Prague

After the wedding, I caught up with some of the CESRI people to do a little touring of Prague. We went back to the Prague castle. Again, it was beautiful. This is the cathedral.
Then, since Dan is an amazing planner and wanted to take a tour of the place, we all joined him. This is the inside of the old palace. I cheated again and snuck these pictures.
I loved the door, and look at the cool books!
This is the basilica of St. George, I think. Very cool old church. No pictures from inside, they had guards here to stop you.

The view from the castle.
Then we went to the golden lane. I tried to go here last time, but you had to have a ticket. This time, it was included in our general pass, but it is just a lane with shops and restaurants! Cool buildings, but pay to go shopping?

They did have this long hallway with a huge collection of armor from all ages. Totally unlabeled and disorganized, but pretty cool. That's Dan and Alison that you can see.
This was the fun room. All sorts of bizarre weapons that faded out of history as pathetically impractical. Yes, that is a gun with an axe on the end. Oh, and Greg. He made me take this pic so he could show his friends at home.
More views of Prague.
This garden was interesting. It is pretty eye catching from above.
It is a serenity garden or something, with the dripping wall to mingle nature with buildings... or something again, I don't really remember all the details. But, the cool thing is, there are all sorts of things hidden in the walls. Fish, heads, snakes. You can even see one or two in this pic, if you look closely.

The Charles bridge. The thing is practically impassable from all the tourists crowding it.
To get a good view of the city...
I love all the cross walk signs here, they are all different and reflect something about the area. Eventually, I might get a collection and show you. But for now, here is Greg...
And, well, it is football time here. When I took this pic, I was thinking something like ' the changing face of religion in Europe' You cant really tell that its a soccer game though. Still amusing.
Sunday

On Sunday, we started with a tour of the old Jewish quarter. Dan paid the something like $30 to go inside, but the rest of us cheepies decided just to explore the outside.

The Prague Jewish cemetery. Something like 10,000 people are buried here, up to 12 deep. That is an old cemetery.
This statue creeped me out.
The Jewish ceremonial house or something, a pretty building regardless.
The 'old new' synagogue. It was built ages ago to replace the old one, and got this funny name as even newer ones were built.
We hiked up to the metronome for a view of the city It's this giant bizarre ticking thing, just like the ones your piano teacher used. Odd, but a great view.

After Alison and Dan left, Greg and I went to a classical concert in the big music hall. Totally a tourist thing, but wonderfully fun. Ear candy for an hour and a half. Afterwords, we wandered around Prague as the sun set. The city by night was rather spectacular. I didn't have much luck this time getting pictures, but you get the idea.
This was the view of Prague castle as the sun set. The above picture is in focus, but the fuzzy bottom pic is prettier. Just pretend it is a painting! you get the idea.
The Charles bridge at night.