April 29, 2011

It is Friday morning.  After breakfast I made my way to the bike shop and David went for the book stores. I rode to the Vltava river crossing at Svermuv Most (bridge). I biked the west bank of the river covering most of Letenske Sady, a huge park.  The former statue of Stalin (30 meters high I believe) was at the top on Lookout point before the people brought it down.  Now there is a large pendulum. 

I continued riding towards the castle with the moat between it and myself. The lilacs are in full bloom as are the honeysuckle and many other variety of shrubs and trees. David and I hope to walk the Stag Moat tomorrow. It would be at the base of the castle, see pic to the right. I continued riding to Kampa Island where there is a wall dedicated to John Lennon. 

Lennon was a hero to the pacifist youth of Central and Eastern Europe during the totalitarian era. Prior to 1989 when communism ruled, western pop songs were banned by Communist authorities, and especially John Lennon´s songs, because it was praising freedom that didn’t exist there. Some musicians were actually jailed for playing it!

Here is a little contrast. I was touring through some side streets when what do I see but US  army jeeps.  I knew I was near the US Embassy but the outfits were old style and that threw me. I went up to one of the soldiers and asked what was up.  They are part of the 55th anniversary celebration of the end of WWII.  The guy I spoke to was dutch and he stated they were getting ready to line up with others to drive through the streets of Prague and the castle grounds.

   

David and I hooked up, had lunch, then walked to Kampa Island.  The first time I hopped on this bad baby I slid right off.      It was at this point I continued with my biking and David with his booking.  Tomorrow night we go to the ballet, Othello, at the National theater.

         

April 28,2011

At the castle

This morning I headed out to City bike while David was off to the used book shops.  There was a tour which consisted of 3, plus the tour guide. The couple are originally from Australia but now live in London.  Beck is a nurse and 6 months pregnant. James loves to bike.  He has done races prior to and after Tour de France, doing same tour .He has also biked the Alps and Pyrenees. Very nice couple. Anyway our tour went through town then over the Vltava River, through parks and to the Prague Castle.  The guide,Thomas, is from California.  His mother is czech and 5 years ago she moved back then he followed 3 years later. She taught him czech as a child and he speaks it fluently. 

 

 

James, Beck and Thomas with Charles Bridge in Background.                       Tomorrow is to be nice so I'm hoping to get back over and rent a bike for awhile. Of the 2 guys at the bike shop one was a coffee drinker and he gave me the name of 3 places to check out.

  

After riding today I met David and we had lunch in a small square near our apartment before changing and heading over to the Institute of Czech Literature where he gave a talk.  It went very well.  2 of the scholars there will be coming to the College of Cartoon studies in White River Junction, Vt in Sept.  Afterwards we walked back, had dinner on the way and then took a walk.                                            

In Olomouc

The Symposium was fantastic and the town is filled with so many fountains and churches. This is the Holy Trinity Column with a chapel in the bottom of the column.  The Church of St.Moritz has the largest organ in Central Europe and I was able to hear it during the last half of a mass when I entered the church.  The tone was so clear and strong...and powerful!  If you did not have any faith when you entered, you did when you left!

At the train station ready to catch a train back to Prague.  The train ride was so smooth and the countryside so green.  I had a great conversation with a family whose daughter drew me a picture and signed her name with a drawing of a fish.
Below is where I gave both of my presentations.  More about the symposium later.

April 27, 2011

 Today I was up early (no surprise there) and went to a cafe for a double cappuccino.  Next I bought a 1 day pass for the metro riding the tram for my travels.  I rode one that gave a tour of sorts for 1/2 of the city with amazing views of the other half. I went to the end of the line, got off and caught another going back as I knew where I wanted to get off. I decided on a trip that would be less traveled by others and to my delight there were few (sometimes none).  I began on Novy Svet (New world street), first 4 pictures.

  More doors!

Next to Loreto Square and in the church there was a painting of St. Sebastia (sp?) Saint of Throats, holiday Feb 3.

After here I headed for Petrin Hills, a large park with many paths and gardens. I walked along the Hladova zed (Hunger Wall).

The wall was instigated by Charles IV, 1460's, and later by the  communists,  public work providing employment for the destitute. Much of the wall's construction was paid for my the expropriation of Jewish property. (no pic)

I went on to Sv. Michal (Wooden Church), it was out of the way and a little difficult to find.                                                                

Sv. Michal

 

 

 

 

 I made my way down the Funicular Railway, walked the back streets a bit till I found a place for lunch. After my spinach salad I had an espresso and a traditional czech dessert- fried cake and yoke cream. The little glass has mineral water in it.

 

 

I'm doing a David, taking a pic of my food.

This is at Namesti Miru, the Peace Square along with the Church of St. Ludmila. It served as a meeting place for the Velvet Revolution, no one died.  Many young and homeless were here. I suspect it is comfortable for them and is safe. 

   Some of my pictures are out of order but they are staying where they are.  I deleted a few as I'm not sure how interested you might be of a large snail I saw, the only time I slipped and dropped the camera, and a tree with a huge opening at its' base going up about 5 feet.  Another time maybe.

Tuesday April 26, 2011

David left last night for Olomouc where he spoke at Palacky University. He forwarded a pic and said all went well. He will speak again tomorrow and be back in Prague in the evening.  Today I took a bus to Kutna Hora in Bohemia.  There are 300 medieval and Baroque buildings and the town is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. Kutna is taken from the name of the clothing the miners wore in the mines.  In the 14th or 15th century Europe received 1/3 of their silver from this town.The population began to drop in the 16th century - I think that is when S. America began supplying silver. 17 th century was the 30 years war and  the 18th century there was a fire.    Two sites I'll show some pic's - the Cathedral of St. Barbara and Sedlec Ossuary (Bone Church).  St. Barbara -  it took 300 years to build this gothic cathedral.  It contains frescoes and a statue of miners.       About the Bone Church - short story. Land was valuable so the graves in the cemetery were dug up and a monk took the bones cleaned them and put them all in the church.  The chandelier contains 2000 bones.  It was told to me that it contained bones from all of the bodies.  The plague of 1870 killed 30,000 and many ended up in this cemetery.  I thought them to be way ahead of their time, though many find it horrible that bones were used in this way.

Easter Monday,april 25

Easter Monday is a celebrated holiday so some museums were closed and others were packed so we walked and checked out the architecture, you never really need to go inside with the wealth of art and history out. most of the walkways consist of 3"x3"granite stone and the streets are larger cobblestones.

door, windows, gates and david.

      

side streets, powder tower, and pepsi please

this is my first attempt at blogging which is one of the reasons this is a day late.  i haven't gotten down how to arrange things. oh well another new experience.  the espresso is wonderful.

municipal building

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hotel pariz

From Snow to Sunny Prague

We started out with a couple inches of snow that fell Saturday morning in New Hampshire before we left for the airport...

 

And then early Easter Sunday when we arrived in Prague, the sun was shinning on the Bridge of Legions.  We walked across the bridge and, of course, we joined the Easter celebration at the Old Town Hall with the historic Astronomical Clock.