Prague: Day 2

 On our second full day in Prague, our theme was castles and monasteries. The guidebook said you had to be at the Prague Castle complex as soon as it opened due to the hoards of tourists, so that was our aim. The name castle is a bit of a misnomer - it’s a castle if it is fortified, which Phil did notice cut out holes in the wall for guns to fire out of…but that is the only fortification. It really is more of a grouping of palaces, which were all lovely, but they do not constitute what you picture when you think “castle.”

Our first stop was at St. Virus Cathedral.

It was finished quite recently, in the 1930s - half of it was built and finished in the 15th century and then it was just stopped. The “new” part of it did a great job of matching the old. It was beautiful inside with many decorations, like this one over a tomb. 

After the cathedral we visited an older chapel of St. George. It was from the 13th century and at one point had been decorated in the Baroque style but then later was stripped when it was looked down on to be over the top. It was a great example of a medieval church. 

After strolling through the Royal Hall, we stopped inside Lobkowicz Palace. This has no pictures but an interesting story. Their property was seized by the Nazis during WWII and then after they spent time getting it back post-war, it was seized by the Communists. After Communism fell in the early 1990s, William Lobkowicz from Boston went back to see about getting his family’s property back yet again. The Lobkowicz family were princes and had enormous wealth. The palace and belongings were restored and now the palace shows off their art collection. The audio guide was narrated by William and interspersed with talking about the art, he shared his family’s story. It was really interesting and now he and his family have moved back to Prague. The palace had a gorgeous view of Prague. 

After a quick lunch we went to the Strahov Monastery, where I had booked us a private tour of the library. They have a gorgeous library, but like the one we saw yesterday, most people can only look in through the doorway. But they do offer limited private tours so of course I had to book one for us. We felt VIP strolling around the library while everyone peered in through doorway. Our guide, Ivana, was wonderful and shared so much information about the library and monastery. 

We got to be up close to their collection of globes, including one from 1645 which notes Cambridge MA on it. The one from 1630 doesn’t name Boston because the city hadn’t been founded yet. 

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We ended our visit to this area of Prague with a stop in the Loreta Church. The main focal point of the courtyard is the Casa de Maria, or Mary’s House. Inside this structure is a a wooden beam said to be taken from the house of Mary in Nazareth. 

We stopped for a piece of cake and some hot chocolate and then headed back to the apartment to regroup. We decided to book tickets to a classical music concert. Everywhere in the Old Town were signs advertising concerts; the guidebook says they range from great to amateur and we figured we’d do it to have something to do and be cultured. So after getting some delicious pizza at an Italian restaurant, we went to the Municipal House for a concert of Beethoven and Mozart. 

 It was very well done even though I kept getting annoyed at the tourists who clapped after each movement! 

I’m writing this on a train heading to Cesky Krumlov where we will spend the day and overnight. It looks to be a perfect sunny day today so more castles to come!