Prague - Aug 8th

Today we hit:

• Kafka Museum - A lot of thought went into laying out the museum. Kafka seems to be a mentally disturbed Jew from Prague and the museum helped explain the connection that Kafka had to the city.
  
• Wallenstein Gardens - Very classical gardens with a cool modern wall on one side. 6 huge owls are housed in a cage. We did learn about the Czech Senate which is now housed in the Wallenstein Palace.
  
• the rest of the Prague Castle - The art of Prague Castle was mostly based in the 15th to 17th centuries which was interesting but not our style. The Powder tower we learned about military head gear from Helmuts to Caps to Shakos.
  
• the highlight of the day was the Lobkowicz Palace (see below)
  

The Lobkowicz Museum has just opened in this past year. The family have been royalty in this area for 4oo years but they decided to leave as the Nazis were coming causing them to lose their homes and all of their possessions. Likewise in 1948 when the Communists took over Czechoslovakia they decided to get out after being back for a few short years. Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, the Czech government had a process for reclaiming ‘stolen’ items. They were able to recover everything and are now in the process of restoring the castle and the vast collection of stuff. Check out some of this:

• The fourth Prince Lobkowicz was a private benefactor to Beethoven and the 3^rd, 5^th, and 6^th Symphonies are dedicated to him along with a set of string quartettes.
• A ton of portraits of the generations of the family. Each one had a story…
• A bird room. Each drawing was Audubon quality but they include real feathers from the bird.
• A dog room consisting of portraits of dogs throughout the centuries
• 10 different dinnerware collections many of which are more than 200 years old

We did get a 10% discount in the cafe and decided to get a drink. They have a wonderful view of the city and serve their own beer which is pretty good.