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

Ode To Joy and Praga Arcana At Smetana Hall

Especially in Prague and Vienna we wanted to look into musical performances, and, even before leaving the States we'd booked seats for a Beethoven concert at Smetana Hall in the Municipal House. What we didn't know at the time was that the concert also would include the world premiere of a major new work, Praga Arcana, by young Czech composer Jan Ryant Drizal. The hall was full, the audience mostly local, mature, and appreciative of what they heard. The Beethoven was competent, dramatic, and enjoyable, but the premiere--we really didn't understand what was coming--was full of energy, musical allusion, and the most varied and interesting symphonic orchestration I've heard, especially the percussion. 

We arrived early for some pix; Smetana Hall is famous historically,
for its art and architecture, music, even political history

Among my more successful panos; we'll tour the Municipal House at some point, and there will be
many more pix of this art nouveau wonderland

Tune-up

At the conclusion of Praga Arcana, the composer (just right of
podium) comes on stage for congratulations, more applause,
bouquet, etc.

One might attend a life-time of concerts and never hear a world
premiere, much less with the composer in attendance

Now all set, except for soloists and conductor, for Beethoven's
9th symphony; great, glorious music

Applause and curtain calls at the conclusion...a great evening for us

On To Prague

We took the train from Berlin to Prague on September 20th. Closing out the Chausseestrasse apartment, getting to the Hauptbahnhof, even finding our platform and train were smooth and easy. Then it turned out the Czech train service switched cars in such a way that the new car did not have the seats we had reserved. Long story short is that we did the almost 4 hour ride in "middle" seats. Middle seats on a European train at least are not the misery they are on American airplanes. From Prague's central station we merely walked 11 minutes to our new apartment on Dlouha street, in Stare Mesto, the Old Town, a few blocks from a) the river, b) the Municipal House, c) the Palladium shopping center and Paris street, d) Old Town Square, e) Wenceslas Square, and f) not much further to anything else of interest. We may take the tram up to St. Vitas cathedral and Hradcany Castle when we get around to them, but pretty much everything else will be on foot. We're here mostly to luxuriate in the abundant art nouveau and art deco architecture that is everywhere in Old Town, New Town, the Josefov, etc. After three days' more or less random wandering, our necks already are sore from gawking up. Anyhow, we're here for three weeks, quite happy with our situation, leisurely touring one of the great European cities. Our third visit to Prague over the years.

Pretty countryside, especially past Dresden; here looking up 
at some of the crags above the Elbe, a route we'd driven in previous
visits

Exiting the Prague central station; art nouveau, anyone?

So there we are, in Stare Mesto, center of the map

Our building, the facade anyway, Palac Dlouha,
fifth floor

Looking up (down?) Revolution street, just beyond the curve is the
Palladium, a huge shopping center; go straight and in another block
you're at the gorgeous Municipal House, much Mucha and music
(Smetana Hall) 

Looking up Dlouha street

Approaching our apartment

Another over-sized studio; $87/night; living area

Kitchen, dining area

Behind all the cabinet doors lurk the microwave, fridge, dishwasher,
and anything else one could want (except an oven)

Blogging station

Sleeping area, screened off by a wall at the bottom and a bookcase
on the side

Bath

Shower

We've arrived just in time! The beer and sausages are getting pretty
boring...