BEAUTIFUL PRAGUE AND ART NOUVEAU

Today is our first day in Prague. We started our day with a lecture in the lecture room from an architectural historian. She talked about various types of Czeck architecture and showed us examples. Then we went on a walkabout and checked out the main Street in the old town area, which is an extension of Wenceslas square.

We went to see the astronomical clock and then we had lunch at the City Hall.

City Hall means something entirely different here than it does at home. It is a hall, a concert venue, that belongs to the city.  This one is an absolutely fabulous art nouveau building both inside and out and has been meticulously maintained since it was built.  

We had lunch in the cafe first, which was quite delicious, and another lovely room in which to eat,  this one in Art Nouveau style rather than Baroque.

 Following our lunch, we had a private tour of the building

which was absolutely fabulous and it is going to strain to me in credibly not to post every single picture of every single heater vent and

anything else I saw because the decorations were all so lovely.

Following that we walked back to our hotel, stopped at the Mucha museum, stopped and got some cash, and came back to the hotel. 

Tonight we went to see a marionette show of Mozart's Don Giovanni.  This is something I would not have done had not someone we were talking to over breakfast before we got on the plane to come here told us how delightful this was. And it was. They have one puppet who represents Mozart, and who is the orchestra conductor. Then they have marionettes which are all the other characters in the opera Don Giovanni. They say it's the complete opera as it was originally presented here in Prague, but zoe remembers it differently so it may have changed over the years. We are actually going to see the Don Giovanni real opera in its original opera house,the Estate opera house, Wednesday night.  This one was hilariously funny.