Prague – more pictures part 1

January 18, 2010

I’ve finally had a chance to start sorting through our holiday photos. There are about 1000 so it’s quite a large task. Obviously a good amount are rubbish, out of focus, camera shake and the wrong exposure. I think I even have one of the inside of my coat (I was trying to keep the camera warm) but there are a lot of good ones too and I can’t put them all on here.

So to keep things as simple as possible I’ve started at the beginning. Todays pictures were all take by Tet, I didn’t take my camera out at the airport in case it scared the security people and when we arrived I wanted to just wander and look. I love taking pictures but you d see less that way.

The first picture shows the departure board from Heathrow. We were supposed to be on the 8.50 flight to Frankfurt, as you can see that was cancelled. No problem they automatically booked us onto the 9.50 flight instead. See the problem? The fight should have left but we hadn’t got a gate yet. It was about an hour late leaving in the end. They had to clear the runway, de-ice the aircraft and in some cases wait for the same process to be done elsewhere and the aircraft to arrive at Heathrow.

When we arrived in Prague it was about 7pm, we went straight to our room, dropped our bags and headed into town for dinner. I suspected this was going to be the only time we saw the city without snow so I was quite happy for us to stop and get pictures. The second picture shows the view of the water front looking north from Charles Bridge. Then if you turn to look back the way we had come you can see the castle and cathedral up on the hill. It’s a shame it is so hard to get really good night time shots as Prague is beautifully lit. I think these do a reasonable job of conveying the idea.

Next we have one of my favourite towers in Prague. The tower at the end of the Charles bridge. It’s lovely from the outside and even better on the inside. I’ll show you more of that in future posts. I joke that the city must have got a great deal on Gothic architecture. They don;t just have a few buildings in that style, it’s everywhere and done well. You don’t see just a hint of Gothic, you get all of it all the time and I just love it. The city also seems to have had large ornate doors thrown in free with each Gothic detail. They appear everywhere.

Once you cross the bridge you are in an area of town that provides most of the resources for tourists. Tacky souvenir shop and many restaurants. Since I had last visited there have been a lot more American franchises move in as well as more exotic cuisine. We didn’t brave this particular establishment but felt we needed to share the menu.

Apparently Czech natives haven’t been interested in foreign food, preferring their own traditional dishes (I can’t say I blame them their food is great) but are just starting to get interested in other cuisine. Chinese food has been particularly popular. I found it quite a strange concept that many people there have still not tried non traditional food. It appeals to me that they have been able to keep their traditions this long and I do hope that their new interests won’t detract from their own food.

Now for two pictures where our collective memory is failing us. The first is just a lovely window that was on a building in a side street. Remember I said they seem to have a job lot on Gothic? Well this is a perfect example. Actually the city have changed and evolved over the years, and there are parts of buildings that have become detached from their companions. I suspect there is also some war damage but there is surprisingly little and none of the tourist information seems to mention it.

The door is from one of the churches. There are many many churches in Prague. I found it very hard to keep track of which was which. To me there seemed to always be at least two that were very similar. Like some massive game of pairs. Believe it or not this door isn’t particularly large, impressive or ornate which does add to the problem of trying to remember which church it is part of.

Finally for tonight we have the other tower I really love in Prague, the Powder tower. It is no coincidence that it looks a lot like the Charles Bridge tower. It was intended to complement, but like many buildings, it lost it’s purpose and it’s companion. Rather than being attached to an impressive castle and used by the ruler, it was used to store explosives and was very nearly not completed at all.

I hope you have enjoyed this instalment of Prague pictures. I will keep sorting through them but I am sure you will understand it may take a while. I have a lot of quilting I need to be getting on with. I made good progress today on a block of the month quilt. I’m having fun as the owner has given me free reign to do what ever I think will look good, and it is very nice to be able to see quick progress. Half a quilt in a day whatever next?

Panoramic Prague

January 16, 2010

I haven’t had time to sort through all of the photos, but I’ve been playing around with Hugin and have created some panoramic images from my recent trip to Prague. You will need to click on each picture to see the full image.

This is the view from the bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas in Malá Strana, looking out towards the old town and Charles Bridge:



This is the view from the same tower looking in the opposite direction, back towards Petřín hill:



This one is the view from Charles Bridge, looking north:


Here’s one of the bridge itself, from the riverside:



This is another view of Petřín hill, this time take from the castle:



Finally, here’s one looking over the Vltava towards Josefov, the Jewish quarter, taken from the Prague metronome.

Souvenirs from Prague

Mostly I brought toiletries back from Prague. I (and more importantly my skin) love the ranges made by Manufaktura, so rather than take any with us, I bought lots and brought it home. For me that is perfect and I will be reminded of Prague every time I use them. When I run out it will obviously be time to go back again.I thought I would also be a little more traditional and bought a couple of their gingerbread shapes. I suspect they won’t last much longer unless they turn out not to taste good. I thin that is unlikely given how much I live the food there.
My other purchase is one I had been hoping for but not really expecting. Last time I was there I found an artist on Charles Bridge (there are many there whatever the weather) who I really liked. I considered buying one of his pieces but never quite made a decision. Then I regretted missing out for two years. So this time when I saw him again I knew I would be buying one of his paintings. I still nearly missed out as we didn’t go across the bridge as often as I expected and I decided not to buy the morning of the first day. Each time after that it was too late and the artists had gone. It was the last day when I caught him and Tet chose this painting. I wasn’t too worried I would have taken any and all of them. The colours haven’t come out too well in the picture, it is actually cool blues tending to grey. I love the way he paints the buildings and nearly all his pictures contain cats. It’s also good that the vendors on the bridge have a photo id to show they are the stall holder and prove they are the artist. I can’t quite read his signature, so I can’t tell you his name right now, but if you do go to Prague keep an eye open for his work on the bridge. He is lovely and packs the work beautifully so you can get it home safely.