Thursday, August 26, 2010

Prague Sites 2

Prague has its share of castles, museums, cathedrals, etc., but what interested us most was the array of Art Nouveau buildings all over the five main districts of the old town; every block revealed new wonders; none of these are national nor religious shrines; just buildings, street after street, block after block, some commercial, most residential. Here's a nearly random assortment.

Outside the Mustek metro station in Stare Mesto







Just down the street; after a few hours in Prague, you begin
to get a neck-ache looking up at these things












Ditto










Gold, grill-work, ornamentation everywhere









Just an apartment house, probably













Stores, shops



Hotel entrance across from the Mucha Museum

















Stunning stuff, some of it











Entrance to a shopping arcade in Stare Mesto







Many buildings adorned with paintings








On Neruda Street in Mala Strana, just residences mostly








Medusa





Locksmith















Swan House

Prague Sights 1

So tonight, August 26th, finds us in Budapest, or maybe just Pest, and I am two full cities behind in blogging. So here goes with Prague, where we spent six absolutely wonderful days.
It did not start well; a two-hour traffic jam getting to our
campground; whole expressways closed for construction,
exits closed; and all you can see from the outer ring-road
is a massive wall of high-rise apartments







But it got better as soon as we got into the old town; here
we are near the Charles Bridge, the Moldau and Hradcany
Castle in the background















One of the towers at either end of the bridge,
which is itself 700 years old













The Moldau, Hradcany Castle complex, and St. Vitus'
Cathedral







The other tower and Mala Strana skyline










Mustek St. in Mala Strana











Looking the other way











The gardens at Wallenstein Palace; where the Czech
Republic Senate meets







Boating on the Moldau








The "dancing" building, called by Prague residents
"Ginger and Fred"














More revealing view; one of very few new
buildings of interest












Looking into Wenceslas Square toward the
national museum; in the early 90s, a
hundred thousand protesters gathered
here nightly for two weeks, demanding the
communist government step down; it did,
and a democracy was re-born here

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Prague, ad interim

We spent six days in Prague, saw much, and took thousands of pix. If nothing else, it is certainly the most picturesque European city we have seen, particularly if you like Art Nouveau (we do). So it will take me a few days to select a few dozen pix for the blog. Stay tuned....

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Olomouc's Proletarian Clock

After one has seen numerous other astronomical clocks in other cities, all featuring saints and kings and jousting knights and dancing apprentices, the clock in Olomouc is a breath of fresh air. The Germans wrecked the 16th century Olomouc clock as they retreated from then-Czechslovakia, apparently thinking the Red Army hot on their heels would not be able to tell time and would get confused. Anyhow, the town rebuilt the clock in 1953, this time featuring workers and comrades and other aspects of Marxist ethos. As I said, after months of kings, saints, knights, et al., it was truly refreshing, and well worth the drive, to see normal people thus enshrined.

The astronomical clock at Olomouc, just
before high noon, Sunday











Such clocks would be termed "multi-functional" today;
they tell the time, of course; the date; the moon phase;
the zodiac sign; and of course, which saint to pray to on
each day of the year; the communists cleverly added,
in red, the birthdays of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, et al.







At the stroke of 12, it all comes to life







Mother and child, welder, baker, athlete, musicians,
teacher...







Mechanics, professors, farm workers...









Et al.










Oh well, back to the world of kings and saints and
emperors and generals; en route to Prague, the "monument"
at Austerlitz, from the Napoleonic wars









Olomouc

From Cracow we drove on, west and south, across much of industrial Silesia, and into Moravia, eastern Czech Republic, stopping for the night at the town of Hranice and its little campground.  The woman at the reception office said they had never had American visitors before. We noticed several campers taking pix of our license plates, which are decidedly not EU.

One of the many off-the-beaten-path places popularized by Rickie Stevie is the city of Olomouc, an hour's drive east of Hranice. It is a medium-sized city, largely untouched by WWII, and, indeed, despite Rickie Stevie's attentions, not very touristy. It has a beautiful old city, two large old churches, the tallest "plague" monument in the Hapsburg Empire, and what attracted us, its very unusual astronomical clock.
Beautiful old streets











And buildings









The St. Wenceslaus Church, foundation going
to the 12th century, "updated" to Gothic in the
1880s









 



Interior, altar; this indeed is off-the-beaten-path, the first
"working" church we have encountered in Europe, where
worshippers clearly out-numbered the tourists; mass is
over, they start turning off the lights and closing the doors...















The south (bell) tower is allegedly the Czech
Republic's tallest












More beautiful buildings







Ditto; except, through some architectual blunder, this one
was built on its side














Interior of the older St. Moritz church











Its beatiful organ









And, finally, the plague monument, now
known as the Holy Trinity Monument;
Empress Maria Therese came to worship
at it sopening ceremonies (all the way from
Vienna)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wawel Castle, Cathedral, and Environs

The big site in Cracow, however, is Wawel Hill, with its Wawel Castle and complex, cathedral, etc.  The cathedral is the counterpart of Westminster, where kings were coronated and later buried, etc. The whole complex is enormous, over-looking the wide Vistula River; we stuck to the castle state rooms, the cathedral, the dragon cave (see below), and just wandering around.
Approaching Wawel Castle


















In the large castle square, random tourists engage in Polish 
folk-dancing














You put your right foot in, you take right foot out...
meanwhile thieves make off with your bags, purses, 
cameras; that's what it all about!

















Local boy makes good; outside the Wawel
Cathedral; he was Archbishop of Cracow
before becoming John Paul II





















Cathedral Tower with King Kasimir


















Both the castle and cathedral have no-pix policies;
here's a clandestine shot in the throne room















And another looking out the window; the dragon is a really
big thing in Cracow, having to do with the founding of the 

city; toy dragons everywhere...















So we did visit the dragon's lair, a fairly large cave under the
castle, by the river
















The dragon sculpture, outside the cave


















Which spouts flames every six minutes or so


















Traditional boats on the Vistula














And traditional lunch for me (with a Zywiec) at the corner
grill; Vicki had a gelato