creepy religious stories abound

i don't remember the name of this dark gothic cathedral in the streets behind the old town square in prague, however the recollection of the horror at having a shriveled old human hand which was proudly pointed out, by our walking tour guide, hanging on a chain from the ceiling as evidence of a religious miracle is still crystal clear in my mind. allegedly it is the hand of a thief who came to steal a statue from the church and the statue came to life (the religious miracle) and grabbed hold of the thief's wrist - so he cut off his hand to make an escape. creepy.

the curtain was raised

and the wonders of the east were revealed. night sights and sounds in praha's old town square. simply exquisite. we were walking back to our hotel after an evening in a basement pub sinking czech beer then going to watch an extremely kitsch but highly amusing don giovanni puppet show.

old school advertising

appealing streetscape in prague. ordinarily i loathe the painted brick look but this is stylish. which is saying something given it's a billboard for foul pepsi. i wonder if mands would love the painted brick in our living room so much if i did it like this. somehow i think not :)

twisted innovation

some very funky and cutting edge architecture we came across on one of our wanders through the eternally beautiful and interesting city of prague. this was, later research uncovered, built in 1996 and is nicknamed 'the dancing house' (originally titled 'fred and ginger' after fred astaire and ginger rogers). if you happen to be in prague and are looking for it, it is on the vltava river, upstream from charles bridge.

rising above it all

i would love to say 'look at that cool hot-air balloon ride above the lovely old city of prague which we went up in to see the city, river and castle from a lofty height'. but i can't. because we didn't. usually i can talk mands into doing most things which she doesn't think she wants to do (but then she realises she does!) but not this time alas. maybe next time. definitely next time. are you reading this mands?