Ricky Yates

The height of flooding in Prague over the last 300 years © Sybille Yates

Prague is a beautiful city. One of the reasons it is so beautiful is being situated either side of the River Vltava. However, with the beauty of the riverside location comes the inherent danger of flooding. Unfortunately, over the centuries, this is something to which Prague has not been immune.

The picture on the left is of the wall of a building in Mala Strana, just south of Charles Bridge, and shows the height reached by floodwaters on several occasions during the last 300 years. Bearing in mind that I am quite tall, (1.87m or 6’ 1½”), and that where I am standing is well above the normal river level, it does illustrate the immensity and devastating nature of the flooding that engulfed Prague as recently as August 2002.

Apparently, there is an historic Prague expression, “The 100 Year Water”. As you can see, if you do a simple mathematical calculation, there actually was a 112 year gap between the last major flooding of 1890 before the flooding of 2002. And whilst the expression has no scientific evidence to support it, going further back, there were 106 years between the floods of 1784 and those of 1890.

Flood level marker 1890 © Ricky Yates

Flood level marker for 1890 with normal river level in the background © Ricky Yates

The two photographs above show the location elsewhere in Mala Strana, of another marker of the height of the serious flooding in 1890. Here I was able to get a backwater/mill stream of the River Vltava into my picture which I hope will indicate the difference between the normal river height and where the floodwaters rose to 120 years ago.

In the floods of 1890, three arches of Charles Bridge were destroyed as shown in the historic photograph below. Fortunately, the floods of 2002 did not destroy any part of the historic bridge though they did leave it seriously weakened. Over the last two years, major renovation work has been undertaken to it, both above and below the waters of the Vltava, to strengthen it and restore it to its former glory. Hopefully, this work will be completed in the next few months, thus allowing locals and visitors to walk freely across it without having to negotiate their way around scaffolding and fenced off sections.

As for “The Hundred Year Water”, I don’t think I will be around to witness it in the early years of the 22^nd century!

The damage caused to Charles Bridge by the floods of 1890. Image source; in public domain therefore assuming fair use.

Chechuv Most, Prague; in the snow © Ricky Yates

Like much of Central and Northern Europe, the Czech Republic has recently experienced extremely heavy snowfall. Here in Prague, it started snowing just over a week ago on Friday 8^th January and continued doing so, almost without interruption, until part way through Monday 11^th January. According to the local media, around 40 centimetres of snow fell during this period, the heaviest snowfall here for 17 years.

Since it has stopped snowing, the weather has been overcast and grey with virtually no sunshine. Temperatures have risen slightly, but have rarely got above zero degrees Celsius, meaning that hardly any of the lying snow has melted. According to the weather forecast I have just looked at, it will start snowing once again tonight and ‘Heavy snow’ can be expected for the next two days!

Phillip in the snow in Mala Strana © Ricky Yates

I was rather worried on Friday 8^th January when it started snowing heavily, as my son Phillip was due to fly in that day from the UK to visit me over the weekend. Knowing that the UK had just experienced its worst snow for nearly thirty years, I had visions of his flight being cancelled, either because it couldn’t take off or because it couldn’t land. Fortunately, East Midlands Airport, which serves the city of Derby where Phillip lives, was less affected by snow than most other UK airports. Therefore his Friday afternoon flight was able to take off without any problems. And because the Czechs are used to dealing with snow, Prague Airport was still open and functioning, allowing his flight to land safely and on time.

I cannot help but contrast the way the UK deals with snow compared to the Czech Republic. As every British person knows, as soon as it snows in the UK, the country grinds to a halt. Last winter in London, snow falling caused the complete cessation of the capital’s bus services. Here in Prague last Sunday, despite two days of continuous falling snow, we travelled by tram from our flat in the north-western suburbs, to Church in the city centre, without any problems whatsoever. Likewise, the few flights to or from Prague Airport that were cancelled over last weekend, were almost all cancelled because of snow problems at other airports, particularly British ones, together with ones in northern Spain, not due to snow problems in Prague.

On Saturday 9^th January, Sybille and I took Phillip on a walking tour of parts of Prague that he hadn’t had the opportunity of exploring on his three previous visits. We took the tram to Prague Castle and then walked down through Mala Strana, the ‘lesser town’ or ‘lower town’, that lies beneath the castle and is full of architectural delights. He was particularly keen to see the Lennon Wall and some of the artwork which lies outside the Kampa Museum alongside the Vltava River.

Phillip in front of the Lennon Wall © Ricky Yates

Father & Son in front of the Lennon Wall © Sybille Yates

I took this series of pictures during our walk last Saturday. I hope they help to convey the beauty and character of Mala Strana, together with Phillip’s enjoyment of his time with us.

Phillip outside the Kampa Museum © Ricky Yates

Phillip, Lion & Beer © Ricky Yates

The French Embassy in Mala Strana © Ricky Yates

Our Official Invitation

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (to give my home country its full official name), does not have a National Day as such. Some of the constituent parts of the UK do have their own special day with the Welsh making much of ‘Dydd Dewi Sant – St. David’s Day’ on 1^st March and the Irish, both north and south of the border, celebrating St. Patrick on 17^th March.

The nearest we get to a National Day is the Queen’s Official Birthday. This is usually celebrated on the second Saturday of June each year. Queen Elizabeth the Second’s actual birthday is 21^st April but she has her official birthday in June in the hope the weather will be better for events put on to mark the occasion, most notably, the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in London.

The occasion of the Queen’s Official Birthday is used by British Embassies in foreign capital cities around the world, as a very good excuse to host a diplomatic reception. So it was that on Thursday 11^th June, Her Excellency Linda Duffield CMG, the British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, hosted a Reception marking the official birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, and we were invited to attend!

The British Embassy, like a number of other foreign embassies, is situated in Mala Strana, the ‘Little Town’ or ‘Lesser Town’, an area of wonderful archetectual delights that lies immediately below Prague Castle. It occupies a building originally known as Thun Palace which has a history going back to mediaeval times. You can read more about it on the embassy website here.

Having passed the inevitable security check and climbed up several flights of stairs through the embassy building, we arrived in the embassy gardens that lie immediately under the walls of the castle, to be formally welcomed by the ambassador. I had previously had an hour-long meeting with Linda Duffield back in January. But Sybille had never met her before so I introduced her to the ambassador and remarked that as a German citizen, Sybille was surprised to be invited to a reception marking the British monarch’s birthday! In reply the ambassador pointed out that the German ambassador was actually immediately in front of us!

The guest of honour at the reception was the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus. His official residence in Prague Castle effectively overlooks the British Embassy garden and jokes about looking down on the ambassador and her embassy were an inevitable part of his speech. This followed the ambassador’s speech in which she spoke of good Czech – British relations over the 90 years since the first ambassador of the UK to the newly formed nation of Czechoslovakia, presented his letters of appointment to President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in 1919. The speeches were followed by the playing of ‘God save the Queen’ and the Czech national anthem.

The Reception was an interesting mixture of things British, with Pimms being one of the drinks served, and things Czech, with a large tent where Pilsner Urquell was freely available. Strawberries and cream were served along with cheese from both Britain and elsewhere. Despite several strong gusts of wind, no marquees or gazebos blew over and the rain just about managed to stay away.

When all the guests arrived, we were duly piped in by two Scottish pipers playing the bagpipes. The Reception was officially meant to finish at 7pm. At 7.15pm, those of us still present were given a pertinent reminder that it was time to leave by the same pipers striking up to pipe us out of the embassy garden and down the staircases of the embassy building and back out into Mala Strana.