Na zdravi…. the Czechs were always going to show how to come out of lockdown.
And how’s this for a party on the Charles Bridge in Prague? https://www.facebook.com/553014844846197/posts/1676347885846215/?vh=e&d=n.
Where’s my setting?
I came across the good people of Prague laying out this spread all along Charles Bridge yesterday.
And I’m sure that there is a place set for me.
But the Charles Bridge has never looked like this.
You see it is normally packed with saxophonist buskers whose music du jour is jazz, and cartoonists and tourists.
And most dwell around the statue of Saint Jan of Neplomuk and King Charles IV, the Father of the Czechs.
Jan’s the man
Jan is a martyr held close to Czechs’ hearts after being hurled into the River Vlatva.
The priest refused to divulge the confession of the wife of King Wenceslas (no, not that one) to the monarch.
Locals say that at the point where he fell angels carried him to heaven.
And so, for luck you should touch the feet and hands of the saint’s statue… and get a selfie.
King Charles, of course, dominates the bridge, at its entrance.
Spa special
The 700th anniversary of Charles’ birth fell four years ago.
And to correspond with its celebration I went out to Prague for the first time where I skulled their famous beer.
And I sipped their lukewarm salty water which proliferates in the Spa Triangle in the west of the Czech Republic.
The story goes that Charles fell on a hunt and used the water from a spring to attend to his wounds.
Rolling back the years
Nowadays people flock to Karlovy Vary and the Spa Triangle to cure their ailments by drinking from its taps which I did.
I went out at the age of 50 and returned ten years younger.
Now I’ve witnessed their bridge party I’ll be back for more of their soups and goulashes.
And, of course, beer. Mine’s an Urquell!
See www.czechtourism.com, Hope springs eternal and Putting these statues on a pedestal.
MEET YOU ON THE BRIDGE
