Prague Pictures

So, it was too hard to try to put all of the pictures in the right place in my text of what we actually did in Prague, so I decided to just post them all here anyway. That way, if you want to skip the novel that tells you all the details of the trip, you can just scroll through the pictures and get the gist. A picture's worth a thousand words, right? Be warned though, I was lucky to even get them on here, so they are not necessarily in order.



This is after our hike up the Rozhledna Tower and on our way to Prague Castle in the distance. We were so excited to be there that I don't think you'd ever know we had been up for over 24 hours!

This is Spence and Michael, his co-worker. Sorry for the nostril shot. I was sitting, and we were all on a crowded tram that took us straight up to the top of the hill where the tower was perched.

On the upper deck of the tower.

The Rozhledna Tower itself. It was trying to be a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Hey, it looks good to me, but Spence said it was about 5 times to short. I was told that with the height of the hill on which it stands, it actually reaches a higher elevation than the Eiffel Tower. it was a good workout anyway. There are no elevators!

Us on Charles Bridge. It was starting to get dark; we'd already seen the Castle Square, and it was a perfect time to walk across the bridge. Prague is a very romantic city. I highly recommend it!

Spence rubbing the statue of St. John of Nepumuk on the Charles Bridge for luck. Hey, why not? We're tourists!

Just a cool canal running through a foundation of a couple of buildings--all the buildings look like that, btw.

A view of Charles Bridge over the Vlatava River and the Castle Complex on the hill. It was a lovely walk!

The cute little Italian restaurant where we ate the first night. Spence loved his pizza, and I thought my pasta was pretty good, but the ambiance was great. We should have returned.

I know; it's silly to take a picture of a subway door, but there's a story. Spence and I both just stared at the door when the train stopped, and then finally a man next to us pushed the button. Who would have thought of a subway with doors that don't automatically open? Clueless Americans.

Interior of St. Vitus Cathedral (one of the 13 or so chapels in the building). It is HUGE! This is a relic cabinet--ew--with cool stained glass all around.

What can I say? We were excited to catch the subway.

This was Tuesday afternoon, when I just caught the changing of the guard at Prague Castle. If you look up at the 5 windows above people's heads, you'll see soldiers standing there. They played trumpets and drums. It was a big deal. Micheal said that the palace guards all have to be at least 6 feet tall and handsome to get that job.

This also occurred on Tuesday afternoon. You can't see it very well, but this was the interior of the Lobkowitz Palace. It is part of the Prague Castle complex, owned by the Lobkowitz family, and is now a museum of sorts. I listened to an amazing concert here, performed by a flutist, a violinist and a pianist. They were all masterful, and performed arrangements of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Debusy, Vivaldi, and D'vorak, to name a few. It was beautiful.

This was Monday morning--the Mozart Museum. This was the farm house of some friends of Mozart's. He lived here to get away from the business of life and finish his work on Don Giovanni. It was an adventure getting here!

The gardens outside the Mozart museum . It was easy for me to imagine what kind of inspiration could come in a place like this.

The Municipal House in Old Town. All the lanterns in Old town are gas--it makes for a really cool atmosphere.

This had to be the longest escalator ever! We're already about 1/2 way up!

At the ballet on my birthday!

Prague Castle

This is one of the very official buildings in Prague Castle Complex. It was from here that Obama spoke a couple of months ago.

St. Wenceslas Chapel inside St. Vitus cathedral. Good King Wenceslas was a 10th century king of the Czech Republic. Who knew? They were doing some repair work for the independence day celebration that would be held the next day. The building is about 700 years old.

This is a tomb inside the St. Vitus Cathedral--2 tons of silver!

National Museum and statue of St. Wenceslas.

John the Baptist appearing to Ivan the christian pilgrim in the 9th century. I had to peek through a hole in the chapel for the pic--hence the bar at the bottom.

Resting at the top of the hill after our hike on Wed.

View from the hill and the monastery below. The monastery was built around Ivan's cave where he lived. The Soviets occupied the monastery and turned it into a school. It fell into disrepair and is currently under construction. They let us go in anyway, and the cave was amazing!

Karlstejn Castle (undergoing some minor repair) Built in the 1300's to house Charles IV coronation jewels.

Us eating a traditional "Bavarian waffle" with Karlstejn in the background. The tour was cool, and this little street is where we picked up souvenirs for the kids.

We stopped here at the Fred and Ginger building on the bike tour I took on Thursday. The original-centuries old building that was here previously was accidentally bombed in WWII. The mayor of Prague hired a world-class architect to come up with something modern and beautiful to replace it. This is what he came up with.

Me and my bike xoxo. I loved the basket.

Look closely and see "Hanging Out." So there's this crazy Czech architect who has created pieces like this throughout the city. This guy is hanging with his arm on a post; he has the body of Freud and the face of John Lenin. We saw 2 other pieces on our tour, but I didn't have enough memory in my camera and they were a little creepy.

The building where Mozart performed when he was in Prague. In "Amadeus" (the movie), the performances were all filmed in this building. MI1 and Narnia are also movies filmed here in Prague, because most of the original architecture is still in tact.

John Lenin Wall. Under the Soviet Rule, John Lenin and other music celebrating freedom was banned, but the embassy of Malta allowed youth to come and pay tribute to whatever they wanted to with their grafitti during the occupation. The Soviets couldn't do anything about it, and the wall still stands today as a tribute to freedom. I even wrote a little something on the wall myself (you'll have to go to Prague to see what it is) ;-)


All in all, it was a GREAT trip!