Yesterday we went back to the Palace for a lunchtime concert. It was almost surreal being in such a beautiful place listening to a very talented trio entertain us. These concerts are held every day in the Palace and will only cost you the equivalent of $20.00 AUD. I have attached a copy of the program, as well as photos of the room.

We have really got the hang of the public transport here, catching the metro and then jumping on a tram saved us from a very hot walk up a hill yesterday which was fantastic. Google maps has been our friend most days, although we have jumped on a couple of trains on the metro and then got off at the next stop when we realised that we were going the wrong way..

Last night we went on a tour “Dark shadows of the old town, ghosts of Prague”. A very theatrical expat American named Scott was our host for the two hour exploration of Prague’s deep dark secrets. He greeted us dressed in black with a lantern as a guide. It was creepy with lots of gruesome stories about murder and revenge, part myth, part legend and I’m guessing part fact. It was very entertaining even when the subject matter was about incredible cruelty that was almost unimaginable. It went through the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter.

One of the stories that I can retell ( as the rest are much more gruesome) is in relation to Kinský Palace at Old Town Square. This Palace is large and a quite ornate building and was ahead of its time. It stands out as the only building that juts out into the square – all of the other buildings line up perfectly to create a covered arcade.

The story goes that the Devil was the sub contractor for the palace and that he bribed three city officials to get a permit to build into the public space of the square. When the mayor and others at City Hall officials finally figured out that the palace, which had been behind covered scaffolding was going to be so large and out of step with the other buildings they summoned the count. At the mayors request he provided a triple signed permit for the job which had been provided to him by the Devil.

The three officials who signed the permit were questioned and when they confessed to accepting bribes they were sentenced to be executed by hanging, these were tough times for corrupt government officials. It should be noted that the Count’s “subcontractor” who offered the bribes was not punished and the building continued.

The time between the sentencing and execution was just as long as it would take to build a gallows on Old Town Square (i.e. not long). There was also a sacrifice involved in the construction of this building. On hearing that part of the story I was surprised not to see a fair maiden and the three officials  looking at me ( translucently of course) from one of the windows of the building.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday night in Prague, although I think I’ll be having dreams for a while about being buried alive. Having said that it was fun, not outrageously expensive and I would recommend doing this one as you get to see a different side of this city and I’m guessing give an actor a gig for the night.

Today we were on a six hour tour, mostly walking however we did spend an hour on a cruise as well as catching a funicular up to the Petrin Lookout Tower. Again the gods were smiling on us as it was just the two of us wanting an English speaking tour and so we had our guide, Jarka all to ourselves. This meant that we could spend the day filling in the gaps on our local history, going for a morning coffee at the place the locals go and visiting the Strahov Monastery Brewery for a sneaky ale after lunch. Lunch was on a cruise down the Vltava River. Jarka studied English and German at university here in Prague, and art history in Florence, so was an absolutely perfect guide – how lucky were we.

We had a fabulous, long and very hot day, here are some my highlights.

The Church of Our Lady of the Snows. The Church and Monastery were founded in 1347 for the coronation of Charles IV. The works commissioned by Charles IV are throughout Prague and he is viewed by Jarka as being instrumental in the wonderful style of Prague. During the Hussite Wars construction on the church stopped and what had been built was badly damaged.

Whilst we were in the Jewish Quarter during the day today (we spent some time near the cemetery last night, that freaked me out a little), Jarka drew our attention to a really interesting sculpture. The sculpture sits in a small square where  a Catholic church and a Synagogue stand next to each other. The sculpture is of Prague’s most famous writer Franz Kafka. The historic Jewish Quarter in Prague is where Kafka spent most of his life. Whilst I was looking for more information on him I found this quote that has been attributed to him about this little place.

“I think this location is beautiful. At first, I didn’t think about it that way. But later, I realised that maybe there was not a better place than this one.”

There are a few different views on the sculpture and the one provided to us today was that Kafka was sitting on his fathers shoulders and there was some push and pull in the relationship (as there often is), and that his father pushed harder back, hence the hands looking like horses hooves. It is a bit surreal and strange, but I kind of liked it.

We slowly walked through the fascinating Jewish Quarter and then it was time to cruise, yes the cruise was all about the bridges for me. Prague has a heap of them and here are some my favourites we went under. 😀

Then the funicular up to the Petrin Lookout Tower, yes it should look a little familiar … think Paris.

And because we obviously haven’t been drinking enough beer this trip we made a necessary detour whilst travelling down the hill to the Strahov Monastery. The Monastery was built in 1140, and the brewing of beer started two years later. The brewery and Monastery were damaged during the Hussite Wars and again at the end of the Thirty Year’s War.  The brewery was only restored in 2000 ( thank goodness) and they make delicious St. Norbert beer. The place is a bit tricky to find if you didn’t know where to go or in our case that it even it existed. For future reference it’s up the hill from Prague Castle.

Once we were rehydrated we walked toward the castle stopping to take a few snaps and admire the view of Prague.

A quick trip through the Palace (yes we have now visited three days in a row) so that Jarka could talk to us about one of the paintings on the exterior wall of St. Vitus Cathedral which had really interested me.

This work depicts the “final judgement” and was created by a group of Venetians (the people not the blinds) in the 1300’s. You can see in the first panel death and someone being lowered into a coffin and then rising. In the second panel the person is in purgatory and the final panel at the top is heaven and at the bottom hell (which looks a little nasty)… and for this explanation along with the commentary throughout the day, the value of having a great guide was again confirmed to me.  We meandered down the hill and once out of the Palace through a vineyard which we had missed the last two days, I’m blaming the heat.

A quick right and then we made our way to Lesser Town, a hillside area with views across the Vltava river to the old town. This is where we said goodbye to Jarka, had a cold drink and took some photos of this lovely place that we are leaving tomorrow morning. It’s been great Prague, thanks for having us.