Initial Wanderings

Our first few days in Prague, apart from settling in, consisted of neighborhood explorations and wanderings in Old Town, New Town, Josefov, the river, never more than a kilometer from our apartment...partly to get our steps, partly to reacquaint ourselves with the city, and partly to satisfy our interest in great art and architecture. The pix below reflect some of the wanderings, sort of an overture to the more focused posts to follow, sounding the relevant themes, incidents, curiosities, whatever.

The Powder Tower, three blocks from our apartment,
guarding the eastern entrance to old Prague;
militarily speaking, one has to wonder about the
wisdom of placing one's gunpowder magazine right
on the city wall, the first thing at which the enemy
might fire his/her cannons

There is a considerable British presence in Prague, which I 
interpret as the Brits' way of saying "sorry about that appeasement
thing, old boy"; Vicki's hopes for scones and clotted cream were
dashed, however: those types of perishables don't travel, at least
not post-Brexit; there is another M&S just down the street from
us, in the Palladium shopping center

Sticker shock...until you remember to divide
everything by 25 Czech crowns

Although we are always most impressed with the art nouveau, 
Prague also has impressive art deco, neo-everything, some Brutalist,
and even some Stalinist Gothic...much more of all to come

More of the British thing, London's famous Regent Street toy store

More of Dlouha St., our current address

Probably not from Home Depot

There probably will be a post on Prague doors

Any direction you look, there's something beautiful

Walking along the Vltava River; die Moldau, as Germans and
Smetana would say; St. Vitus cathedral rising from Hradcany
Castle (Hardcandy Castle, as we say); the boat in the foreground
(forewater?) is a beer boat, more about which anon

Enigmatic Dali sculpture

Anton Dvorcak, the great Czech composer

The painter, Josef Manes, and some of his admirers,
who have passed out from excessive art appreciation

The Rudolfinum, Prague's major concert hall, home of the Czech
Philharmonic, first conducted by Dvorcak himself

Experimental anti-pigeon sculpture

The Czech National Library...no love lost for Russians in this
part of the world

Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV; good guy

Venturing onto the Charles Bridge

Venturing into Carlova street, Prague's answer to Pigeon Forge,
TN

Yes, there will be a post on Czech food, which makes even
German food seem exciting; or at least interesting

And a post explaining the difference between caryatids and telemons;
Prague has more of these figures than the entire Mediterranean and
Asia Minor combined; by my estimate

The Rott house, which I remember photographing
in 2010 or 2012; for Missoula friends Kim and Dave  

Approaching Old Town Square, city hall and the Tyn church

All eyes on Prague's "astronomical" clock...one of the better ones,
if you're into that kind of thing; the only really interesting one is
Olomouc's proletarian clock

City of Spires

And great beauty