Prague with Armour

Armour arrived in Stuttgart on the 20th of December (yeah, it's been awhile since I posted...) at about 0900. We promised to keep him up (to prevent jet lag for the next three days...) and we did!

He spent the day with me, meeting my colleagues, John's colleagues, and then going to a surprise 40th birthday party for one of the guys I work with at a local beer hall. We came back around 2200 and made him help us decorate the tree. We kept his spirits up with cold Pilsner Urquell.

And here we begin...with Prague. We took off after work on the 21st. One of the things Arms noticed was that even the manhole covers were cool. Love this shot of Spectre... Spectre was being very good, because what he really wanted to do was take a look at these police dogs who were bearing down on him while John took the picture...

We took him to Prague Castle. This is the Great Hall where everything from banquets to crowning ceremonies to markets to indoor jousting took place through the centuries. It's amazing. Wooden floors with planks as wide as half my height. John took this shot and what is remarkable is that there are no tourists in the picture. When we were there in July, and when Mom and I went in October, it was teeming with them...mostly the ubiquitous Japanese with their snapping cameras.

This is a favorite shot of mine. This is Arms standing in the Rider's Staircase, which was the entrance for the knights on their big horses. You can see how sloping and wide the "stairs" are to accomodate the horses' strides. I love imagining their Grand Entrance. Wow!

We also had amazing spots to watch the Changing of the Palace Guard, which in the Summer and Fall is crowded with a crushing throng of people. Spectre was tired out, though, and preferred to snuggle up to Armour.

Here's a couple of shots of the Jewish Cemetery. Sometimes I go to a place and I can feel the Evil. (New Orleans' VooDoo shops are an example...) This was a place where I felt nothing but Goodness. I'm touching the gravestone of a famous Jewish Rabbi, and I was warm all over. There are thousands of folks crammed in here, and the headstones are standing at all different angles. Definitely worth a visit if there's time.

Here's Arms and Spectre in our cool hotel room. It was all sloping angles and garrets.

Obligatory Horse & Holly shot...

The Christmas Market in the Old Town Square. Wonderful smells and sights!

Two very dapper gentlemen in MY fur hat...

Armour and I really, really like mead. Prague's Christmas Market's tradition is to serve it HOT. Even better!

We took Armour to the Bridge. It's great! It's lined with all the saints that are important to Prague. Here they are at one of the martyr's statues that features dogs.

So we featured ours.

Here's Armour rubbing the image of the saint who was thrown over the bridge to his death many centuries ago. I told him you're supposed to rub it for luck.

Arms' expression tells you what he thinks of that tradition...(He said: "Uh...that guy wasn't too lucky, Hol...")

At the end of our second day...John pointed out a particularly horrible fountain...

Hmmmmm....well, it's a museum devoted to Kafka after all, and he was most certainly a strange dude.