September 4th, 2013

Wednesday in Prague, we set a new walking record.  We walked for 6 hours.  Prague continues to excite our senses. We started our day with a walk on the Charles Bridge to take a closer look at a few of the statues.  The Calvary statue has “holy, holy, holy” in Hebrew brass letters affixed to it in addition to the Latin “INRI”.  Apparently, a Jewish man had to pay to put the phrase on the statute because he had been accused of profaning the cross.  We also revisited the Lorraine cross where John Nepomuk’s body was thrown off the bridge.  John later became a saint.  He refused to tell the king what the queen had told John in confession.  After the Charles Bridge, we made our way to the Prague Castle Area on a hill dominating the Prague skyline.  The Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world.  The Castle area also contains St. Vitus’s Cathedral containing the tomb of John Nepomuk, and St. George’s Basilica, which was built in AD 921.  Also, located on the hill is the Loreto, which is a Baroque pilgrimage site because it has a replica of the original Santa Casa in Loreto, Italy, where it is believed the Virgin Mary received the annunciation from Gabriel.  After lunch, we went to see the Dancing House, which was designed by American Frank Gehry.  The house got its name because it is said to resemble Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but we think that is a real stretch. We also visited the Old Town Square and St. Nicholas’ church.  In the evening, we walked to dinner at Kampa Park, a river-side restaurant with a view of the Charles Bridge. We had chicken and monkfish, both of which were much better than our first Czech dinner and we had the best Sancerre wine to drink.  It was so good, we actually had two bottles, but we did have a 3-hour dinner, so it was definitely a great “night out” for us. 

Love and Miss all of you.

Norm and Rita 

St Vitus Cathedral

Stained glass behind the alter

Such craftsmanship inside the cathedral

St. John Nepomuk

Again, our camera might not be doing these justice

There are windows like this that line the church on all sides

The entrance to the Prague Castle / Palace

These guys were playing beautiful music for everyone in front of the Palace entrance.

These rooms never cease to amaze us, even after we’ve seen so many.

This is the oldest original piece of furniture in the Palace. Very nice condition.

Ceiling painting in Palace is very intricate.

This is the Santa Casa of Loreto ( a replica of the original) it is decorated on the outside with stories of Mary’s life.

This is the shrine inside of the Santa Casa Loreto

Painting on the inside of the Santa Casa Loreto

A statue dedicated to Mary on the grounds of the santa casa Loreto

The oldest working astronomical clock in the world.  At the top of this clock in the two windows, they open and little people dance around on the hour

Bigger picture of its workings

Another Picture of the workings of this clock

This is the dancing house from the left

This is the view from the other side. Pretty cool, yah?

View of one of the city streets of Prague

Yep, Rita’s missing her grandchildren, she’s thinking these two are going to talk back to her! Never gonna happen!