Prague continued

This city is what one pictures a classic European city should look like.  The buildings are painted in faded shades of pinks, blues and greens.  Dark frescos cover three and four story brown buildings.  Statues of saints, cherubs, and noted persons are on ledges, corners, doorposts, and windows.  An unadorned building looks naked against all the ornate decorations.  And the cold, grey day failed to dampen our eagerness to explore the winding lanes and see the sites.

Our choices of touring are antique cars, horse-drawn carriages, segways, various forms of bicycles and the ubiquitous Hop On, Hop Off bus.  We chose the last and took it all the way around the old city deciding what we wanted to see in depth.  Among the landmark buildings is the “Fred and Ginger house,” designed by Frank Gehry and also known by various dancing names.

We decided to visit the 9th century Prague Castle complex, seat of kings, priests and presidents.  Three of the giant stained glass windows in  St. Vita Cathedral are by Alberto Mucha.

 
We added a new word to our vocabulary, defenestrate, meaning to throw your enemy out the window.  This is a fairly common action in the history of the Czech Republic and has had such consequences as the Thirty Years War.  This silver coffin with red canopy honors St. John, a defenestrated martyr who tried to reform the church.

 

Among the large rooms in the castle is the diet where officials sat on red benches deciding issues relating to taxes, the military, borders, citizenship and religion.

The Basilica of St. George is small in comparison to other churches we have visited.


 

The Rosenburg Palace was used by the Noble Ladies Institute as a home for unmarried women who were under strict rules of behavior such as wearing black clothing and regular attendance at the opera.

Jerry and Anna Lee found a cute museum to visit, a Toy Museum filled with displays of 19th and 20th century Czech toys for Christmas, doll houses, and toy soldiers.



 
It is easy to find places to eat in Prague, though most of them are either traditional Czech food or Italian.  We did find a good Asian/Czech fusion restaurant.  Menus are consistent at  Czech restaurants, shnitzel, many forms of pork, goulash, and salmon.   We found the food good but a bit repetitive.  Gelato and pastry shops abound.  Sadly, the American export of McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King can be found too often.  


In case you were wondering, Prague is just as beautiful at night as it is during the day.