Prague Castle
Click on any photo for a more detailed view.

Prague Castle is really a complex of wondrous buildings with fascinating stories. No wonder the place is overrun with tourists. At left, we're at the site of the event that gave rise to the word "defenestration", a fancy Latin term meaning, "throwing someone out the window". Two nobles from the Hapsburg family were thrown out into the moat, which served as a community cesspool at the time. They survived with only their pride injured.

Sentiment towards the Hapsburgs has mellowed in Eastern Europe. In Budapest, we enjoyed a package of "Kaiser" brand sliced ham. It had Franz Josef's picture on it.

The Changing of the Guard is a deliberately impressive scene. In an effort to spiff up the image of the military, the government hired the designer of the costumes for Amadeus to create the uniforms.
For us, no trip is complete without at least one cathedral. This is St. Vitus' Cathedral, in the same area with the Castle.

Two views from the top of the cathedral. We ascended up a seemingly endless spiral stair. Our heartiest thanks to the doctor who realized Ron's heart needed a second look two months earlier, and to the cardiologist who installed the stents. They made this climb possible!

Another entrance to the Castle grounds. Remember that this was off-season. August must look like a scene from a DeMille classic.

Take a bottoms-up view of the cathedral. The gargoyles are particularly impressive here. You can see them better by clicking on the image..
Yes. We really did climb all the up there. The memory is clear, only the rationale is foggy now.
A view of the city from the Castle hill; a view that is probably largely unchanged from 300 years ago.

 

 

A must-see amazing sight is the tomb of St. John Nepomuk. It was built in 1736, shortly after his canonization, using almost two tons of solid silver. You really have to be there to experience it.

St. John Nepomuk, a priest, was thrown from the St. Charles Bridge into the Vitava river in 1383, for refusing to tell King Wenceslaus what the Queen had told him in confession.

(Our confession: This photo was "borrowed" from another web site; getting a good picture with our equipment was an unanserable challenge given the limited light.)

 

 

 

Franz Kafka lived in a tiny house in this street in the Castle area. They charge admission to the street and it's full of souvenir shops. Gotta love capitalism.

 
Some notable paintings from the Sternberg Collection, a remarkable little museum near the Castle. At left, Cranach's "The Elder". In the middle, "The Weeping Bride" by Johannes von Hemessen. At right, most notably for us, a head of Christ by El Greco. We had a hard time finding the latter because the museum has a lot of little side rooms. The friendly guide not only told us where it was -- she later came over to make sure we'd found it. We were amazed that we were able to come close enough to most of the work to see the brush-strokes... no intrusive security. (If you enjoy art, do click on these images to see them in more detailed format.)

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