The Great Danube Crusie, Day Three- Prague
Today was uber busy. Sensory overload!
Flat Paul in Melnik!
While mama took the morning off i jumped on a tour of Melnik, a town thirty minutes away. The castle is where widows to the king were sent to live out their days. New queens could ride out there for advice without having them hover. Wise idea.
The castle still has a Prince and of course he is 55 and his wife is 38 and there are glamour shots of her dotting the castle rooms. We saw the prince at the castle cafe conducting a meeting while rocking his babies stroller.
We first toured the wine cellar which was built in the 14th century and was massive. The casks were over ten feet tall with regal crests carved into them. Sadly they are all empty. Apparently the Communists drank every drop. No worries. They have made more wine since the 90s and it was quite good. They don't sell it internationally since Czech's are such booze hounds it sells out locally.
After tasting two whites and a rose we headed upstairs for a castle tour. Some rooms were rather amazing. Very World of Interiors with old royal portraits with holes in them hanging on the walls and old chain mail shirts hanging from the wall.
The ultimate highlight for me was the crypt! I really wanted to drive an hour out of Prague to see the Sedlec ossuary where they have made chandeliers and architectural decoration out of human bones. But it was just too far away. So this was a great surprise to be able to see this crypt which houses 15,000 people from 15-1700s.
Have you ever been alone in a room with 15,000 people's bones? It was a really profound experience for me. It was beautiful, shocking, amazing and mind boggling. One sign read, "We were once like you and you will one day be like us." How very simple and true. I stayed in there for about 20 minutes, gazing, thinking, day dreaming, running my fingers over the skulls and bones. It was pretty spectacular. Walking out of there I felt transported. So much so that I missed the group meeting time and place and nearly got left! I was found by our guide walking in circles in the town square and got back to the bus with very little harassing by the group.
Spot the heart made out of skulls?
We got back to Prague and I had a quick lunch with mama and then we headed out on the Jewish ghetto tour. We visited three synagogues and one amazing cemetery as well as walked around the area to learn about it's past. I learned more than I can possibly write down here but what I loved is that our guide, who is Jewish, said, "There is so much to know and I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I can't teach you everything in this short time. The Jewish culture has so much to understand!" I was relieve when a Jewish woman on our tour said, "Oh Honey, I can't even remember it all!".
We came back to the hotel for a cat nap before an early dinner at the top of our hotel which was like being at the Boom Boom Room in NYC for the views before we met the bus to go to a Dvorak concert at his summer house, Villa America. This was such a treat one for the music but two for the VILLA!
For two hours we sat in this incredibly frescoed room while listening to some of the best opera singers, pianist and violin players in the Czech Republic. "Oh, Dear Moon in the Deep Sky" was a favorite as were the Gipsy Melodies. And on a high note we glided into our bus and back to the hotel for delicious dreams of water nymph's and arias.
