Time Flies...
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of Prague. Our second night in Prague a group of us attended a concert in the old St Nicholas Church....in yesterday's post it was the last picture. Heard a Mozart Serenade, Winter from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Bach's Oboe and Violin Concerto and some Christmas carols. We toured the old Jewish Quarter and Cemetery the next day and heard a stunning concert that night at the Rudolfinum....the Guarneri Trio played an all Dvorak program, including the Dumky Trio. We all agreed it was a highlight of the trip so far.
Before leaving Prague we made our way to Vysehrad Castle....this trip has been like traveling through Smetana's Ma Vlast. Every movement from that great cycle of tone poems has been a place we've seen. By the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul we saw Vysehrad Cemetery, which our host described as the Czech equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery. Many important Czech figures are buried there. We saw the graves of both Smetana and Dvorak.
We made our way from there to the amazing little town of Cesky Krumlov. It's a gorgeous little medieval town with the second largest castle complex in Europe. Our hotel, the Hotel Ruze, was built in the 1400's as a Jesuit monastery. The rooms have been furnished in style of that period, and all have wonderful views of the town, the castle or the river....sometimes all three! We toured the old church there and had dinner in a restaurant that used to be a jail!
Today we made our way to Salzburg and saw our first snow just as we crossed the Austrian border. We're off to a dinner and concert tonight, so I'm running out of time to write. More when possible!
