A day in Prague
We started off the day today with a great tour of the Prague castle, also known in Czech as the Hrad! The castle itself was composed of many palaces (and a large cathedral) that came from many different architectural styles. Many of the buildings and small avenues have been used in movies, including Amadeus and Mission Impossible. The spire of the cathedral in the center of the castle was destroyed by lightning in the 17th century. As a result, it was a replaced with a contemporary dome roof, as before the 19th century imitating older styles was not typical (i.e. Neo-gothic).
Later during our tour, we crossed the Moldau on the famous Charles Bridge, and explored some of the old city of Prague. Our guide informed us that originally, the streets did not have numbers. Instead the houses had names, such as “the house of the golden well” and the “house of the golden snake”. The “house of the golden well” has an interesting origin story. After it was first built, there was a well next to it and a young maiden firmly believed that the well contained gold at the bottom. Many times a year she would descend to the bottom of the well in search of the treasure. Unfortunately, one of her ventures ended in mishap, and she drowned in the bottom of the well. When the owner of the home went looking for the body, he actually found the gold she had famously believed was lying at the bottom! And as a result there is now a relief of the famous young maiden at the top of the house; she leans on a skull to symbol her untimely death, and she is said to haunt the house (now a hotel) to this day.
We finished off the day with a great concert in the Church of the Holy Saviour right outside of the old town square. It had the most amazing acoustics! Almost a 6 second reverb! We had a great concert with a full house and now we look forward to our last stop, Leipzig!
