While we are tired after our day walking exploring the Old Town, Jewish Quarter and New Town areas we are planning an exploration at night also. The idea is to finally see the famous clock on the Old Town Hall at the turn of the hour and also to visit a more risque museum nearby that is open till late at night. We also want for once to walk to the downtown area instead of using public transportation and see the old town at night. Which is really quite impressive especially if you take less popular side streets.
Arriving in the Old Town Square area we are surprised by the number of people. The crowd increased by an order of magnitude at least and we start being careful of pickpockets as it is almost impossible not to bump into other people.
We have to wait only a few minutes before the show starts, it is actually quite disappointing after all the hype about it. A few saints appear and disappear in their windows and that is it really.
We then start our search for the museum passing an active absintherie, we thought those are almost forbidden in France even, I guess here they are more permissive?
The museum that we are looking for is the Sex Machines Museum, a quirky and quite risque museum near the Central Square. We are not sure what to expect but it seems to be quite popular with the crowds. There are multiple rooms roughly grouped by eras from antiquity/medieval times to more modern ones. The exhibits also range from mildly titillating to quite hardcore.
There are of course lots of dildos, from antiquity to more modern steam driven. We try to imagine how that would work, would the woman bring coals heat the steam and wait until it starts? And who will maintain it? Maybe it was more like a gimmick tool than something that was really used.
The masochist section looks quite painful really, which is really the point I guess. Also quite interesting to see all the instruments and how they were used.
There is a section that explains how people were going around vows of chastity, another about belts of chastity and others cover machines for almost everything you can think about and quite a few that you can’t think about until you see it (and then you can’t forget it).
There is also a more modern section, with the advent of electricity quite a few new avenues for machines were opened. And then another section shows how many implements were hidden in day to day use objects like exercise machines, couches and so on, very inventive.
As we make our way to the exit we reflect back and are satisfied that we visited the museum, it just shows how different people can be in approaching something as basic and how the mores change from epoch to epoch, quite instructive.
We then return via a slightly different route, just to pass Wenceslas Square, one of the major squares of Prague anchored by the National Museum which we plan to visit on the last day in Prague.
It is now almost midnight and still there is a party atmosphere outside. The streets are full of people, more than in the day, all the buildings are illuminated beautifully and the restaurants and bars are full. But we are tired after being out all day and tomorrow we are going to explore outside of Prague so it is time to return to the hotel and settle for the night.
