In the small amount of research I did for our trip to Prague, I found one city tour which came highly recommended. Called Sandeman’s New Europe Tours, they’re actually free tours given in many major cities throughout Europe. We decided to take their 3-hour Prague city tour on our second day.

We quickly discovered that our tour guide, a young guy who has lived in Prague for the past 8 years, had quite a sense of humor in addition to an impressive knowledge of Prague history. He started the tour by saying, “Two things are true about the Czech Republic throughout its history. One, they do incredible things and don’t get credit for them. And two, people keep coming in and taking over the country – and no one seems to notice, or care.” He then went on to explain that we have Czechs to thank for microwaves and contact lenses, among other things. And that during its entire history, the Czech Republic has been little more than a baseball trading card to larger and more powerful forces around it. One of the stories that stuck with me was the way that the Czech resistance, despite being severely outnumbered, actually fought off the Nazis in WWII and sent them running – tragically just 3 days before the Russian forces moved in to occupy Prague. So close to freedom.

Another amusing but ultimately sad story relates to the period known as the Prague Spring. In the late 1960’s, a man named Alexander Dubček became First Secretary of the Communist Party. He began instituting a series of reforms in April of 1968 to provide “socialism with a human face”. These reforms provided freedom of the press and tolerated political and social organizations not under Communist control. Industry within the country was also allowed greater freedoms. There were discussions regarding reforming the economy by allowing a mixture of market and planned economies, as Czech exports were declining at the time. Unfortunately the people liked the increased freedoms granted to them and began pressing for more reforms, more quickly. Mother Russia did not like where this was going and pressed Dubček to crack down on the people. He wanted to maintain control of the reforms but did not want to use a heavy hand to do so.

By August of 1968, the Soviets had had enough. Warsaw Pact forces invaded the Czech Republic to reign them in. Word quickly spread that the Russians were on their way and the DJ on the national radio encouraged the Czech people to resist. They did so by tearing down or defacing all of the road signs (except those pointing the way to Moscow) so the invading forces wouldn’t be able to find their way to Prague. In addition, each time the forces stopped in a town and asked the locals what town they were in, the locals would respond “Dubček!”. All Soviet forces were in “Dubček” no matter where they were. Can you imagine the radio conversations the forces had with each other? “Yea, I’m here in Dubček. Where are you?” Response: “Uh, I’m in Dubček.” Unfortunately they eventually figured out how to get to Prague where they maintained a heavily armed presence and arrested Alexander Dubček, sending him to the USSR on a military plane for a stern talking to. They returned him a week later and all of the reforms he implemented were eventually repealed, with the exception of one change he made that divided Czechoslovakia into two federal republics (Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic). Alexander Dubček was kicked out of the national communist party and given a job as a forestry official.

Dubček remained a popular icon in the hearts of the people. When the Velvet Revolution occurred in late 1989, Alexander Dubček appeared on the balcony overlooking Wenceslas Square along with Vaclav Havel (the current president of the Czech Republic) to the loud cheers of the crowds below. He served as speaker of the federal Czech parliament until 1992. In a sad footnote, Alexander Dubček was killed in 1992 in a mysterious car accident. He had been scheduled to testify against several KGB officers in the week after his death. His briefcase was missing from the car after the crash occurred.

The only victorious attempt at assassinating a senior Nazi party official also took place in Prague. During the Nazi occupation, Reinhard Heydrich (known as the Butcher of Prague, the Blond Beast, and the Hangman – also the key planner of the “final solution”: genocide of the Jews) was appointed protector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacing someone that Hitler thought insufficiently harsh. The ousted Czech government in exile in London, unhappy with the way they were sold down the river by the Munich Agreement, convinced Allied forces to help them plan his execution. (The Munich Agreement was an appeasement strategy, giving portions of the Czech Sudetenland to Germany without the Czech government even being consulted about it. It was implemented by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and fully supported by France and Italy, as well as the new young US Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy (bootlegging father of John, Robert, and Ted), who told a friend at the time that he hated and feared war because he didn’t want his sons to go to war).

Two agents (one Slovak, one Czech, to represent the unity of the republic against the Nazi occupation) were chosen and trained by London special forces. In May of 1942 the agents, Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, parachuted into Czech territory and with the help of the Czech resistance, awaited their chance. Fortunately for them, Heydrich was an arrogant and careless man who rode from his home in the countryside to his office in Prague in an open Mercedes convertible without armed escort. He was so confident in his total suppression of the Czech people that he felt no threat would ever arise. The two assassins waited on the road at a point where the car would have to slow for a hairpin turn. Gabčík jumped in front of the car and aimed at Heydrich with his sub-machine gun but it jammed. Heydrich stood up to fire at Gabčík at which point Kubiš threw an anti-tank grenade at the car. The explosion injured but did not kill Heydrich. He even attempted to chase his assassins. I’m happy to say he died a very painful death several days later. Horse hair from the seat cushions lodged in his spleen, and other fragments of the car and grenade had lodged into his organs. He died of septicemia. Unfortunately the successful assassination met with brutal retaliation by the Nazis. Some estimates are that more than 15,000 Czechs were killed or imprisoned in response, including the razing of two villages rumored to have a connection to the assassins. The assassins were ratted out by a mole within the resistance and cornered in the Prague church where they were hiding with other architects of the mission. They were all killed in the gun battle or committed suicide to avoid capture. The bishop of the church was also executed.

In a story popular with the Czech people, a year before his death, Heydrich had demanded access to the Bohemian crown jewels, and placed the Bohemian royal crown upon his own head. The legend surrounding the crown is that anyone who places the crown on his or her head without having the proper right to wear it will die within a year. I guess they showed him!

Prague also has an amazing musical history. It remains a center of culture and music to this day. We were inundated with flyers and posters advertising classical and opera performances, along with baroque organ recitals, each and every night.

After our tour we crossed the Charles Bridge to visit the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. We got there just in time to observe a changing of the guards.

Unfortunately because we stopped to watch this we missed the last minutes of the castle opening time (our guidebook had given us false information). We had to be satisfied with walking around the grounds and nearby monuments. Next time.

We’ve had a beautiful visit to Prague and I am so excited to go back and explore a little more. But for now – our apartment awaits in Ljubljana, Slovenia!