Finally, Prague photos part 2

I've been wanting to do this for days but life has kept getting in the way. I find it does that, but when it is paying work it is hard to turn it down. Lots of customer quilts are ready to return home, and I am feeling better for having cleared some of the pile. I think they start to intimidate me after a while.

If you remember in my last post on Prague, the night we landed it was clear. Cold but no snow. The whole reason for the visit was to find snow and I was really hoping the forecast was going to be right, 3 days or heavy snow. Well it was in a way. I don't know what heavy snow is like where you are, but here is tends to be very large lumps falling from the sky and being blown about a lot. In Prague it's just constant small flakes falling. It doesn't really look like much until you look at the floor and see how much it has built up. Waking up to snow was great, and it decided our first tourist stop, Petrin Tower. The tower was inspired by the Eiffel tower, but is somewhat smaller (60m). It is still 229 steps to the top. I wanted us to get to the top of it as soon as possible so there would be some view before the snow obscured everything.

The plan almost worked. There was still a view but it didn't really photograph as well as I would have liked. The Petrin tower is on the next hill around from the castle, and I love the view you get not only of the castle but also of the cathedral embedded in it. You can see how much the snow is interfering with the visibility. However you can also see how impressive the cathedral is. I think this might be the best view you can get of the cathedral

You also get a great view of Pragues great wall from the Petrin tower. The Hunger Wall was built for the first time in the 14th century. It was intended as a fortification for the Lesser Town and Castle. It is said that the wall was built as a make work project. There was a famine and the poor of the city could earn food by building the wall. Depending on which report you read people seem to either believe it was defensive and probably didn't help the poor much, or that it was useless as a fortification and was only a social project. Sorry I haven't done enough research to have an opinion. I just know it's impressive.

To get up and down Petrin hill we took the Funicular railway. I have a huge soft spot for them and I took dozens of pictures last time. This time we decided to walk a little way down the hill to a bridge over the railway. It was well worth the walk. I love the view between the trees of the railway and in the distance the town. I think you can probably see the river and then across the river the main part of the town.

After taking the railway back down the hill we had lunch at a local restaurant. It was one of the best means for me. I loved the garlic soup and it was only 1.50! That is just amazing value. Refuled it was time to head for our next tower. This tower doesn't need long sight lines to appreciate it, as the best view is right below it. Well technically part of it. The tower I am talking about is the Charles Bridge tower. I love the solidity of this tower. It feels safe and strong. It also has rooms in it with the most amazing ceiling I also find it's stairs a lot more comfortable, they are a square spiral. It works surprisingly well. When you pay for access to these towers you often have access to the roof, and this one is especially magical in the snow. You can peer through arches in the wall around the roof and look down on the tourists on the bridge. Again you get a good view of the castle across the river. At the other end of the bridge is another tower, which I really must climb next time, and behind that is the church tower we climbed on our last day.

As you can see maintaining the bridge When I was last there 2 years ago they were working at the other end of the bridge I assume they have been working their way along the bridge since the. It's a huge project as they are taking They have also replaced pieces of the statues plinth. All this without shutting the bridge. I'm impressed, and you will just have to forgive scaffolding.

From here we moved on to another tower. Yes if I can climb a tower I will. I love being high The astronomical clock tower doesn't quite work for me, especially as to access the tower you have to go through a modern building. It just doesn't feel right. However it can be accessed by two lifts which was a lovely r I also think the second lift it beautiful. I am amazed they thought to put something so modern into a historical building but it works. The lift in in the center of a massive spiral slope. I am sure this is going to turn into a quilt. I'm not sure how, but the shapes are too much fun not to do something with them.

The tower does also give a good view of the church of our Lady before the Tyn. It's fabulous towers can be seen poking up beyond the other buildings in the old town square from the ground but then you climb the The tyn towers are further proof (if you needed it) that Prague got a great deal on gothic architecture. Having just checked on it's correct name it sounds as though a visit to the inside of this church is called for on our next visit.Apparently it's interior is particularly fine. That has to be worth seeing, as their more ordinary buildings are utterly stunning.

The last picture for tonight is another The Powder tower. We went up this one too but it will have to wait for another day. I've got another busy day tomorrow. Two more classes, and that means another early start.

Prague - more pictures part 1

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

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.

It's interesting what you miss

Well I think it is. I knew I would miss my cats what I was in Prague, that was obvious but I didn't realise some of the other things that were going to be important. I was surprised that I didn't miss quilting. The couple of days off over Christmas had been very odd, but this trip wasn't. I wonder if that is because the whole city is very inspiring to me, so I was thinking more about quilting than usual (yes that is possible) maybe that hits the same spot? I did miss my shoes a lot, I hadn't even considered that as a possibility. I've got used to having my feet comfortable, light and free. Suddenly they are trapped in very heavy (relatively) boots. Not nice. They still haven't forgiven me. Next time I will figure out a way I can wear my Five fingers. I also missed Chinese food. That one really did surprise me. I've had no virtually no caffeine for six days and all I crave is Chinese food. Go figure.

I also discovered in Prague how much I enjoy reading fiction and how much I miss it. I think I am going to have to give some careful thought to when I can find time to read. I love books but for the last few years I have only read text books. I want to read more fiction. I've also learned a lot more about art, what I like and why it works. I guess Prague inspires a lot of people. It seems to be full of artists. Certainly I feel I could work a lifetime and not make everything it suggests to me. I hope i will be able to find time to make a good dent in my ideas, a couple I had on my last trip are now very keen for me to work on them and I have many many more ideas. Some will get combined into I hope much better ideas (and will kill two birds with one stone). Yes you learn a lot from traveling.

I didn't manage to get stranded in Munich last night, or indeed anywhere in London, although that was a closer call. The trip out took 12 hours almost exactly, the trip home a little under 11 hours. Unfortunately on the way home we didn't stop long enough anywhere to get any food so when I finally got home my main through was dinner not blogging. Sorry. At some point I think I will have to start a league table for good airports to visit. Prague will get points for the bidet in the toilet cubicles, even though I don't think there will be that much call for them (what do I know maybe I'm just odd)

The first two pictures in this post are of Prague cathedral. It's a truly amazing building. It is very hard to get good photographs of as it's huge and in the middle of the place. I think maybe on my next trip I might take more camera equipment with me and spend a couple of days at the castle/palace. You have to buy a licence to take pictures inside the castle itself, but as soon as I stepped inside I knew I should have done. Ho hum, there will be a nest time and I had already taken more than 600 photographs. I don't think I was really deprived. However if you do ever get the chance do go and look around the cathedral. It is one of the few tourist sites with free entry (not that the others could be called expensive at 3-4 pounds per location). It will knock your socks off. I packed my camera with the interior of this building and the views from the towers in mind so I only had a very long lens. Fortunately Tet had a much wider angle on his camera, so I will look at both of our sets of photos before posting a proper selection here.

This is the view of the town from the hill the castle stands on. You can see Tyn church, in the center of town and the TV tower right on the horizon. In the middle of the picture is the church who's tower we climbed on Sunday. We went up the narrow tower that is just behind the dome in this picture. It's not a great picture, it was taken on my phone at it's lowest quality to make the upload cheaper, but I think the dark stripe across the middle would be approximately where the river runs.

I finally remembered to take a picture of a pretty typical Czech restaurant. I love the fact that all the best food seems to be underground. There are place to dine with a view (6th floor of the U Prince is on my agenda for next time) but on the whole underground is the right answer. The food seems to be both better and cheaper. I rather like the rustic decor too.

Today I have been trying to get on top of my work again. It was a shock how much email had come in while we were away and how much was bookings or orders. At past 1am it seemed rather daunting. This morning it sunk in just how cool that was. So I have spent the day packing, posting and phoning. I have also managed a small amount of quilting. I had hoped to finished the white area on the quilt on the frame before we went but didn't quite get there. It's done now and I am motoring on the outer clack space. I am so desperate to get it done now and get on with other things. Fortunately in the huge stack of post waiting for me were my zippers for the frame, so when I start the next one I will be able to take it on and off the frame as required. I wondered why people needed zippers, I get it now.

Out and about in Prague

I am hoping that you guys can see two images on yesterdays post. For me one has a broken thumbnail but if I click on it is comes up with a picture of the bath in our apartment. I have no idea why it isn't working properly for me.

Today I have deliberately posted a difficult image you will need to look at it sideways because no matter what I say to my phone it always posts pictures the way round I took them. It's a quirk, sorry. The picture is of the Powder tower at night. After lunch we climbed to the top of it (mostly because you can) and found it does indeed have a good view. The tower itself was looking particularly beautiful as the snow was neatly highlighting the ornate stonework. When we came back past it in the dark I just had to stop for more pictures.

The other picture shows the astronomical clock and Tyn church. This is probably the busiest tourist area and consequently not my favourite place. It's just too busy also the astronomical clock tower is the least impressive of Pragues towers in my opinion. It does have a fantastic lift though, I will try and popst a photo of that when I get back.

Today we decided to go to the transport and science museums. These are at the top of another hill (did I mention we're tired now and about ready to come home :). We noticed on the map that we could take a tram part way then walk through a park via a metronome. Cool. Frozen actually. The hill (park) was much steeper than we anticipated and accessed by stairs which unfortunately were the only ones in Prague that hadn't been cleared. It was a mamoth trek especially as all the stairs are polished marble and very slipery if you don't stay in the deepest snow. Still we made it and found some amazing views.

Unfortunately the science museum was closed for referbishment and the guide book had had another translation error. It wasn't a transport museum but an agriculture museum. The chap in the tractor hall carefully explained this wasn't the science museum, I guess they get a lot of lost tourists and was obviously thrilled that we wanted to look at his tractors. It was a very good collection of weird tractors and I got to sit on one. My those seats are hard and bouncy.

The whole museum was just three halls but for me the tractors, the giant metronome and the views were well worth the hike.

For lunch e managed to find the first bad restaurant in Prague. I guess there had to be one. This one had poor food (overpriced too) very nasty hot wine, minute apple juice and rude service. All in all I would suggest avoiding the Marie Teresie.

On the way up the hill I had realised we hadn't been to look at the bridges from the bank of the river so we made a quick dash across town to do that, and found the artist I had been looking for on the Charles bridge. This time I bought a picture instead of waiting to think about it. I have regretted not buying a piece of his work since my last trip two years ago, Now I have one.

On the way back to the hotel we found another tower to climb, it really is the thing to do in Prague. This one was a lot less popular, which is a shame as the views are lovely and all the more so for being dusk. The tower is called the old Jesuit Bell Tower and is attached to the Churh of Saint Nicholas. Obviously it has a proper Czech name but I can't easily type that. I have been wanting to be up a tower in the dark so this was perfect. It also has lots of information on bells, and a small watchmans apartment to look around. On the way up you go through the bellfry which was nice as you get to see bells and slightly concerning as I wasn't certain they wouldn't ring them. On the way down I looked more closely and I am fairly sure there aren't ropes attached to the bells so I guess they don't deafen the tourists.