The Bones of 40000: Kutna Hora

A short distance east of Prague is the UNESCO village of Kutna Hora. In its Sedlec Ossuary, around 40,000 bones of people over the centuries have been keep in the building. As cemetery space became limited over 500 years ago, the bones of people were moved into the church. In the 1800's, Frantisek Rindt, a woodcarver, was hired to arrange the bones. But he did it in a way that no one expected. He organised the piles of bones into artistic displays, a chandelier and an aristocrat's family crest.

Sedlec Ossuary

Chamber Orchestra performance at the Rudolfium

The European Astronomy Conference had their formal dinner at the Rudolfium, starting with an hour long concert by Prague's Chamber Orchestra, followed by an informal buffet stand up dinner in a function room next to the concert hall. 1200 astronomers attended the conference and most were still there for the dinner.

Decorative pediment above the stage in the concert hall of the Rudolfium.

The ornate ceiling

Conference dinner in the function room or banquet hall.

Prague Oddities

At the end of our week in Prague, there were some unusual sights that made you do a double take. A very narrow laneway in the Lesser Town waterfront area leads down to a restaurant on the water. It is only as wide as an average person, so passing another is impossible. Before you enter, you need to press a button to operate the walk sign of a traffic light. Green at the top means red at the bottom.

The laneway has no roof so it is open to the elements and on a very wet day it is hard to open an umbrella.

In the backstreets of the Old Town area is this very specialised museum.

With the amount of cathedrals, castle and Art Nouveau buildings in Prague that have traditional stain glass windows, this particular example next to David Cerny's Wencelas sculpture was designed from a street art tag.

Kampa in the Rain

After days of beautiful sunny weather, it is inevitable that the rain would come. Although not continually torrential, it was windy and wet and enough to soak through clothes and shoes even with an umbrella. Rather than stay indoors we ventured out to Kampa Island, known as an island because of the small canal that flows around it. Kampa Island has parkland, the Kampa Art Museum and lots of small restaurants and access to the Charles Bridge.

We stopped at the sculpture garden of the Kampa Art Museum to see their collection of works including David Cerny's Babies.

Sculpture garden of the Kampa Museum

On the waterfront is a line of yellow penguins.

David Cerny's Babies at the entrance to the Kampa Museum

More baby sculptures are placed up the gigantic television tower in Prague to make the structure look more inviting.

A rather whimsical figure was attached to a water wheel on the canal separating the island to the Lesser Town.

Across the bridge of the canal is the street with a graffiti wall - the John Lennon Wall - where 'artists' add their own tag or artwork so it becomes multilayered. There are still some reference left to the Beatles but the overall theme is peace and therefore relates to John Lennon.

On the other side of waterfront area of Lesser town that is separated by the Charles Bridge, is the Franz Kafka Museum. 

In the large courtyard is a sculpture by David Cerny called Pissing Men. Cerny's sculptures are all controversial and have deeper meaning to them, usually political statements. In this work, the two figures have segmented bodies that move, so when they wee, their hips move back and forward and their penis goes up and down. They wee into an odd shape pond that takes the form of Czechoslavakia. Apparently you can send a text message to it and the figures write the message before going back to peeing.

Watching the sculpture wee in the rainy weather doesn't help the urge of your own bladder!

Dancing House

Returning from Cesky Krumlov we were stuck in a traffic jam outside of Frank Gehry's famous Dancing House. Situated about two bridges down from the Charles Bridge, it is on the outer part of the main section of town. While we didn't have the opportunity to go inside, it appears that there is a viewing area at the top of its highest section.

Beautiful Cesky Krumlov

In the southern part of the Czech Republic is the medieval town of Cesky Krumlov. The old part of the town is surrounded by a wall and entered through a gate while the modern part is on the other side of the valley. The village has a castle that sits on a hill above the town. The Vltava River winds its way through the town and flows quickly with lots of Rapids. White water rafting is a popular summer past time here and it can get crowded not just with tourists but locals as well. The township on one side of the river has a square wit cobblestoned streets leading away to the river. On the other side of the river the Main Street leads from the town gate to the river. We had lunch at a cafe long side the bridge and river and watched all the people paddling down the river on their rafts.

The township of Cesky Krumlov seen from the castle 

Bridge Street leading from the town gate to the bridge

Shops along Bridge Street

On the bridge with the castle in the background looking back up Bridge Street

Castle from the bridge

Main Street leading up to the town square

Having lunch at a restaurant next to the bridge overlooking the water

You can watch the people in their rafts paddling or just flowing with the current

Lunch at the restaurant

Inside the castle of Cesky Krumlov

They actually keep bears at the castle, only one female bear currently exists. The others have recently died. It is actually off-putting when you go incide the castle and see the amount of bear skin rugs displayed in a number of rooms.

Entrance door in the lower castle area

A canal from the river that runs through the lower part of the village

River view of the village

The connecting bridge between castle buildings

Cesky Krumlov is about a 2-3 hour drive from Prague, depending on the state of the roads and the traffic. The trips goes through fairly flat farmland and some smaller towns, some with old medieval or Renaissance town centres.

Cruising the Vltava River

Tuesday evening was spent on the Vltava River with a dinner cruise. During the day and evenings, the river is busy with tourists boats. To get down river the boast have to pass through a dyke. This was an experience as the dyke holds around 8 cruise boats squashed together. Once the water level rises or falls depending on which direction you are heading, the cruise boats exit and another lot go in. A queue develops at peak times.

Moving towards the dyke

Cruise ships crammed into the dyke

Moving into the dyke so the gates can be closed

Gates closing and water levels dropping

Enjoying the brisk evening on the dinner cruise

Frank Gehry's Dancing House seen from the cruise

Charles Bridge as the lights start to come on around 9.30pm