Prague: Jazz Boat tour

Opportunities to hear live music are abundant in Prague. Our first night, we attended a Mozart Opera dinner with a small quintet, soprano and tenor. Most other nights, we stumbled across someone in the street playing this or that. There is music everywhere! This night, we went on the Jazz Boat, which is a dinner cruise with live jazz. We were inside so some of my photos have a glare, but you'll get the idea.

The boat leaves shortly before sunset and runs about 2 hours - plenty of time to enjoy dinner, the view and the jazz.

Here's a shot of the band. They have a different group every night and you can see the schedule when you reserve the tickets. We wanted to have a band and not a singer. They were really good!

And of course, the best part was to see Prague from the river.

Charles Bridge.

No idea what the penguins are about, but they were so cute I had to take a photo.

The glare is bad on this one, but it was the best I could manage. I put the camera away at this point since the photos weren't turning out anyway and just enjoyed the music, the food and the company.

Prague: Astronomical Clock Tower

This astronomical clock is the oldest of its kind still operational. It was installed in 1410 and is still running today. Each hour, the clock chimes the time and puts on a little show where the 12 apostles peak out the two windows at the top. A massive crowd gathers every hour to see it. I have a video of the event, but can't see to get it to load through the blog. So, enjoy the photos instead.

Next we went to the top of the tower to get a great view of Prague. 

Prague: Sunday Morning Segway

Charles Bridge is a pedestrian bridge crossing the river Vltava and connecting both sides of Prague. It's a gorgeous bridge with even more stunning views, but most of the time it's teeming with tourists and street artists. Our first morning in Prague, Sunday, we had scheduled a 9am Segway tour so headed out quite early for a Sunday morning. Our reward? The city practically to ourselves. Even our Segway tour guide was amazed at how quiet everything was. A good tip for the Prague tourist - get up early on Sunday!

This area later in the day is packed with tourists and street artists.

A glimpse of Prague castle. Unfortunately, we were running late so I couldn't stop to take a lot of pictures. In hindsight, I should have as we were the only two on the tour.

This is Wenceslas Square which is also usually crowded with tourists. This view the night before was completely different!

More photos of our tour to come as they relate to the different areas of the city.

Prague: Street Performers

Everywhere! Magic tricks, giant bubble makers, singers of all kinds, acrobatics and bizarre and disturbing acts like the guy who could dislocate his shoulders and get an empty tennis racket over his head all the way to his waist. I can't imagine they make enough to live on, but who knows?

God only knows what this guy was doing. He was out there every day and spoke in this squeaky annoying voice. Can't imagine he pulls in much cash.

These guys were cool. I saw them when they first unveiled and watched as the crowd slowly grew. Hung around for about 10 minutes waiting to see them come out of it, but they didn't so I moved on. Saw two more couples with the same trick a few days later. And unfortunately within a block of one another. This first pair was amazing to me, but after I saw two more, wasn't as impressed.

This guy built his own one man band. Too bad he's a terrible musician! :)

These guys were great! They played rock and were quite good. Stairway to Heaven was our favorite.

There were many more, but photographing them encourages bad behavior. :) One thing I don't get are those who simply paint themselves silver or gold and just stand there. Really? That's a talent? Maybe I've just seen it too many times to be impressed any longer.

Lots and lots of singers and some were even good. The problem is they all seemed to play the same songs. And since they were right out our apartment window in Old Town Square, the whole thing started to lose its luster. If I hear Alleluia one more time . . .

Prague: Folklore Days Festival

After unpacking, Brian settled in for a snooze and I went exploring. There was so much racket coming from the square below, I had to find out what was going on. Here's what I found:

Mmmmmm, roasting ham - must come back for slab of that good stuff!

What's this massive crowd of people looking at?

 And what's with all the funny costumes? Is this how the people of Prague dress every weekend?

Hmm, this looks like some kind of parade.

And a strange one at that!

I figured out after I got home and googled that I stepped into the middle of the Prague Folklore Days Festival. Dance and music groups from around Europe gather and there is a competition. This was the parade after most of the competitions and the last day of the festival. 

 Some of the groups stopped and put on a little performance for the crowd.

And some really took their folklore seriously - all the way down to the funny socks and wooden clogs. I particularly like the guy next to him wearing Birkenstocks!

This Swiss group actually played the horns, but I was too far away for a video.