Prague, Day 2

Today we visited Prague Castle, which like a little city on the hill within fortified walls and guarded by palace guards, with changing of the guards every hour.

By far, the most impressive building there is St. Vitus Cathedral. Construction was started in the 1300s, it partly burned down twice and finally was finished in the 1920s. 

The stained glass is all done by 20th century Czech artists, this one by Alphonse Mucha, the father of Art Nouveau.  (More about him later.)

This is the room where coronations took place, in front of the tomb of St. Wenceslas.  Those stones set in the lower walls are actually precious and semi-precious stones. In the back a door leads to the vault where the crown jewels are kept. The room is roped off so you can't get close (as Rick Steves says - lead us not into temptation...).

This is the hall where they partied after the coronation. Horsemen could ride their horses up into this hall and they would have indoor jousting contests.

This is called Golden Lane, a narrow street of tiny little houses. Originally people who worked at the castle lived here, but later other people sublet some of the houses. Franz Kafka lived here for a time. Now most are expensive shops.

 In the upstairs there is an impressive collection of armor.

See how little the doors are. In this case, the rooms were little too!!

Some impressive views from up on castle hill.  See that tower on the right - it was built to jam signals from Radio Free Europe to communist Czechoslovakia. By the time the tower was finished, the cold war was over and Radio Free Europe has actually moved their headquarters to Prague!

See the Charles Bridge on the right.

This is Lesser Town (on the west side of the river below the castle). All the buildings have red tile roofs.

This is the Pissing Men sculpture by David Cerny. They don't just stand there, their hips swivel and their penises move up and down. They are actually writing quotations in the water. This got so popular that you now can text a message to a phone number, and they will spell your text message in the water.  The pond they are standing in is in the shape of the Czech Republic.

On the Charles Bridge there are 4 or 5 statues where you are to rub the statue for good luck. The statues are mostly blackened with pollution, but the spot where everyone rubs is shiny and bright (below right):

Well, up at the castle, in a little courtyard, we came upon the statue of a nude young man.  Apparently people rub him for good luck too!

Here we are outside the castle gates.

Tonight we ate at the Alphonse Mucha Restaurant. As I mentioned before, he is supposedly the father of art nouveau.  The name may not ring a bell, but see the pictures below - you will recognize his work.