Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 3 (continued)

Some more examples of Praha art nouveau architecture.

Laura-Lyn took this picture for two reasons.   It was a great piece of mosaic art and it also showed the differences between the Czech alphabet and the one we’re familiar.  We found pockets of non-Czech speakers, but not many, and the differences in the alphabet made navigation and map-reading challenging.

On our last night, we had dinner at a Czech restaurant and sampled some local cuisine.  Czech out the optional structures attached to Allister’s plate.

Finally, on our way out of town we saw one of the most famous of all Prague’s building, the Dancing House.  It is also a Frank Gehry design and apparently it is an office building.

On to Munich and Strasbourg.

Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 3

Charlotte and Laura-Lyn, deep in conversation in a plaza in the Castle Quarter of Praha.

The facade of the St. Vitus Cathedral.  We were still in the thrall of the size and scale of these large churches.

I came upon the woman (the one with the two-toned hair in the following picture) creating lace in a sunny spot on the sidewalk in the Castle Quarter.  I quietly took a picture of her from across the pedestrian walkway.  Then a group of Czech guys came up and engaged her in conversation and she obviously offered to show them how it was done because the next thing that happened was one of them sat down and started to play student and receive the first lesson of Lace Making 101.

 

As you come down from Castle Quarter (home of the St. Vitus Cathedral, Czech Republic parliament, and residence of the Czech Republic Prime Minister / President) you descend the large hill on staircases like the one shown in the picture following the one below.  On the hillside itself there are among other things, a vineyard that is run by a religious order.

Staircases enable pedestrians to ascend and descend to and from the Castle Quarter.  This picture was taken in a rare moment when these stairs weren’t crowded.

Both Laura-Lyn and I liked the Praha architecture and took pictures of a number of its better examples.   It seemed as though Praha buildings were a work in progress.  It was obvious that there had been considerable renovation in recent years but there were also parts of the city where it appeared there was still much work to be done.

Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 2 (continued)

We also spent time on our second day in Prague in the Castle Quarter, where the Prime Minister’s residence is located along with the Czech Republic parliament.  Other tourists were getting their photo taken with this guard – who maintained his stare throughout – and it seemed like a good idea to both Charlotte and Allister.

Near the Castle Quarter, there was some meeting of Ferrari car owners.  This was one of the more exotic models, but there were probably 6 or 7 others parked in this vicinity, bearing license plates from all over Europe.

These are public, paid, self-service Water Closets that we’ve seen in a few European cities.  They are highly automated and include a hand-washing station that first applies soap, then rinses, and then dries the user’s hands.  After that it cleans the seat, the floor and then pops open the door.  I’m sure these would be a welcome addition to some Canadian cities.

In the evening, on our way to a black light (this is a type of theatre where special lighting reflects off the clothing of the performers in often spectacular fashion) theatre performance, we walked up the main street in downtown Praha towards Wenceslas Square.  It was here in 1989 that hundreds of protesters gathered to urge the Communists to leave Czechoslovakia.  Not long after, they did.

There are more examples of Praha’s art nouveau architecture in other posts, but here is an example found on Wenceslas Square.

Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 2

With our excellent weather, which on this day was actually hot (25 – 28C), we got out and walked.   We passed over the Charles Bridge again and since Allister enjoyed this puppeteer’s show he paid the price.

This is a crowd shot of pedestrian traffic on the Charles Bridge.

And, at one of end of the Charles Bridge, a large picture of the beer (which is far easier to find than wine in the Czech Republic) Laura-Lyn and I enjoyed most often – Pilsener Urquel.

In the afternoon, we bought a pass to a series of museums in Praha’s Jewish quarter, one of which was the Jewish cemetery shown in the picture below.

One of the museums, more of a memorial really, the Pinkas Synagogue, contained the handwritten names of the more than 75,000 Czech Jews murdered during the Holocaust.  Unfortunately, taking pictures in the Pinkas was not allowed, but as we toured it, the sights were accompanied by a soft recording that recited the names of all those who perished.  Quite moving.

In the course of the tour between Jewish Quarter sights, we came up on the Franz Kafka Cafe where a film crew was preparing for some kind of shoot.

I don’t really know the connection between Franz Kafka and Praha, but here is another statue of the man not far from the Cafe bearing his name.

Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 1 (continued)

One of the highlights of our first day in Prague was a ride on a river tour boat.  It didn’t go too far but it was entertaining and a well-organized tourist operation.  The tour was advertised by hawkers in naval costumes who directed you underneath the Charles Bridge where you were provided with either lemonade or a beer and a snack while you waited to depart on the tour.

A multi-lingual tour guide had a delightful patter in three languages – Czech, Spanish, and English – but you got the sense that other tours would have different languages if there was a different linguistic balance on the specific boat.

This is the departure area under the Charles Bridge.

There was one little canal off the Voltava River and, naturally, the tour exploited it for all it was worth.  After seeing canals and other waterways inside city limits in both Hamburg and Berlin, Praha’s canal system wasn’t all that impressive but here is a picture of it traversing Praha’s lone canal.

Another view of the canal from our tour boat.

I’ll bet you’re wondering why I took this picture.  I took it because it was billed as was one of the few stretches of a major river in a large European city that wasn’t completely ‘domesticated’, i.e. where the bank of the river was lined with cement.

The picture below is of what must be the world’s larges metronome.  No kidding.  If I’d taken multiple pictures you’d see the red bar moving back and forth.  Apparently, it marks the spot where there was once a statue of Stalin (until the 1960s) but I can’t tell you why the Czech people would tear down a statue of Stalin and replace it with a metronome.  I’m sure there is some significance to this choice and if I find out later, I’ll update this post.

A final view from the tour boat, this time of the Charles Bridge (featured in other Praha pictures also).

Sept 27 – 29, 2008 – Prague (Praha) – Day 1

The trip to Prague offered some of the first mountains (hills, by Canadian standards) that we had seen on our trip.  The parts of Germany we traveled were mostly flat but as we crossed the German-Czech Republic we started to climb and also passed through some impressive tunnels.

As we woke up in our Praha apartment and went onto its attached deck, it became apparent the soccer field behind us was gearing up to host a game that day.  We learned later after as we went to take our street car to the Praha old city that this field was the home to FK Viktoria Zizkov, but I don’t know their division or league.  We’re hoping this isn’t as close to attending a soccer (sorry, football) game while we’re in Europe.

After taking the street care downtown, we started to walk and wound up at the Voltavia River which offered some of the following views.   The following is a picture of a weir located in the middle of the river (we’re not really sure of its purpose but it wasn’t the only one) that some canoes were traversing, as though the weir was a rapids in a river.  There was also a large number of white swans swimming about the slow-moving water and many tour and other type of watercraft that created a great view.

Up on the hill, the impressive cathedral is St. Vitus and in front of it is the Czech Castle which is home to the Prime Minister’s residence and Czech Republic Parliament.

The Charles Bridge connects the “Castle Quarter” with the Old Town which is on the side of the river from which this picture was taken.

A close up of the Charles Bridge, refer to other Praha posts for other views of this bridge but its a pedestrian bridge lined with artist and other Praha souvenirs.

The last time I came to Europe, in 1980, there was no Euro and money changing was a fact of traveling life.  Automated bank machines (ABMs) have seen off the travelers cheque and the Euro has made managing cash across European borders much easier.  Unfortunately, Czech Republic is one of the countries (Denmark was the other) that we’ve so far encountered that did not use the Euro.  In Denmark the local currency was called krone while the Czech Republic currency was called the koruna.

The following pictures show some of the wares of the souvenir shops that crowd the Old Town side of the Charles Bridge.

 

Just some of the interesting art that adorns Praha.  More on this in subsequent posts.   Let the record show that Laura-Lyn took this picture.