P R A H A

Above you see three of the thirty or so figures that line the Charles Bridge -- one of the most well known and beloved tourist spots in the city. And below is the Astronomical Clock (a crowd magnet, on the hour, every hour). If you've ever been to Prague and waited in the crowd to see this in action, you will notice that I took this picture as the hour was striking (you can see the little saints peeking out of the two little windows).

Below, this Gothic wonder looks over the main square. I love those towers -- while the view from them must be fantastic, I think it's probably more interesting to look at them from the outside and only imagine the spaces inside...

Here we are, standing on a balcony of the big Prague castle, looking out over the city.

And here is the entrance hall to the palace. I love that ceiling! The arches are just beautiful.

I'm not sure what the history is with St. George here, but he is all over the castle -- carved above doors, painted on walls, and here with this fountain...

This intricately decorated building in the background was used as some sort of gymnasium for the castle -- according to the guide we overheard, the royals used to play something like tennis here.

And finally, my favorite part of the castle complex: St. Vitus Cathedral (as seen frou the royal gardens, approaching the castle grounds).

Here are some of the stained glass windows from the cathedral. St. Elizabeth must also be particularly beloved here in Prague, as she shows up here and on the Charles Bridge in the first picture.

Below is another stained glass window from the cathedral -- this one done by the artist Mucha

Once again, more arches that I love! This cathedral was so huge, it felt impossible to get a picture that captured its character -- inside or out. It felt so spacious and silent, dispite the crowds of tourists. The amount of small and intricate details that were all over this huge structure astounded me with every turn. It's really unbelieveable.

Still inside the castle complex, below you see the Golden Alley. The blue No. 22 that you see on the left was home to Kafka for a while. Now it is a store that sells his books and souveniers with his figure on them. All of these little houses, built into the castle wall, are shops now -- and you can climb up some little steps to look out the castle wall through the archery defense slits. I'm sure there's better technical language to describe this, but being a simple commoner, all this castle stuff was new to me.

Keeping on track with our Kafka tourism, here's Jacob posing with a statue tribute to the writer. Maybe one of you readers can tell me why they used this image for him -- is it from one of his stories?

And below is one of the many many fancy facades that seem to appear around every corner here... This one just at the edge of the main square.

Below is a beautiful large fountain. We sat here when our feet were too tired to do much more walking, and the sun made it too hot anyway. I kept thinking that it was these small details -- like this fountain and the paintings above -- that made Prague so remarkable as one of the only major European capitals that we untouched by World War... All of the places that were heavily bombed seem to be reconstructing the major sites, but the small details like these slip between the cracks with lack of budget and time.

Below, let me bring your attention to the figures in the foreground. Yes, that is a man, wearing a kilt, with a beer in hand, playing soccer (forgive me, football) in the main square. Somehow, we managed to visit Prague at the same time as some huge Scottish event... By the time we were leaving, there were droves of these cheery Scots, wandering around in kilts, singing, and causing various drunken disturbances.

And truly, what is a visit to Prague if you don't sample some great Czech beer?

I'll leave you with a couple of film clips -- the first one is a little bit of evening jazz on the Charles bridge. The second one is a spectacular rendition of "Doe, a Deer..." complete with bagpipes and all. Enjoy.