Prague, Day 5

Monday, June 25, 2007. Suuny, 25c.
Well a bit of a late start to the day. Last nite, my owner sampled a bit of Czech Culture, that is drinking beer. The Republic boasts the highest per capita consumption in the world, so he had to get as you could say some of the essence of Prague.
Our day started as most days have in the Old Town Square, or around the corner from it. Jan Saudek, a world renown czeck photographer has an exhibtion of his best of work there.
From there it was a bit of a wander thru the back streets, laneways and courtyards, eventually heading towards Charles Bridge. The bridge is on our route to our main destination today, Prague Castle (Prazsky hrad), which is a complex of buidings, with history stretching back more than a thousand years.
Karluv Most (Charles Bridge), designed in 1357 for King Charles IV, links the Old Town with the Lesser Quarter. It is has more than 30 sculptures on the parapets. One figure with the starry halo is St John of Nepormuk, whose tortured body was hurled into the river from the spot marked with a cross in 1393, after he dared to side with his archbishop against the king. Today that statue and the legend that goes with it is a "must be photographed touching spot" on the bridge. The legend gets very gruesome, but a lot of Prague's history is filled with, medieval torture and death.
Now if my owner gets around to it, there will be a few of those "must be photographed" images added.
Up the hill and into Prague Castle, Royal Garden, St Vitus's Cathedral, National Picture Gallery, St George's Basilica, and Golden Lane.
St Vitus's took nearly six centuries to complete and was consecrated only in 1929. I guess they had a lot of industrial relations problems over those years. We managed to climb the 287 steps up the south tower to get a great view of the city on this beautiful day. Our guide on Friday provided us with lots of history and facts about the place, but I wont go into that here. (I hope my owner adds some images here at some stage.)
Back down and over Charles Bridge, we found a most interesting place that should be a place to visit for Professional Development Seminars. The Museum of Torture, some very good methods and equipment for "classroom mamagement" here. As I said Prague has a very gruesome history, and it's one of the most haunted towns in Europe, or so the brochures for the night walks say.