After our hotel breakfast and people watching session we headed across the river to the National Technical Museum. Right on schedule, tram number 26 picked us up and delivered us nearby.
We had no idea what to expect from this museum. Our goal was to escape the packed areas of town filled with tourists. As it turned out this museum was really good.
Architecture
Admission was 220 CZK per person and we dropped our stuff off at the coat check. We’d gotten there just a little after they opened and we had the place almost to ourselves. There are seven floors and multiple exhibits on each floor to browse. While we were paying for our tickets one of the museum employees popped a bottle of what I assume was a bottle of champagne. Our ticket person thought it was hysterical and tried to explain where the elevators were while cracking up.
We rode the lift to the top floor and chose the Architecture as our first exhibit. Dozens of drawings, models, and samples of Czech architecture were presented for us to peruse.
Astronomy
Down a floor we found ourselves in the Astronomy exhibit where we saw sundials, telescopes, astronomical clocks, and devices used to measure the curvature of the earth. The museum has text in English and Czech as well as dual language multimedia displays.
Technology at Home
Down another floor was an exhibit featuring home technology through the last 100 years. Everything from refrigerators to washing machines were featured here. Originally we thought this museum only had items of Czech origin but after seeing a sewing machine from Singer and a vacuum cleaner from Hoover we had been wrong. They did have stickers that were featured on some items that had a 0-100 score on being made in the Czech Republic.
Printing
The last exhibit that really stood out to us was one on printing or the concept of putting images and text to paper. There were all sorts of examples of presses, type facing demonstrations, and machines to build the type face. Each room had an attendant and after we showed interest in a particular machine he tried to explain it in Czech. Even though he didn’t speak English he still explained it pretty decently and we think we understand it.
Hot Dogs!
Nearby there was a hot dog place that we tried out. Devin and I got lemonade but mine was enhanced with thyme. I had a Ruben hot dog, Devin had a New York style hot dog, and we shared some chili cheese fries. Everything was exceptional.
Letna Park
We wrapped up our tripe on the other side of the river with a stroll through Letna Park. This park will be the location where the New Year’s day fireworks will be launched from on January 1st 18:00.
