day 17 - august 21st (part 2)

i walked along the top of the hill over to the castle. here's a pretty corner of it


the castle gardens were lovely, groomed, and blooming

here's proof that i was there

there's this amazing technique of decorating walls called sgraffito, which means putting on plaster and then carving it away in a pattern. every town had at least one of these, and here's a bit of a little outbuilding on the castle grounds:
the clock tower (yes, that's gilt)
intricate gilding and painting
gargoyles!! flying buttresses!

i left the castle without paying the overpriced entrance fees to the insides of any part - a 6 oz cup of diluted lemonade cost me 60 crowns (or about $3!) and wandered out to some of the other pretty buildings on this side of the river. incredibly intricate sgraffito:

the pretty loreta, currently the foreign ministry and previously the SS headquarters, and also the site of one of prague's famous defenestrations

does anyone else think maybe it's just a little sacreligious to make a smiley face out of a menorah and stars of david?
just another regular old building with flowers in all the windows.
on the back side of the strahov monastery, an unexpected statue

a tile by a door (for mom!)
the super cool petrin tower, a miniature of the eiffel, at only 299 steps up and only 50 crowns, one of the best deals in prague, with a 360 degree view. also, it had the most amazing little free museum in the basement, which i discovered by accident when i went to the bathroom, and is worth a post of its own, which will follow.
i think this is the coolest graffiti i saw. the eyes, nose, and mouth are drawn on cement repairs to a wall.

coming down through the beautiful gardens on petrin hill, i stopped for a few hours to write postcards, and discovered this little gem of a tennis court tucked away and mostly hidden by greenery. it reminded me of the basketball court i found in berlin, at viktoria park.
at the bottom of the hill, these beautiful flowers in a very busy little park
at the other end of which was a disturbing memorial (i think to those killed by stalin, although it could have been holocaust)
one of david cerny's many prague installations, and sadly the only one i saw
a very prominent display of maybe 100 beautiful photos, a goodplanet.org display called alive!, i think curated by yann arthus-bertrand. these were right across from the municipal house, in front of the fancy-pants mall at namesti republiky, and got a lot of tourist and local attention. photos are worth checking out.i wandered back through the old town, stopped for a lovely pizza and beer, and made my way home for the night.