Day Two - May 2 2008 - Up before dawn to storm the Castle.

Hello again to everyone back home:

I awoke this morning before dawn. I guess that my body still thinks that it is on Central Time. It worked out really well. I got up and walked to the Charles River Bridge and was able to watch the sun rise over the city, the bridge, and Prague Castle. After seeing the teaming hordes of people along the bridge last night, it seemed almost a desolate moonscape this morning. The only people out were garbage collectors, delivery guys, joggers, and a very few photographers. Another advantage was that it was sunny, which made it even more beautiful.

After picture taking on the bridge, I then settled into a cafe for some breakfast and coffee before "storming" Prague Castle. For those of you that don't know, Prague castle is the large complex off buildings up on the hill in most of my pictures. The building with the spires is the main cathedral from Prague, St. Vitus Cathedral. The guide book provided sage advise on how to get to the castle complex. Instead of hiking up like a vast majority of people did, I took the metro to the next stop on the line and had a relatively flat stroll into the area. Word to the wise. If you are going to visit the Castle, you better be there when the doors open. I was 45 minutes later, and the line was two football fields long to get into the cathedral. I strolled around the complex, and decided to come back later in the day after all of the tour groups subsided. Plus, the skies were starting to cloud up, and the rain came as I reached the bottom of the hill. I headed back to the hotel for a nap.

I finally was able to make it to the Castle and see the cathedral in the late afternoon. The cathedral is big, but compared to St. Peter's and Seville it is a small church. The two highlights for me were the huge organ, and the stain glass window that was designed by Mucha, the Art Nouveau artist. I have pictures of both below.

After the cathedral, was my performance of Rhapsody in Blue. Magnificent! I splurged on the ticket, and I am so glad that did. Leaving the performance, it started to downpour, so I just headed back to the hotel.

Until next time.....Scot