Arrival in Prague

Sign in a Prague shop window.

"Praha" is the way the Czechs spell the name of their capital city.  "Prague" is the English and French spelling, "Praga" the Spanish, and "Prag" the German.  We pronounce the name the way the Germans do.

On an earlier visit to Prague, I was part of a group of Americans that were having dinner with a group of Czech musicians.  We asked them how they said the name of the city.  "PRAH-ha," they said.  "That's not hard to say; why do we call it Prague?" we asked.  "We don't know," they said.  Nor do I.

Our bus pulled in to Prague and dropped us off at Vyšehrad, a castle on a hill high above the Vltava (Moldau) river.  Gabriel introduced us to Jana, our guide in Prague.

We walked into the castle grounds, passing this small round chapel.  We've seen such tiny special-purpose churches everywhere we've been on this trip.

The front of the church within the castle, the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul, is more colorfully dedicated than most we've seen.  The doors themselves have bright decorations.

More color inside, from the main altar to decorated side chapels.

The vaulting that forms the ceiling is elaborately painted.  These pictures are just as they came from the camera, with no modifications other than reduction in size.

A small gold, or at least gilded, statue.

This illustrated panel shows Satan dropping a column, stolen from another church, on this church.  There is supposed to be a large column lying broken on the ground near the church to give weight to the story, but we did not see it.

A colorful statue of Mary and Jesus.

The Vyšehrad cemetery is adjacent to the church.  In it are buried many famous Czechs, from artists and musicians to freedom fighters and politicians.

Zdeněk Fibich is the most famous Czech composer of whom you've never heard.  If you listen to AllClassical, though, you've heard his music from time to time.  One of the wreaths is from the Ministry of Culture.  Two Czech superstar composers are also buried here: Dvořák and Smetena.

This is the grave of Milada Horáková, who was part of the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II and was later accused of treason, tried, and executed by the Communists.

This is Bedřich Smetana's grave.  Again, flowers from the Ministry of Culture.

Some of the graves have elaborate markers.  We don't know who this is, but it's an interesting sculpture.

Not all the famous people were composers.  This is the grave of Karel Čapek, a Czech author who introduced the concept of, and the name for, robots in his play R. U. R.

The last stop for our group of AllClassical enthusiasts was the grave of Antonín Dvořák, surely the best known of the Czech composers worldwide.

Leaving the church yard and cemetery, we went to the rampart looking over the river for our first view of the city of Prague.  Prague Castle is the complex of buildings on the far hill, surrounded by a wall.  The vast building towering over everything is St. Vitus Cathedral, within the castle walls.  We'll visit all that on Saturday.

We left Vyšehrad, reboarded our bus, and went on to our hotel, which is very near Wenceslas Square.  Gabriel points out the Czech National Museum, at the far end of the square, and shows a photo of a Communist event held in the square years ago.  Then the square held the Czech proletariat and military; now it has McDonalds, Ben & Jerry's, British department stores (Debenhams, Marks & Spencer), and lots of tourists.

Not everything is a multi-national business, though.  You can have dinner on the square in a typical Czech restaurant.

We walked around a bit to get our bearings.  We ended up in the Old Town Square.  Gabriel marked maps for us to show where we were and where the hotel is.

Dinner that night was at a Lebanese restaurant, and (as usual) was excellent.  Tomorrow a walking tour of the Old Town led by our guide, Jana, and in the evening an opera performance.