Concert

The highlight for today would have to be the concert I attended late this afternoon. It took place in a chapel at the side of St Giles church. The chapel was interesting in itself as it had modern art at the front- a refreshing change to the diet of Baroque in Prague. (The art, in mosaic, showed a family, with three children plus a baby, all looking towards a clear plastic cross.)

In the concert there was an organ accompanist, a violinist and a cellist. Many of their tunes were popular but some I had not heard before. They blew me away. The tone of the violinist was wonderful and filled the little chapel. The cellist I know I am never likely to hear the likes of again. He played with such passion and control. I just feel so privileged to have heard these two men play. It was the kind of music that made me tingle with ecstasy that I was hearing something so wonderful. ( Hard to explain but you know what I mean maybe!)

This morning I made myself a little list of 'sights' I hadn't yet seen. A very pleasant one was a Franciscan garden attached to the church of Our Lady of the Snows. Both the church and garden are around a few corners and not so visited by tourists. The church even seems to have tour guides giving their spiel on its list of prohibited things. And the silence symbols even seemed to work here, as opposed to in the church of the Infant Jesus of Prague where cameras are clicking in what is for some a very sacred place. (Mind you, the Carmelites are fundraising to bring some order to the tourist side of things, and some quiet into the church itself.) Most churches here seem to shut tourists out completely behind a grill or the glass in a door. Not many places locals could slip in to pray (though the Snows church above was one such place with real quiet - if you can stand baroque ornamentation one more time!)

I was interested to visit some market stalls in the morning as opposed to the afternoon. There was much more fruit on sale and much fewer souvenirs. I bought some mandarins and some strawberries. I was stunned when I arrived in the Old Town Square, to find that what had been a lovely big open square for people watching, was being converted with lots more market stalls. Maybe there is an event this weekend, or maybe it is like this all summer. Not sure, but I preferred the emptier look.

Nice thing about the sunshine, the buskers come out on Charles Bridge. Late this morning I saw a violinist and a trio playing traditional Czech music. Great to wander past.

The other event of note in town today was that the river levels are quite high. The modern metal equivalent of sandbags were being erected in low lying areas, and firemen were pumping away water in places. I don't know whether the water is expected to get much higher, and I guess snow melt is to blame. I hope for the people that serious floods are not coming.