Prague Bonus Material

I forgot to write about two stories from yesterday. I also missed some pictures...mostly of architecture.

In one of the churches I visited yesterday (I THINK it was St James or John), there is a beautiful statue of the virgin Mary. Well, that's in every church. But this Mary used to have a beautiful pearl necklace around her neck. One night, long ago, a thief broke into the church to steal it. As he went to grab the necklace, Mary moved and grabbed his arm. He was stuck there, struggling through the night. In the morning when the priest arrived he asked the thief what was going on. The thief admitted to trying to steal the necklace, explained how he got stuck, and asked for a knife to cut Mary's arm off so he could get free. He swore to never steal again. The priest pulled out a knife but cut the thief's arm off instead of Mary's! The thief went to prison to serve time for his crime, and the priest hung the arm in the church to warn others about stealing. The arm still hangs there today. Sick huh?! True story.

 The other involves the triangular metronome that you can barely make out in this picture:

This metronome stands were a giant statue of Stalin used to stand...watching out over the people in Prague. It was taken down after the end of communism, obviously, and the metronome was put up as some sort of reminder of the time lost to communism. Why you'd want a reminder, I do not know. But the good story comes when Michael Jackson visited Prague for a time and put an inflatable statue of himself in the same spot Stalin was. Some hard core MJ fans want a real one put up permanently, but it's unlikely.

Before:

After:

Now:

Other pics:

Charles Bridge

Franz Kafka...amazing author

The Black Madonna