6/15/2009: Monday round-up

Today was a very busy day for the Gunn HS choir in Prague. We started out with a continental (naturally) breakfast in the hotel, followed by a 3-coach caravan to the Prague Castle, actually a very large compound on the top of the hill west of the river. We broke into 5 groups and were led by local tour guides on a walk through the castle and grounds, including the chamber which was the site of the famous (second) Defenestration of Prague (google it if you don't remember it from world history class). Following our tour, we had a quick bite to eat and coached over to the Top Hotel to spend the rest of the day. The choir had its first individual and group rehearsals while the chaperones cast off their chains for a while to wander freely in old town. No arrests were reported. A group dinner with all choirs began at 6PM in the Top Hotel, and wound up around 8.

After the dinner, some of the kids elected to return to the hotel (it has been a long day, after all) and some had their first chance to see old town -- if only briefly. After a stroll from Wenceslaus Square through Old Town to the Powder Castle, we took a tram back to the hotel for a well-deserved night of rest.

Below is the cathedral in Prague Castle -- the largest in Europe. Funny how I've heard that before about several other castles. The weather today was great, as you can see, and it is indeed a large cathedral.
Here's the front:

and here's (part of) the inside:
Here we are working our way around the cathedral after touring the inside:

and here is our local tour guide Barbara giving us some history in Golden Lane (that's the reclusive Don Anderson fiddling with his camera behind Derek there...)
The view from the castle is pretty amazing, especially on a day like today --


After our tour, snacking in the plaza:

and here's a picturesque street in the castle compound

The Prague Castle is not normally occupied at all, but is used by the President and leaders for special occasions and visits from heads of state. Today we saw many diplomatic cars (big Mercedes Benz with flags on the fenders) and another flag was flying next to the Czech flag. Wikipedia tells me it was the flag of Burkina Faso, so that's a pretty big deal! Below you can see a crowd of people outside the front entrance of the castle, apparently waiting either for some white smoke or a Mercedes Benz to emerge:
It's an awfully pretty view.

Here's a shot of some of the kids eating dinner. As always, you can find Don Anderson's much superior and more numerous photos here but given our bandwidth and his high quality pictures it can take much more time for him to upload a day's photos. Be patient.

Just a reminder, this is me the blog guy in my snappy panama hat:

That's the end of our first full day in Prague. Tomorrow is another busy busy day, with some more foot tours in old town and a concert performance. Most importantly, everybody on the trip is healthy and well, and having a great time. See you tomorrow!