Prague 4 morning — National Technical Museum

The landlady recommended that I visit the National Technical Museum in Holešovice. This neighbourhood is in Prague district 7, is situated on a meander of the Vltava and used to be industrialised. It is often neglected in tourist itineraries but is becoming cool thanks to museums, galleries, designer shops, eateries and cafes.

Although there are a couple of metro stations,  Holešovice is better accessed via the tram services that run east-west. I appreciated that the transport tickets are integrated.

The interior of the museum is a several storey high space to accommodate the vehicles on the ground level and suspended aircraft. The are galleries on several levels for the displays that are in cabinets or mounted on the wall.

A better view of the aircraft.

Many of the specimens have played a part in Czech history.

It's not generally known that Czechoslovakia, which existed from 1918 to 1993, had a thriving technical culture that produced many inventions. WWII and subsequent incorporation into the Russian sphere of influence put paid to a lot of that.

This Renault was a gift from President Mario Soares of Portugal to Vaclav Havel just before he took office as the first democratically elected leader since the fall of communism. It meant that he could avoid using the car models from the old regime. It served as his official car for several months. There's more detail here.

Old rolling stock.

Old motorbikes.

An Indian.

Some of the aircraft on display, with a huge Czech flag.

Earlier flying machine.

Even a Czech made helicopter.

Humble transport.

The basement of the museum has displays of industrial technology. This is from the photography section.

A closer look. Those developing tanks with spiral film holders bring back memories of my darkroom days.

From the timekeeping section.

That was the last photo I took inside the museum. There were sections on mining, industrial processes, consumer goods, and so forth. I guess they didn't look photogenic to me, so I took no more photos. Museum lovers can spend days here.

I discovered too late that there was a canteen inside the museum with decent food because by the time I got there they had stopped serving meals and only packaged food was left. Should have checked the Internet sooner and taken a break between the exhibits.

So I left in search of a late lunch.