On my first day in Prague, before the Viking Tours started I reconnoitered old town Prague. While on the Charles Bridge I noticed this distinctive bird. I had only taken my rugged pocket camera, but fortunately the bird decided to pose for me at the base of one of the statues. This the best of the pictures. For the rest of the trip I tried to identify it without success. When I returned home there was a Rice Alumni magazine awaiting me with a cover story about a Rice Professor who was also a noted birder. I sent him this picture and asked if he could identify the bird. It is currently known as a jackdaw and is found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa. Of theatrical note, in Shakespeare's time, this bird was known as the "chough" and is repeatedly mentioned in his plays.

This is a view of the Prague Castle taken from the Mánes Bridge over the Vltava River. It is the largest ancient castle in the world, dating back to 870. In the past it was the seat of Czech kings and Holy Roman Emperors. Today it contains the offices of the Czech Republic President. The large building with the towers visible at the top is the St. Vitus Cathedral in the center of the castle.

This is the main gate to the Prague Castle. It is also known as the Gate of Giants. The two sculptures on either side of the gate are of battling Titans, one raising a knife, the other a club, against defeated enemies, presumably designed to warn potential enemies of the regime what they could expect if they challenged it.

Located within the third courtyard of the Prague Castle is the largest cathedral in the Czech Republic: St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral, generally known as St Vitus. The name was chosen after Duke (St.) Wenceslas I of Bohemia received the arm of St. Vitus from Emperor Henry I. St. Vitus died in Sicily as a martyr during the persecution of Christians in 303. Vitus is considered the patron saint of actors, comedians, dancers, and epileptics. He is also said to protect against lightning strikes, animal attacks and oversleeping. He is also the patron saint of Bohemia. St. (Duke) Wenceslas is the "Good King Wenceslas" of the carol. After his death, the Holy Roman Emperor elevated him to be a king which is why the song refers to him as "king". St. Adalbert is a Czech saint, a former Bishop of Prague and a missionary who was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He evangelized Poles and Hungarians. He is the patron saint of Bohemia, Poland, Hungary and Prussia.Construction of the current gothic cathedral began in 1344. It is the third religious buildings to be built on this site. This picture is of the east end of the cathedral.

A Stained Glass Window in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague

The Viking River Cruise tour started in Prague's Jewish Quarter. This part of Prague dates back to the 10th century. One of the sights in the quarter is the (Old) "New Synagogue". It is the oldest active synagogue building in Europe, dating from the 13th century. We walked through the Pinkas Synagogue . On its walls are inscribed the names of the ~ 80,000 Jewish victims from Bohemia and Moravia which is a memorial to the Jews of murdered by the Nazis. It exits into The Old Jewish Cemetery dating from the first half of the 15th century. Over the centuries layers of earth were brought in so new burials could be made on top of old. There are over 12,000 tombstones on the top layer. From the cemetery we entered the former Ceremonial Hall and Mortuary which featured displays on burial customs. No pictures were allowed in the buildings. This is an exterior picture of the Ceremonial Hall and Mortuary taken from the end of the street. The fence gate on the left is the exit from the cemetery which while not obvious in this picture, was a good 10 feet below the cemetery proper.

Also in the Jewish Quarter is the Franz Kafka Monument. It is located in a square writer Franz Kafka, could see when he looked out of his window. While thought of as a German writer, Kafka was born and spent most of his life in Prague. The monument stands between the Spanish Synagogue and the Saint Salvator's Catholic Church, representing the tension between the two religions which featured in much of Kafka's writings. The sculpture features a young man (Kafka?) riding on the shoulders headless male figure in a suit, inspired by Franz Kafka's early short story "Description of a Struggle".

The Prague Astronomical Clock dates from 1410, is the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. The top dial of the clock provides the position of the sun (the time) the position of the moon, and other astronomical details. It includes a mechanism to adjust for the change in the time of sunset. The lower dial is a calendar showing the months. Each hour the clock has an animated display consisting of a skeleton (death) striking the hour and three sins (vanity, greed and hedonism) shaking their heads indicating they are unready to depart. At the very top of the clock are two doors which open and each of the twelve apostles move by the open window. Two legends associated with the clock are that (1) the city fathers had the clock maker blinded after he finished to prevent him from building another one for another city (Since the clock maker of the legend was not the clock maker of record, the veracity of the legend is questionable), and (2) were the clock to stop running the Czech nation will suffer very bad times. In fact this has happened several times, coinciding with difficulties in Prague which prevented the clock from being repaired.

The tour continued to the Charles Bridge. Its construction was started in 1357 by King Charles IV. Construction was completed by Petr Parléř, who also designed St. Vitus Cathedral. It replaced the flood damaged Judith Bridge. It was originally called the Stone Bridge or the Prague Bridge. With the passage of time and the completion of other bridges, it became to be known as the Charles Bridge. Either side of the bridge is lined with 30 replica stone statues of saints and personages, added between 1683 and 1928. (the originals are in the Lapidarium museum in Holešovice). The bridge was much more crowded than it had been in the evening I took the bird picture, both with tourists and with innumerable arts stalls. this view is of the western end of the bridge with its two protective towers on the Lesser Quarter side. The smaller of the two towers is a relic of Judith Bridge dating to the 12th century. it as used as a jail for more than 200 years. The larger tower is patterned after the Old Town Bridge Tower on the east end of the bridge The church steeples in the distance belong to the Baroque Church of St Nicholas.

The next stop on the tour was the Kampa Museum of modern Czech and Central European art. It is located in the Sovas Mills, the oldest water mill in Prague. The Cracking Art Group, six international artists whose intention is to change art history through a strong social and environmental commitment and the innovative use of different recycled plastic materials have installed a line yellow penguins on the bank of the river leading to the museum. The penguins are made from recycled water bottles rescued from landfill sites. The penguins are actually in a straight line, the curvature is an artifact of the panoramic option on my camera. The Charles Bridge can be seen on the left hand side including the Old Town Bridge Tower.

Also outside the Kampa Museum are three of David Černý’s crawling babies, part of a commission to make the notoriously ugly Žižkov Television Tower more attractive. One of the babies is shown on the left and the tower is on the right. The ant like figures on the tower are more of these babies.

After the main tour there was a post tour luncheon, concert, and tour of the Lobkowicz Palace within the Prague Castle. Lunch was quite good, although I was surprised to find that Czech goulash is not the same thing as Hungarian goulash. After the meal we had some time on the terrace from which this picture was taken. It covers Old Town Prague from the Manesuv Bridge and Jewish quarter up to the Charles Bridge. The Žižkov Television Tower (with it's crawling babies) can be seen on the left of the picture. The telephoto view of the tower in the earlier collage was also taken from this terrace.

Throughout Prague Old Town were a large number of street performers. This is a collage of several of them. Some such as the "Casino Banco" in the center or the orange-haired snake handler or twin brass horn players in the lower parts of this collage were clearly advertizing activities inside the associated establishment. Others, such as those around the left and top sides of the collage were performing for gratuities from the spectator. I was never able to figure out what the two lades in the white wigs were doing.

To the delight of nearby children (and many of the adults) several of the street performers were large bubble makers. This looks like a good grandkid project for me.

As has been said, I never saw a river cruise I didn't like. However the Prague Venice Boat Trip was unique. Just getting to the boarding dock was an adventure. It was located in a tunnel below the Charles Bridge. To get there required passage through another tunnel and down some stairs. This is a picture of the boarding area. The cruise started with some refreshments. It left the tunnel and went under the Charles Bridge to the weir on the south side. After showing us the sights there, it went back under the bridge and headed up the Čertovka channel which was the former site of a number of water mills. Coming back out of the channel it headed down river to just past the Manesuv Most (bridge). Afterwards it returned to the boarding dock.

This swan was one of many encountered on the Prague Venice Boat Trip

The last Viking River Cruise tour was to the town of Kutná Hora, almost 50 miles to the east of Prague. The town began with the founding in 1142 of the Sedlec Monastery, the first Cistercian monastery in Bohemia. The first stop was the Cemetery Church of All Saints located on the outskirts of Kutná Hora in the town of Sedlec. In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the monastery, was sent to the Holy Land by King Otakar II of Bohemia. He returned with a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha (Calvary) and sprinkled it over the cemetery. News of this act spread and the cemetery became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe. This picture is of the church with the cemetery in the foreground.

Between deaths from the Black Death Plague (1346–53) and those from the Hussite Wars (1419–34) tens of thousands of individuals were buried in the Sedlec Cemetery. Around 1400 the abbey built the church in the center of the cemetery, designed with an upper level chapel and al lower level ossuary for the graves both unearthed during construction and to make room for new burials. In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the ruling Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order, yielding the macabre result shown in this collage. In the center is a bone candle chandelier which contains at least one of every bone in the human body. On the left is a bone version of the Schwarzenberg coat of arms. On the right is his artistic signature, also in bone.

Kutná Hora is located on a hill next to the Sedlec Monastery. The entire area was rich in silver ore. The town which grew up over the mines was originally named Kuttenberg, derived from the monks' cowls (Kutten). These mines were the source of great prosperity for the city. During the 14th century six tons (give or take) of pure silver were extracted from the mines each year. As a result, up to the 16th century Kutná Hora was as considered a second royal city, as important as Prague economically, culturally and politically. After that date the silver mines were exhausted and the city went into rapid decline. This is a picture of its largest church. It is as large as many cathedrals and was originally planned to be twice as long as it is. Named for St Barbara, the patron saint of miners, the inside of the church is opulent with several areas dedicated to miners.

Stained Glass Window in St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora

The oldest church in Kutná Hora is the Church of St. James. It is identified by its slender almost 300 foot tall tower. Construction began in 1330 and ended in 1420. The church was originally planned to have two towers but during construction it was discovered that, due to mining tunnels, the ground beneath the church too unstable to hold both. The second tower was never completed.

While walking around Prague I noticed posters advertizing "Black Light" theatres. The concierge at the Hilton recommended the Image Theatre. The first attempt to attend a performance failed - it was sold out. On the second night I made a mad dash to the box office after the return from Kutná Hora and was able to get into 6pm show. It was titled "The Best of Image". The segments varied between enjoyable and unbelievable. Half of the segments were a pair of mimes and all of them were very good. The other half were unbelievable black light segments. Several of them being down right hypnotizing. Obviously I could not take pictures during the performance. This is a scan of a souvenir postcard they sold.