Prague Castle

I know I'm quite delayed with this post, but classes are starting to wind down and that means we have progress tests/reports, which are actually quite time consuming....
Anyway, last Saturday Jason and I set out from our flat and walked through Wencenlas Square and Old Town, across the bridge and up to the Prague Castle. We'd been here almost three months and we figured we were long overdue for a trip to the castle. We came up the back steps (which have a gorgeous view of the city).
I was amazed by St. Vitus Cathedral. The line to go in was quite long so we just walked around the outside of the building. It is a huge building and the ornate decoration is unbelievable. I was able to use some of the info I'd learned in my art history classes at Trinity to point out the flying buttresses and other architectural elements to Jason. There are more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/chelsey.thomas
From the top of the castle steps there is a great view of the city. We were looking down at the area around the Wallenstein Palace and I could see this very strange-looking wall. I wanted to know what it was, so when Jason and I left the castle we went exploring trying to find the strange wall. Our search led us into the Wallenstein Palace -- which is this huge Baroque-era building built by Albrecht von Wallenstein. Our guidebook said he was a very ambitious man who wanted to rule Bohemia. He started to build this palace with the intention of making it the finest building in Prague and even overshadowing the Prague Castle. When he went to build his palace he had to buy/demolish 23 homes. He was, however, unsuccessful in his bid to rule Bohemia as he was killed by mercenaries in 1634.
Today the palace is used as the Czech senate chambers.
The wall, which is called the Stalactite Wall or The Grotesquery, is in the gardens at the Wallenstein Palace. There are a couple of pictures of our picasa site. It is really interesting. All of the different stalactites form these interesting caves and crevices and the sign suggested there may be a secret tunnel.