Charles Bridge

So my Mom asked if I had any pictures from on the Charles Bridge and of the statues that line it, so here they are (so take note, I do take requests!)A view of the bridge from the Old Town tower. The bridge was commissioned by Charles IV in 1357 and was the only crossing point over the Vltava until 1741. While it is now open only to foot traffic it used to be able to hold four carriages abreast (it's amazing what you can learn when you read the guidebooks cover to cover). Due to concerns about their preservation, most of the statues have been replaced with replicas.
Reliefs on the statue of St John Nepomuk (never heard of him? yeah, me neither, and I'm a Religious Studies major!) show how he was martyred by being tortured and then thrown off the bridge by the orders of Wenceslas IV. The dog is polished by people touching him for good luck, the same has happened on the relief on the other side where people touch the figure that is being thrown off the bridge.
Statue of St Barbara, St Margaret and St Elizabeth from 1707.
A view along the bridge to the Old Town bridge tower that was built by Peter Parler at the end of the 14'th century. Even during the off season the bridge was swarmed with tourists like ourselves and vendors selling jewelry, pictures of Prague, and caricature artists.
St John of Nepomuk himself, statue from 1683 (I think he knows that his future looks grim)

St. Vitus' Cathedral

St. Vitus' at nighttime. I took this picture after we left the concert in St. George's Basilica which was beautiful (both the music and the location) but very, very cold!


The Alfons Mucha art noveau window in the Cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful but pretty crowded. It was great though to see the golden replica of the cathedral made by Peter Parler (most of the church was also done by him but it was not finished within his lifetime)

Just one more picture

The Charles Bridge in Prague

Marzipan and pictures to start the day

To start the day off on a happy note, MARZIPAN!! The marzipan in Prague tasted a little different, according to my Mom, the marzipan connoisseur. It was a more doughy with a less concentrated almond taste. But they were still too adorable to ignore and we happily ate a little strawberry creation. I think these goodies are cute enough to be on Cute Overload.
I thought I'd start the day off with a whole mess of pictures from the trip. This is from the Troja House in Prague, it's a big house done in the Italian Villa style right by the Prague zoo (where they have excellent otters and giraffes but the polar bears look very sad) and has amazing frescoes inside.
This is the statue of Jan Hus with the Church of our Lady of Tyn in the background in Staromestske Namesti in Prague. I have a picture of him later with a pigeon perched on his head and somehow it takes away from his austere countenance.

Because you can never have enough peacocks...

A peacock a day...

My family's last full day in Prague (Mom and my two sisters had to return to the U.S. for silly things like school and work) was also the day we were celebrating Mom's birthday. However, the night before we'd had a rude shock when we returned to our guest house after a folk music and dance performance (a little on the hokey side but surprisingly amusing and with abundant food and as much beer and honey wine as you could drink it was an enjoyable night even with me being forced up to participate in the "Moravian Broom Dance") to find that Mom and Tom's room had been broken into and not only were important things like bags, credit cards and a camera stolen, but the jerks had taken her birthday presents!! The next day understandably everyone was a little grumpy but we decided to carry on with the birthday celebration as planned. So we wandered around the New Town area until we found the Botanical Gardens and the smell of warm dirt and plants helped cheer us up a bit. After lunch we took a tram into Mala Strana to do some last minute tourist shopping and were just wandering around when we stumbled past a large walled in park. After meandering up paths past benches and little ponds, we came into a courtyard to be greeted with this image. A whole flock (I'm sure there is some special collective noun for peacocks but since I do not know it we will have to make do with "flock") of peacocks and the most charming elderly couple feeding them and the pigeons. Needless to say a half hour later after much bird watching, we all walked out with big grins on our faces feeling much better about the day. Thank you peacocks for saving Mom's birthday!