Second day in Prague

Yesterday we started out at Prazsky Hrad -- the Prague Castle.  This is more than a castle ... more like a small city, and the seat of the government.  There is a massive Gothic cathedral in the center that was stuffed full of ornate coffins and saints' relics.  We also walked through some of the old rooms with interesting ceiling structures where many ceremonial activities take place.

We've become fascinated with defenestration.  This sounds like deforestation but has nothing to do with it.  Defenestration is the fine art of throwing people out of a window.  There have been 3 major defenestration events in Czech history, and it seems we are due for another, so we kept clear of the windows.  There was also a similarly fun activity of throwing someone off the bridge rather than out the window; our guide told us that is depontification.

We next went to the National Gallery.  We were only scheduled to be there for 1/2 hour but we all immediately fell in love with the place and switched up the schedule to stay longer.  It is an enormous building with many interesting pieces, both Czech artists as well as international artists.  We focused on the modern art.  The building itself was impressive with a major installation in the entrance that is hard to describe - it was room-size layers of black material covered in water, with a shimmering reflective screen behind.  There also was an Ai Wei Wei snake made of backpacks hanging above the entrance.

We spent a lovely lunch in one of Prague's oldest restaurants near our hotel, and then each headed our own way for a little bit of shopping.  In the evening we attended a performance about Dvorak in a magnificent old home that also housed some artifact's from Dvorak's life.  The singing was good, although the acting was a little hokey -- they were pretending to have a soire while waiting for Dvorak to arrive. He never made an appearance, though, and was reported to have died.

After some tapas and wine at a local wine bar, we called it a day and starting preparing for our journey to Budapest.

Donna