07-OCT-2007
Nusle/Lego
I arrived in Prague (Praha) on October 4. After a car, a bus, two planes, a couple of buses at Charles de Gaulle, another plane, another bus, a subway, and a tram, I found myself in Nusle, a neighborhood a few kilometers south of the center. I checked into the Pension Madona for three nights. The pension was OK, nothing special, but it was certainly nice to stay in an out-of-the-way area, far from the traffic and crowds. And with the excellent public transport- the tram was only a block or two away- getting downtown was easy.
Much of Prague is big decorated roomblocks, like in the picture. Nusle happens to be an area where that ends, and some "regular" houses start. It's just an ordinary neighborhood, with shops, small businesses, and a very popular Italian restaurant (it appears the Czechs really like Italian food).
06-OCT-2007
just a street
Most of central Prague looks like this, more or less. The picture happens to be in Josefov, the former ghetto. Aside from a few synagogues, it was leveled and rebuilt around the turn of the (last) century. So it's mostly Art Nouveau, rather than Art Golem.
This also shows the problem with trying to take pictures in Prague- narrow streets & big buildings. Where it's open- like Old Town Square, it's also filled with people.
This also shows the problem that plagued me during my few days in Prague- overcast and sometimes rainy weather.
Most of the cars are Skodas, the local brand.
06-OCT-2007
Staromestske Namesti
AKA Old Town Square. I couldn't find just how old Stare Mesto is, but Nove Mesto was founded in 1348...
Most or all of what's visible is from much later than that, thanks to various fires. But it still makes for a stunning place, especially the way it just goes on & on. And on. I didn't really attempt to photograph or even see that much, considering I only had a couple of days. And there was just too much!
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That tower just right of center is the Radnice, or town hall, the home of the....
06-OCT-2007
Full Orloj
Orloj.
Parts of this clock date back to 1410. It tracks movements of sun, moon, seasons, and more; it takes the tour guides quite a while to explain it all. At least I think it does- I'm not sure 'cause I don't go with tour groups. I just know that they're still talking by the time I feel compelled to move away.
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At the top of every hour the orloj becomes the focus of the tourist hordes, as the figures on the sides move, the doors near the top open to reveal a parade of saints, and finally the golden rooster crows.
06-OCT-2007
Orloj
Just a closeup of the astronomical dial of the orloj. It's a nice picture, so I wanted to show it again.
06-OCT-2007
Trio
Two of the apostles on parade. I'm not sure who's who, but the one on the right appears to be the patron saint of lumberjacks.
06-OCT-2007
Orloj
Two of the figures, in action (hard to tell, they move slow). The skeleton rings his bell and tips his hourglass.
These and the other two figures make up what evidently were the four big fears of old: Death! Vanity! The Turk! The Jew!
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The figures all had to be recarved after the war, since the Nazis tried to burn down the building during Prague's liberation. The Jew was redone with his moneybag, but without his beard- which seems to have turned that figure into: generic Greed! Evidently The Turk couldn't be (or at least wasn't) turned into some other deadly sin (suggestion: Lutes!). Or maybe it's not intended to be a Turk at all, and the four evils are really Vanity, Greed, Sloth, and Death...
06-OCT-2007
Orloj
This is one of the newest parts of the Orloj- a dial showing seasons (grape harvesting, here), and each day of the year with its associated saint. Name days are a big tradition.
Somebody must have to reset it every four years, I guess.
05-OCT-2007
Hradcany
Besides Old Town Square, the big attraction in Prague is across the Vltava: the castle, or Hrad.
The spires in this shot mostly belong to the Cathedral of St Vitus (Sv Vita). One of the striking things about Prague that I wasn't able to depict (due to weather, mostly) is all of the spires. As you look across the town, you see them by the dozens.
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The hrad was hopelessly silhouetted in this picture, so I decided to cheat and make it Dramatic.
05-OCT-2007
Vladislavsky Sal, Hrad
This Very Large Room is one you encounter just after entering the palace istelf. It can contain vast numbers of the tourist hordes. You exit the hall through a door just to the right of the picture, down a ramp. It's a ramp rather than stairs not because the old Bohemian kings were ahead of their time on handicapped access, but because the knights used to ride in on their horses...for indoor jousting tournaments.
05-OCT-2007
Sv Vita
The hrad's a big place, but it's mostly filled with very big buildings, so you wind up looking way up at things, and it's tough to get a decent-looking picture. (Plus you have to contend with the tourist hordes...)
This is Sv Vita again, kinda distorted by the wide-angle lens I needed to get it all in. The cathedral was started in 1344, and finished in 1929. Not that they were working on it that whole time, of course. They took a few beer-breaks.
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The time required to complete Sv Vita explains some of the surprising features inside...
05-OCT-2007
For Scale
Sv Vita is big. Very big. This picture is just off one of the side aisles; it's not even the nave (for that, check out the main gallery).
Many of the chapels and decorations are old, dating back to the renaissance or even to the early days of the cathedral. Most of them are really remarkably gaudy. But the windows were added very late...
05-OCT-2007
Sv Vita
...which is why they are in a very modern style. Most are sort of cubist, like this example.
05-OCT-2007
Sv Vita
And a few are Art Nouveau, like this detail (the full window is in the main gallery). It's sort of like Prague itself- a lot of baroque buildings, that tend to get most of the attention, but also quite a bit of Art Nouveau, once you start looking for it. Check out the pictures of the Obecni Dum for more examples. There's also cubist architecture in Prague, but I don't think I saw any of it.
05-OCT-2007
Prague's Personalities
A doorway on one of the buildings along Zlata Ulica. Zlata Ulica is a street inside the hrad complex lined with little brightly-painted hobbit-houses, which used to be homes and shops for craftsmen. Now, it's shopping.
I hadn't thought too much about well known Prague's personalities before my trip. Mostly they are writers and composers that I'm not familiar with. On the other hand, without really trying, I stumbled across Tycho Brahe's grave (a pillar in the Tyn church; I think I found the right one, but I couldn't see any special marking), and I had coffee a couple of times in the Cafe Louvre, which was a haunt of both Einstein and Kafka (not at the same time, though). One improvement since then is the addition of no-smoking areas.
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This also gives a clue to part of Prague's personality: lots of culture, in the form of theater, music, and books; plus lots of cafes, restaurants, and bars.
05-OCT-2007
Never Alone
On Karluv Most, the ancient bridge connecting Hradcany and Stare Mesto, you are never alone- it's almost always filled with vendors, their pushcarts, and lots of pedestrians. And even if they're all gone, the statues still loom overhead. This is the East end of the bridge, near Old Town.
06-OCT-2007
Fishing the Vltava
So I'm walking along the Vlatava, thinking, "Wow, that's a lot of people fishing..." And a short while later, I hear music coming from a nearby island (Strelecsky Ostrov, if you're taking notes). I head over to the island, and find a concert in progress, which turns out to be part of The First Annual Orvis Cup- Prague. Which explained why all the people were fishing on the same place, and seemed a bit frantic in their casting. I couldn't tell who won (and few people seemed to be paying attention to what appeared to be the announcements of the results), but the music was fun. And I had the chance to sample the Czech fast-food staple of sausage with mustard and bread (the bread is optional). The crowd seemed kinda thin, so I'm not sure whether there will be a 2nd annual...
And that was all the time I had for Prague on this trip. I'll go back, with or without the Orvis Cup. I get the feeling it's the kind of place where you run into little events like that on a regular basis. So when the music switched over to a band I didn't like, I hopped on a tram back to the Pension Madona (after spending some time shooting some nighttime pictures of Prague, some of which can be found in the main gallery). Actually, I think I went back via the Cafe Louvre...
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I packed up, and the next morning headed to the Florenc bus station to head for my next destination. It turns out that the buses are nice, efficient, and cheap- although getting information about them and buying tickets can be a pain in the neck, complete with shabby service.
07-OCT-2007
Cesky Krumlov
Next stop was Cesky Krumlov, a jaw-dropping, perfectly-preserved medieval town, first mentioned by name in 1253. It's a UNESCO site, and there's a wealth of information about it on the web, including a blow-by-blow description of all the buildings. It's almost too picturesque, and just about all of the buildings in the central district are given over to restaurants, shops, and hotels. But it's hard to fault the locals for capitalizing on what they've got, and there's really very little that's tacky-touristy. I think there's a "Torture Museum," but that seems to be a given in any Czech town with more than a couple of pre-18th century buildings.
This picture looks across the old town to the castle, which is completely painted in tromp l'oeil stonework and figures. There's a tour of the castle available, but I'm not sure it was really worth it- mostly just portraits of the Schwartzenbergs and gaudy furnishings, including a gilt carriage used at some point for a procession into Rome to see the Pope (no word on what the Pope thought of someone visiting in such a lavish carriage, or what he thought when they took it back). The most impressive thing to me was that the carriage is now inside a room barely bigger than it is. Guess if you go to the trouble of making a gilt carriage, you take extra care to make sure you can take it apart & bring it inside. Doing things over again, I'd rather see the Rococo theatre than the castle interior.
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But the grounds and gardens of the castle are free, open 'round-the-clock, and well worth the time spent wandering around. There are some pictures of the castle by day and by night in the main gallery.
09-OCT-2007
Cesky Krumlov
This view looks from the castle tower back across the river (the Vltava again), towards the main square. There's a newer town surrounding this and the backside of the castle, but it's easy to forget it's there. There's a short brass band concert in the square sometimes (maybe every day, but at least on two of the three days I was around).
I stayed at Krumlov House Hostel, a short ways to the left of this photo, on a street called Rooseveltova. The official Cesky Krumlov guide calls its architecture "not very remarkable," but it was a nice and friendly hostel. The whole place is non-smoking, and generally quiet. The only downside for me was a room that was partly built into the hillside, and therefore a bit damp.
07-OCT-2007
Good to be King
Beyond Krumlov Castle, past the renaissance theater, the formal gardens, and the revolving theater, you pass through a wooded area, which might seem like a natural forest, except that everything is just a little too perfect. At the very far end of these royal gardens is- a pond. Nothing special about it, it's just a pond (or even a small lake), but a nice place to claim a bench and enjoy the last of the autumn sunshine.
09-OCT-2007
Zmrzlina
The Czech weight-loss program: make the word for "ice cream" unpronounceable. It makes up for the other delicacies like ham-stuffed pork.
08-OCT-2007
War Pony
There was plenty to explore immediately around Cesky Krumlov, but I wanted to get farther out into the countryside, so I rented a bike for a day. The bike available turned out to be an Author, which I assume is some local central European brand. Not much of a bike, but it served its purpose for 50km or so. Tires with air (to say nothing of tread) would have been nice. The following day I saw another bike-rental outfit with bikes that at least looked better...
The bike is parked in front of an overlook towards Divci Kamen, a 14th century castle built by the Rozmberk family, accessible after a harrowing descent of a rocky path. Harrowing mostly because I really didn't like the looks of those tires...
08-OCT-2007
Your Own Risk
Divci Kamen wasn't mentioned in my guidebook, probably because it was difficult to get to except by bike or on foot, and I thought it was one of the best discoveries of my trip: a place where just about the only English in view was the sign reading, "Enter at your own risk." I've got a few more pictures in the main gallery, but they don't convey the fun of rambling around the ruins.
When I arrived, the little table at the gate was all set up, with brocures and what-not, but there was no one in sight. The site was obviously still open- and then I noticed the other bit of English: "Donation." So I took a guess at what the entrance fee might be, dropped it in the box, and headed inside.
08-OCT-2007
Near Plesovice
I had heard that the Czech Repubilic was a biking paradise- and it is. Tons of well-marked, well-maintained routes, and almost no traffic. Some of the routes I took were purpose-built for bikes, but most were just like this- just a single-lane country road. I did some riding on dirt paths, but mostly on hard-surface roads (it's easy to tell which is which on the maps). There's veery little traffic between these small villages, so the roads stay in very good shape. There are maps (complete with distance and elevation profile information) just full of roads like this one, which happens to be just outside of the small community of Plesovice. Roadside shrines are a common feature of the landscape, some of them seemingly far from any amount of present-day traffic.
08-OCT-2007
Rojsin
My main reason for going on a day of biking was to cruise through some of the small towns, like Rojsin. Not that I knew that I'd come across anything special- I just wanted to get away from the grand tourist destinations for a day, and see some countryside. I rode from Cesky Krumlov through Plesovice, Trisov, Holubov, Mric, Kremze, Rojsin, over Mt. Klet, and back to Krumlov. The area around Klet is the Blansky Les protected natural region, so I spent the day cycling between small towns, farm fields, and pine forests.
09-OCT-2007
Mt. Klet
That bump in the background is Mt. Klet. It doesn't look like much (from the other side, it looks even more like an anthill), but it's the highest point around, so the people in the area are proud of it. At a whopping 1054m, it's a little less than half the elevation of my house. The summit is about 500m above Cesky Krumlov (the modern part of which forms the foreground here). In rertospect, though, it's impressive to me to think that I rode around it well to the right of the picture, passed along the plain on the opposite side, gained the ridge on the left, and pedalled up to the summit. It was something more that 800m of climbing, once all the ups & downs are included, about half of that climb being on rocky dirt paths. I was pretty wiped out by the time I reached the top, which featured views too hazy to be of much use, and a small summit house. The keeper at the summit was just closing as I rode up, but opened back up so I could climb to the roof. The coast back down to Cesky Krumlov just before sunset was a quick one.
11-OCT-2007
Nabytek
After a few nights in Cesky Krumlov, I caught a very early bus back to Prague, arriving at the Roztyly station and taking the metro up to Cerny Most. At first I was worried about getting to & from all of these far-flung bus stations- until I realized that they all coincided with metro stops, making it easy. It took a bit of effort to figure out the schedules, but soon I was on a bus through Mlada Boleslav to Turnov. Mlada Boleslav was an interesting place, at least to ride through- it looked like the whole city was the Skoda auto factory. Right next to it is Kosmonosov, which I assume dates from the 60s, and features a number of factory buildings made up to look like rockets and spaceships. Too bad the camera was locked away in the bottom of the bus.
Finally- Turnov, and a dilemma. I had no map of the town, which turned out to be of pretty good size. My guidebook just said to leave the bus/train station and head up the street and across the river. So I did, heading for some spires that I figured must be important. After some bridges and roundabouts, I found myself at Turnov's main square. The photo I've shown here is just a view along a the walk from station to square. Like the rest of Turnov, it is nothing all that special- but interesting for just that reason.
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By the way, if you ever try to duplicate this itinerary, beware when asking about bus schedules in Cesky Krumlov. They may try to send you towards Brno- evidently there's another town down there called, I think, Trnov. And Turnov with an American accent, sounds like Trnov. And since Turnov is nothing special, they just assume you must mean Trnov. But pronouncing it Toooornov seems to work.
10-OCT-2007
Turnov
This is the church on the main square in Turnov. I spent a couple of early evenings watching the activity on the square, as people left work, did their shopping, and walked their dogs. Just ordinary things as the sun set. Turnov seems to pride itself on its school for artisans, and on sports. Both are the result of its position near the mountains and the "rock cities."
If you walk up to the steps in this picture, then go left up the street, after a few minutes you'll come to the Hotel Karel IV, which unexpectedly was the best lodging I found in the Czech Republic. It was inexpensive, had clean, spacious, very nice rooms (even in the "old" section), at least one staff member with very good English, and a nice Italian restaurant downstairs. The breakfast was uninspiring, but that was its only flaw. Plus- they have mountain bikes available for rent to guests, for only 100CzK/day (about $5).
11-OCT-2007
Cemetery, Turnov
I went on a long hike out of Turnov; the first site (or sight, your choice) I passed was the Jewish cemetery. You can't tell in this picture, but the cemetery lies in part under a highway overpass. Obviously the graves were there first; I suppose it was a case of "Well, it's just the Jews..."
11-OCT-2007
Walking Routes
Long walks or rides in the Czech Republic are no problem, at least as far as route-finding goes, since everything is well-marked. This example from near Valdstejn is a bit extreme, of course, but it does show it's hard to get lost. The white signs are walking routes (usually forest paths), and the yellow signs are cycling routes (usually secondary roads). Each path has a color, and many of the cycling routes have numbers. All of the routes are shown on maps (which can take a little work to find, at least before you arrive in the area). Signs like this show up at intersections, but all along the paths, the routes are marked with colored bars (or numbers) every 50-100 m. The marks can be on fenceposts, buildings, trees, rocks- whatever's convenient.
11-OCT-2007
Fall, Cesky Raj
My trip was in early October, so there was still some fall color. Much of the area I hiked through was pine forest, but there were also areas of oak, giving nice yellow-brown colors like this. The forests had very little undergrowth- just a carpet of red-brown dried leaves, for the most part. That was most evident around Zbirohy and Kalich- but that's another day.
11-OCT-2007
Mouse Hole
Most of my hike was up and over the top of the sandstone that rises to the south of Turnov. ALong the edges of this very broad ridge are the "rock cities" that make the Cesky Raj famous. At Hruba Scala, you get from the top of the ridge to the bottom of the city by walking down through the "mouse hole." As far as I can tell, anything in the country that is a narrow passage winds up being called a mouse hole. This view is actually looking back up the mouse hole, from the bottom. It has stairs built into it now, but even before the stairs, it was obviously ann easier passage than the sheer, 200-ft walls of the cliff.
11-OCT-2007
Sv Prokop
Down at the bottom, you can wander around the big rocks, and occasionally find a little shrine like this one. Besides the statue, there are reliefs carved into the walls here, now almost vanished. One appears almost like a dragon- I don't know anything about Sv Prokop, so I don't know its significance, or if that's really what it is, or just what's it's eroded into.
Going the way I did (up the hill from Turnov past Valdstejn to Hruba Scala and down the Mouse Hole) actually brings you to the bottom of the rocks well south of Hruboskalsko, the main rock city along the route. So if you want to wander through there, you'll need to head downhill closer to Valdstejn. The Mouse Hole going up to Hruba Scala isn't well-marked, but it is the only set of stairs heading into the cliff (as far as I know).
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The hiking/biking map sold at the Turnov info center (Kompass Cesky Raj 1:50000) covers the whole area, but is a little too large-scale to really tell what's what. Exploring a particular area might be easier if you can find something at a better scale.
11-OCT-2007
just a cow
After passing throgh many kilometers of forest (and not seeing a single other person since I left Hruba Scala) I came out into farm land near Tachov. Here there were sheep, cows, horses, fields, log farmhouses- quaintness all 'round.
Besides the farm animals, I saw several deer (near Mt. Klet, actually), some swans and other waterbirds, and of course squirrels and so forth. One thing that I didn't see was any hogs- surprising, given their pride of place on all the menus. Maybe they just get eaten too fast...
11-OCT-2007
pod Troskami
The destination of my hike this day was Trosky- that's the ruined fortress on the hilltop, not the farmhouse. The distance from Turnov was I think 12 km- maybe a couple more from the Karel IV, plus a few more spent exploring. And when I got to the top- it was closed. When I was in Prague, everything was still on an in-season schedule, but out of the city, everything seems to go off-season at the beginning of October. In this case, Trosky turned out to be only open on weekends. I wasn't too surprised, since Valdstejn had been closed as well. But the hike up to trosky was more important than getting inside Trosky, so it wasn't too much of a disappointment.
Fortunately the little restaurant at the fortress was open. The place was run by a big bear-like guy with a bushy beard, who seemed like he might be -very- disappointed if you left without a snack. So I had him boil up a sausage and some coffee (don't worry, separate water for each), and sat down inside the restaurant, warmed by a wood stove (my host told me it was too cold to eat outside). Pictures on the wall showed the building of the restauarant, back in the 20s. Afterwards, I headed down through the fields again.
12-OCT-2007
Castle Grabstejn
There is actually a Grabstejn, but this isn't it; this is Fridstejn, north of Turnov. But I started to think of it as Castle Grabstejn after the old codger of a caretaker short-changed me. I didn't re-count my money until it was too late to do anything about it, but I did tell him off on my out. In Russian. I figured I might as well offend him.
The castle ruin is king of interesting- it's built partly on the rock and partly in the rock, has some interesting old grafitti, and lots of places to climb over and around. So it's worth a stop, so long as you count your change. I expect that the views are nice, but I really couldn't tell...
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The picture looks so atmospheric because- it was atmospheric. In fact, sort of in-your-face atmospheric: it rained for more than half the day. Actually, it was a little more than a mist, but a little less than full rain most of the time, and chilly. And this was the day of my second bike ride, so I spent most of it cold&wet. I climbed from Turnov up to Fridstejn (actually way past Fridstejn, until I realized that I'd missed the turnoff to the hrad), then over to Mala Skala, by the Suche Skaly, then through Besedice and Zbirohy back to Turnov. The bad weather made it tough to get much out of picturesque villages like Mala Skala, but it was still a worthwhile ride.
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For this ride I rented one of the $5 bikes from the Karel IV. It turned out to be a plain but nice little Diamondback mountain bike, in pretty good shape. Getting air into the tires was an adventure- I had to ask the the English-speaking woman at the desk, who then called an older guy (Czech & German only), who then had me bring the bike into the basement. The lights in the basement didn't work, so he went off to find a flashlight, found a place to plug in an actual air compressor. After some fiddling, he got the compresor to work, and we got the tire pumped up. Somehow I was expecting they'd just hand me a floor pump... Supposedly there are also bikes available at the train station, but I couldn't quite figure out where in the station that might be, and judging by the looks of the train station, I doubt that they would have produced a decent bike. I'm glad I syated at the Karel IV, and glad I asked them about bikes.