座教堂的正面是巴洛克式建築。

The view of the Old Town Bridge Tower and the gallery of statues in the open air lining the rail of the bridge on both sides etches itself into one’s memory indelibly. The ensemble of thirty statues and statue groups, predominantly Baroque, complemented in the nineteenth century by several Neo-Gothic and Classical works, is completely unique and admired by all visitors to Prague. The white Romanesque towers of St. George Basilica are an indelible part of the panorama of the church. Today’s appearance of the church’s façade is Baroque.

(下圖)在飛舞樓(the Dancing Building)原址上，在1945年曾被轟炸過因而引發兩位建築師Frank O. Gehry 及 Vlado Milunic奇想，在1992-96年間建造了這棟特殊、相當摩登的建築--- the Dancing Building。在這棟建築物旁是 Art Nouveau building “U Dvou tisic (西元2000年)。(Down) On the site of a building that was bombed in 1945 arose in 1992-96 the “Dancing Building” by architects Frank O. Gehry and Vlado Milunic, and formed a special, completely modern corner of Jirasek Square. Next to the Dancing Building is the Art Nouveau building “U Dvou tisic” (at two thousand).

右圖這間房屋” U Zlate studne” (at the Golden Well 黃金井)位於查理士街175之3號，在雕飾中央是聖母瑪莉及聖嬰，周圍環繞著天使。這棟原羅馬式建築，現貌是後巴洛克時期的作品。

(Right )The house “U Zlate studne” (At the Golden Well) is at Charles Street ,No.175/3. At the centre of the decoration is the virgin Mary with the Divine Infant, surrounded by little angels. This originally Romanesque building acquired its present form during the late Baroque period.

我想有些人想知道我們在布拉格住哪兒，吃啥。布拉格的物價與西歐先進國家相較便宜許多，一歐元相當30捷克幣，一英鎊相當40捷克幣。住一晚Hostel含早餐一人才15歐元，但是是四人房，上下舖，不分性別，非套房。所以我們當天的室友是一個在德國唸建築的美國男學生。

I think some people might wanna know where we live and what to eat in Prague. The cost of goods is quite cheap compared with that of the other European countries. 1 euro equals 30 Kc (1￡＝40 Cz) 15 Euro including breakfast per person per night, but it’s a mixed, shared room. The dinner we had in the Old Town Hall Square is quite nice.

小插曲:(Episode)

這次的布拉格之旅，景緻雖美，但感覺不是非常好，也許捷克人英語不是很好，或是個性使然，感覺冷冷的，而且喜歡敲觀光客竹槓。旅館或餐廳雖收歐元，卻是用最貴的方式換算，直接去零頭收整數，因此建議到市區多逛逛，比較哪一間的匯率最好再去換錢，並且算好預算，兩三個人一起兌換較划算。還有乘坐交通工具，可以直接在機場或火車站買24小時一日通行券，70捷克幣(不到￡2)，很划算，可乘坐公車、電車、地鐵，第一次使用時記得要刷卡輸入日期，因為在每一個地鐵站都暗藏”便衣警察”，專找觀光客或非本地人查票，一旦你被逮到，罰單一張400捷克幣(£10耶!)。我們就是在不知情狀況下，有買票(再機場買的)但是超過時限(90分鐘)，並且輸入兩次時間(因為機場上車刷一次，換地鐵時也傻傻跟人家刷一次)違法，另一張不小心多買的票也因為進地鐵站未刷入時間也是違法。我們跟便衣警察解釋了老半天才搞清楚狀況，他們除了要罰錢並且要求我們出示護照，我們懷疑他們的目的因此遲疑不肯出示護照，他們隨即表示要叫國際警察來，我們只好自認倒楣罰錢了事，掏出錢來卻發現身上只有350捷克，後來他們就只開一張罰單，一人罰兩百並且叫我們去買一日通行券。去買了車票後，在捷克的這兩天就再也沒碰過便衣警察來查票，怪哉！回去之後，一直想不透為何身上只有350捷克幣，因為我們在機場用提款機領500捷克幣，只花了幾拾捷克幣，應該身上還有400以上捷克幣，難不成是機場的商家少找我們50捷克幣？可惡! 愛坑人的前共產國家!因此我們特地留下罰單，以玆”留念”，下次不敢了!

We didn’t feel good about the trip in Prague though the scenery is good. Maybe the Czech can’t speak good English or because of their personality, most of them are cold or unfriendly. They take Euro but they charge you more. You have to go to downtown and compare with one another. And then you can choose the best one to exchange your money. As for the transportation, you’d better buy one day pass, 70 Kc(less than ￡2).You can use this ticket to take a bus, tram and the subway. Remember to enter the date and time when you first use the ticket. There are cops without uniforms in every Metro station. They hide in the corner. They always check the tickets of tourists or foreigners. We were fined once because we didn’t understand their ticket purchasing system and we didn’t know how to use the tickets. We explained to the cops but they insisted to give each of us a ticket. And they also asked us to show them our passports. We wondered why they wanted to check our passports. They threatened to call the international policemen, so we had to do what they wanted us to do. When we took out money, there was only 350 Kc. Therefore they gave us only ONE ticket (we were fined 200 Kc each) and told us to buy one day pass. After that, we never met any cops in any Metro station. We wondered why we just got only 350 Kc left with us. We withdrew 500 Cz in the airport. We bought a sandwich and a ticket which cost us no less than 100 Kc. We should have had more than 400 Kc with us. Why? Maybe the shop owner in the airport “stole” 50 Kc. Dame it! (Forgive my dirty words). We kept the” most expensive ticket in the world” to “memorize” this experience. We’ll never make the same mistake again.