If you travel to a place, you want to really understand it – to journey beyond the superficials, the touristic frosting and fathom what makes it tick.
That’s the premise behind Context, which offers scholar-led walking seminars of some of the world’s most fascinating cities. One of those cities is Prague. Sign up for the journey and come away with more than the T-shirt.
Context’s scholarly perambulations of Prague include:
A stroll through Art Nouveau and Modernism as you explore the city at the morphing of the 19th century into the 20th. This three-hour walking seminar starts at the train station, an ornate, gilded edifice. The station becomes backdrop of an exploration of Art Nouveau as a revolutionary reaction to classicism.
Dial the Way-Back Machine way up high and fall back into the 14th century to find out how Charles IV re-made Prague into a cultural capital, à la Paris. Start in the winding, wondrous streets of Old Town Prague and see how the city looked before Charles arrived on the scene. Pass by the Carolinum, the university he founded. Look through the eyes of this visionary Holy Roman Emperor and understand the essence of this city.
Fast-forward to the late 20th century, a time of equally radical transformation. Learn about Prague when it lay trapped behind the Communist Iron Curtain. See how it emerged, first in the 1968 Prague Spring, and later – in full flower – at the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
If you’re into there-and-back, I-don’t-care quick trips to lands where all the hotel rooms look the same, and the word “foreign” flummoxes you, Context isn’t for you. If you want to incorporate a piece of that city into your soul, this is the trip.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: air babble)
