Prague

Soooo... Welcome to Prague! Here are a few of my favorites from the trip. It was such an amazing city, very rich with the sense that people are enjoying their culture and freedom. We arrived in the afternoon to a little bit of rain, which left quickly and only re-emerged a few times during our stay. We visited a few museums, spent more than half a day touring the castle grounds, we enjoyed some tasty beers and we wandered aimlessly along the cobblestone streets. My thanks to everyone who recommended a visit here. You were right.

This is the view of the Prague Castle complex from Charles Bridge. Our hotel was conveniently close to the bridge and we must have crossed it at least 10 times in 4 days. It's lined with these amazing old (and some replaced) statues and well as interesting street vendors.

Oh and also lots and lots of of tourists, in case you were wondering. I can't complain, we were two of them.

Hidden in a quiet corner near Charles Bridge is the John Lennon graffiti wall. When the young people of Prague were sweating Lenin, they turned to the inspiration of Lennon to find a small way to break out. Today the wall contains a lot of irrelevant graffiti but we found more than a few references to it's original inspiration.

This is a monument to the victims of communism and a plaque nearby explains that it's not just to those who were jailed and executed but to everyone whose lives were affected.

To the left in the above photo is the Dancing Building I mentioned previously. Our dinner there was really fantastic.

There are a few small islands along the banks of the river. Jake is posing with some fisherman at the tip of one of them with the Charles Bridge in the background.

This mural really caught my attention because of the point it's making about the unending cycle of war/destruction and reconstruction.

Here's Jake enjoying one of many Czech beers we tasted at the Prague Beer Museum Pub, which incidentally isn't a museum at all.

Old Town Square is a feast for the eyes at night. This is the cathedral.

This is the Powder Tower.

Shot up a busy Prague street.

I just love the hand on this statue in Old Town Square.

This was a very well organized and very informative museum about how communism came and went in the Czech Republic. If you're a history buff I recommend it highly.

This is the view up St. Wenceslas Square to the National Museum which was unfortunately closed for renovations. Most of the major marches and demonstrations that took place in Prague back in the day occured here.

This is a close up of the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. It goes off with fanfare and animation every hour up through 9:00pm I believe.

View up the clock tower.

I rotated this photo. These jerseys are on the vaulted ceiling of The Dubliner, a subterranean Irish Pub where we were able to catch a couple of NFL games thanks to ESPN America. Oh and I drank Magners, of course.

These are the aforementioned Love Locks on Charles Bridge. There aren't too many here... yet.

Part of the Prague Castle comples, this is one of the palace buildings I believe.

A great shot I got in the cathedral. My close up shots always look so much better to me than panorama.

Delicious sugary pastry!

Guards at the palace entranceway.

Quaint Prague street view.

Dancing Building, at night.

This was the view walking back from Celeste after dinner. Just lovely!

These penguins lit up and night and looked really cool from across the river!

View of the city from the tower which was on a huge hill that we had to climb by foot because the funicular wasn't running.

Their version of the Eiffel Tower, it's smaller but just as high because of elevation.

Summer residence, adjacent to the Prague Castle area.

We had to try Budvar, you know, because the U.S. apparently stole Budweiser from the Czechs.

This communist-era office building sticks out like a sore thumb. It now contains a branch of the national museum and a cafe.

The view down St. Wenceslas square.

Wheeee! This was a great first half of our trip!