Prague Castle

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Music—music around every corner in Prague. A wonderful rustic band on the bridge-the violin had a brass thing attached like a tuba, which I think was just a megaphone to make him sound louder. They were playing jazz and folk songs. Then a bit further on we heard a faint trumpet, and looked over, a lone trumpeter was just playing all by himself on the river bank—probably practicing. Then we were nabbed by a person in the street who was advertising a concert—there were literally about 10 concerts that day being advertised in various places—all the lovely palaces and churches make great venues and it brings in more money I think—but great stuff for a culture vulture. This one was in the Lichtenstein palace—a gorgeous old palace just hanging around in Prague along with about 100 others. It was the Music Academy playing some classics so we gave in and bought tickets—when we got there that evening, it was just wonderful—the sun shining into this gloriously decorated room and an ensemble of strings who were very very good, playing well known classics, it was pure heaven. Then at the end for an encore, they returned without their bows, and all including the cello, held their instrument across their lap and played them like guitars!! I have never seen that before but it was very good and rhythmic and they were having a lot of fun. The double bass held it the usual way but had fun twirling it around and scraping his hand down the wood to get a squeaky sound—it was just fantastic. After that I just knew I had to come back to Prague -the guide book warned us that this would happen and it did—2 days later we have returned for another concert—this one was in a gorgeous church with huge amounts of shiny gold embellishments and statues and it was organ and trumpet playing—the music quality was not quite as good as it could have been in that environment-student players probably but the trumpet really got going at the end and it was amazing acoustics and was very exciting! I would like to spend the rest of the holiday here—literally every street is a photo opportunity with interesting windows or doors or colours or roof lines, or statues or fountains, or museums or the odd palace just thrown in. The old Czech royal palace was good but just walking around is better. Ken nearly had a fit when we sat down at a cafe and paid 35 NZ dollars for 2 cups of coffee and a cake! The seat and the environment was worth it!! But we had dinner in town last night and we went just one street away from the main tourist drag and the prices were just the same as NZ and much less crowds too—Ken feels better now.

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Photos

View of Prague
From the tower in St Vitus Cathedral