Prague - the travelogue! Day 1
Jun. 5th, 2008 11:45 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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scene_againPrague - anyone for a little travelogue? When did i ever resist the temptation to share my travels with you? So here goes!
Many piccies below the cut!
Cross posted to my LJ - apologies to those who get it twice!
Misty had decided to help with the packing by filling up some of the space in my suitcase! And being firmly asleep.
And when this hard-hearted person woke her up,I got this wide-eyed innocent look from her. 
All cat-owners will recognize it (and possibly bunny and dog owners, too!), it says "Am I in the way? Did you want to put something in here?". After I was eventually successful in getting access to my case, we were off.
Leaving the moggies to be spoilt rotten by our neighbours, we made our way to Bristol Airport. Prague is just under two hours flight away. One airport looks pretty much like another, i guess - is this picture
taken at Bristol or Prague Airport, do you suppose? It's Prague, actually. I think. To be fair, Prague's decor was more interesting than Bristol's. Here is Bristol's Departures Lounge - very dull modern bog standard, grey, grey, grey 
. But Prague's entrance hall was decorated..., well, either it was decorated with this 
or someone had been flying far too low. Outside, as we waited for our coach, himself was snapping away, too! 
You may notice those very threatening looking clouds behind him - of which, more anon! We were driven into Prague to our hotel. There was some interestingly decorated architecture - a feature we came to notice and appreciate over the next few days. Here is a typical brutalist sixties block of flats - 
- don't you think the field of flowers adds a certain something? Long straight roads with blocks of flats and housing on either side - 
led to the city and there was a rainbow! 
Oh and those ominous clouds again! A few minutes later, the heavens opened - thunder, lightning, the works! 
The water was streaming down the roads 
in a frothy stream and we couldn't really see a lot of the town 
as we turned into the road where the hotel was! That strange building at the end is a famous modern building called "The Dancing House", of which more pictures later. Within an hour, though, the rain had stopped and everywhere was starting to dry out. We were told later by a friend who has been working there for six months that this was the first thunderstorm he had seen since he arrived!
I have to say that Prague is the most decorative city I have ever seen with a wide range of architecture. They have castles, palaces, opera houses, town houses, churches - in medieval to baroque to Art Nouveau to ultra-modern and everything in between. In the town centre there is barely an undecorated building - every little detail in keeping with the age and style of the building. Lots of statuary and colour, many of the buildings five and six storeys high. This
is the view from the entrance to the hotel, albeit the following morning which, as you can see, was beautiful weather. Not every building is pristine - though in terms of streets and the general environment, it was the cleanest city either of us had ever visited, very little litter and not very much graffiti. My overwhelming impression was that the Czechs are very proud of their capital, their culture and history. Our main reservation was that the pavements were in poor condition in many places - holes and missing cobbles (lots of cobbles!) and there was a great risk of falling flat on my face for me because I spent most of the holiday walking around gawking up at the architecture. As is so common everywhere now, in many places, many of the ground floor frontages are modern, (Yes, the shopping centres had Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Benetton, Debenhams, and all the usual designer shops! Fortunately, the side streets were a lot more interesting.) it is only looking up that you can spot the gems. Though I have to say this was not such a problem in Prague as in many cities, because it has a wealth of exquisite doorways and entrances which have survived intact and which give you the clue to look up. Many of the buildings would benefit from a clean, especially away from the tourist hi-spots but serious money is being spent on restoration, we saw evidence of this in lots of places. Some of the buildings and statues are very black and would be much nicer for being restored but frankly, there is so much of it, it's going to take them a while!
There was one aspect of the restoration work which I thought was great. When a building or statue is being worked on, it is scaffolded and covered from sight. But, just as I have seen with churches being restored in Brussels, the sheeting is illustrated with a picture of the statue or building underneath. In Brussels, these were painted. Here they were photographs. Thus -
In the middle of this garden is one statue, seen first from the side. Then, in sequence from each of the other sides!
So rather than using one picture each picture is from the correct angle and even shows the buildings behind and the tree! These were clearly sponsored by the car manufacturer Skoda and I was amused to see that every single car shown in the traffic in the pictures was an identical red Skoda! But that's fair enough and it looked infinitely more interesting than our scaffolding!
Looking around, I started to notice one thing which I had vaguely known but had forgotten. Prague has a lot of Art Nouveau buildings. AN is an interest of mine and I have seen exquisite buildings in Brussels and Paris. But Prague is just full of wonderful AN buildings - it was just everywhere. These panels
were on a building opposite the hotel this was taken from my room window. We got into the habit of finding a different way from the city centre to and from our hotel each day - it was only ten minutes walk - but every street had more buildings with at least elements of AN. I got quite punch drunk with it - I would just finish admiring one building, we would walk 100 yards or turn a corner and there would be another. Incredible! I have read up since and Prague is reckoned to be one of the best cities for seeing AN - I would certainly agree with that. In fact I'm not even going to try and do the AN justice in these general posts, I shall do an Art Nouveau post, so those of you who don't much care can ignore it!
So that first evening, a few of us wandered down the street and found a traditional Czech restaurant with a set menu which gave us the chance to try Czech food. There were some very pretty little bread pretzels
hanging on a stand in the middle of each table. And you can see the lovely lace tablecloth too. The menu started with plates of cold meats, cheeses and olives, a sort of antipasti, then a clear soup with some meaty bits in it - I didn't enquire too closely what the meat was, probably liver, I suspect! Then we had goulash with dumplings - dumplings were to feature heavily, we found, in local food and also cabbage, both red and white usually. Finally, just when we thought the set meal had finished, we were presented with little pastries. It was a lovely opportunity to taste the local cuisine and we felt obliged to try the local wines and beer, too which were all excellent. At this point, 
J and I found ourselves both taking pictures of each other over the table which made J laugh! We did quite a lot of that with J, she was very good company. As was her mother-in-law, E, 
seen here. You can also see some of the extraordinary collection of objects with which the restaurant was decorated - typewriters, (there were some of us who could remember typing on ones like that!) gramophones, records, concertinas, accordians, ancestral portraits, paintings, a Madonna - all manner of things! There were a lot of local and obviously regular Czech customers, always a good sign! We felt very welcome and it was a great start to our holiday.
On our way back to the hotel, we could hear the sound of enthusiastic singing coming from one of the bars along the road - this was obviously a local tradition, too. There were people of all ages sitting in this full room, enjoying their drinks and singing along with what were obviously traditional songs. This was looking through the window -
We were struck by the contrast with so many pubs here in England where ages do not mix in the same room or even the same pub. Young people will drink in one room or bar and older people in another.And singing is not exactly common here. Not tuneful singing anyway! We resisted the temptation to go in and went back for an early night, ready for a busy schedule next day.
I will post more in a day or so!
Thank you for reading so far!
Many piccies below the cut!
Cross posted to my LJ - apologies to those who get it twice!
Misty had decided to help with the packing by filling up some of the space in my suitcase! And being firmly asleep.
And when this hard-hearted person woke her up,I got this wide-eyed innocent look from her. All cat-owners will recognize it (and possibly bunny and dog owners, too!), it says "Am I in the way? Did you want to put something in here?". After I was eventually successful in getting access to my case, we were off.Leaving the moggies to be spoilt rotten by our neighbours, we made our way to Bristol Airport. Prague is just under two hours flight away. One airport looks pretty much like another, i guess - is this picture
taken at Bristol or Prague Airport, do you suppose? It's Prague, actually. I think. To be fair, Prague's decor was more interesting than Bristol's. Here is Bristol's Departures Lounge - very dull modern bog standard, grey, grey, grey . But Prague's entrance hall was decorated..., well, either it was decorated with this or someone had been flying far too low. Outside, as we waited for our coach, himself was snapping away, too! You may notice those very threatening looking clouds behind him - of which, more anon! We were driven into Prague to our hotel. There was some interestingly decorated architecture - a feature we came to notice and appreciate over the next few days. Here is a typical brutalist sixties block of flats - - don't you think the field of flowers adds a certain something? Long straight roads with blocks of flats and housing on either side - led to the city and there was a rainbow! Oh and those ominous clouds again! A few minutes later, the heavens opened - thunder, lightning, the works! The water was streaming down the roads in a frothy stream and we couldn't really see a lot of the town as we turned into the road where the hotel was! That strange building at the end is a famous modern building called "The Dancing House", of which more pictures later. Within an hour, though, the rain had stopped and everywhere was starting to dry out. We were told later by a friend who has been working there for six months that this was the first thunderstorm he had seen since he arrived! I have to say that Prague is the most decorative city I have ever seen with a wide range of architecture. They have castles, palaces, opera houses, town houses, churches - in medieval to baroque to Art Nouveau to ultra-modern and everything in between. In the town centre there is barely an undecorated building - every little detail in keeping with the age and style of the building. Lots of statuary and colour, many of the buildings five and six storeys high. This
is the view from the entrance to the hotel, albeit the following morning which, as you can see, was beautiful weather. Not every building is pristine - though in terms of streets and the general environment, it was the cleanest city either of us had ever visited, very little litter and not very much graffiti. My overwhelming impression was that the Czechs are very proud of their capital, their culture and history. Our main reservation was that the pavements were in poor condition in many places - holes and missing cobbles (lots of cobbles!) and there was a great risk of falling flat on my face for me because I spent most of the holiday walking around gawking up at the architecture. As is so common everywhere now, in many places, many of the ground floor frontages are modern, (Yes, the shopping centres had Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Benetton, Debenhams, and all the usual designer shops! Fortunately, the side streets were a lot more interesting.) it is only looking up that you can spot the gems. Though I have to say this was not such a problem in Prague as in many cities, because it has a wealth of exquisite doorways and entrances which have survived intact and which give you the clue to look up. Many of the buildings would benefit from a clean, especially away from the tourist hi-spots but serious money is being spent on restoration, we saw evidence of this in lots of places. Some of the buildings and statues are very black and would be much nicer for being restored but frankly, there is so much of it, it's going to take them a while! There was one aspect of the restoration work which I thought was great. When a building or statue is being worked on, it is scaffolded and covered from sight. But, just as I have seen with churches being restored in Brussels, the sheeting is illustrated with a picture of the statue or building underneath. In Brussels, these were painted. Here they were photographs. Thus -
In the middle of this garden is one statue, seen first from the side. Then, in sequence from each of the other sides!
So rather than using one picture each picture is from the correct angle and even shows the buildings behind and the tree! These were clearly sponsored by the car manufacturer Skoda and I was amused to see that every single car shown in the traffic in the pictures was an identical red Skoda! But that's fair enough and it looked infinitely more interesting than our scaffolding!
Looking around, I started to notice one thing which I had vaguely known but had forgotten. Prague has a lot of Art Nouveau buildings. AN is an interest of mine and I have seen exquisite buildings in Brussels and Paris. But Prague is just full of wonderful AN buildings - it was just everywhere. These panels
were on a building opposite the hotel this was taken from my room window. We got into the habit of finding a different way from the city centre to and from our hotel each day - it was only ten minutes walk - but every street had more buildings with at least elements of AN. I got quite punch drunk with it - I would just finish admiring one building, we would walk 100 yards or turn a corner and there would be another. Incredible! I have read up since and Prague is reckoned to be one of the best cities for seeing AN - I would certainly agree with that. In fact I'm not even going to try and do the AN justice in these general posts, I shall do an Art Nouveau post, so those of you who don't much care can ignore it!So that first evening, a few of us wandered down the street and found a traditional Czech restaurant with a set menu which gave us the chance to try Czech food. There were some very pretty little bread pretzels
hanging on a stand in the middle of each table. And you can see the lovely lace tablecloth too. The menu started with plates of cold meats, cheeses and olives, a sort of antipasti, then a clear soup with some meaty bits in it - I didn't enquire too closely what the meat was, probably liver, I suspect! Then we had goulash with dumplings - dumplings were to feature heavily, we found, in local food and also cabbage, both red and white usually. Finally, just when we thought the set meal had finished, we were presented with little pastries. It was a lovely opportunity to taste the local cuisine and we felt obliged to try the local wines and beer, too which were all excellent. At this point, J and I found ourselves both taking pictures of each other over the table which made J laugh! We did quite a lot of that with J, she was very good company. As was her mother-in-law, E, seen here. You can also see some of the extraordinary collection of objects with which the restaurant was decorated - typewriters, (there were some of us who could remember typing on ones like that!) gramophones, records, concertinas, accordians, ancestral portraits, paintings, a Madonna - all manner of things! There were a lot of local and obviously regular Czech customers, always a good sign! We felt very welcome and it was a great start to our holiday.On our way back to the hotel, we could hear the sound of enthusiastic singing coming from one of the bars along the road - this was obviously a local tradition, too. There were people of all ages sitting in this full room, enjoying their drinks and singing along with what were obviously traditional songs. This was looking through the window -
We were struck by the contrast with so many pubs here in England where ages do not mix in the same room or even the same pub. Young people will drink in one room or bar and older people in another.And singing is not exactly common here. Not tuneful singing anyway! We resisted the temptation to go in and went back for an early night, ready for a busy schedule next day.I will post more in a day or so!
Thank you for reading so far!
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-06 07:01 am (UTC)I love the cat pics. Yes, I am always in danger of packing Midnight in because she hides in empty or full suitcases wherever she can find them. The innocent look is priceless.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 02:24 pm (UTC)And yes, my cats never like seeing suitcases come out and it did make me laugh to see Misty curled up there!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-06 08:50 am (UTC)And I know that 'look' so very well :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 02:25 pm (UTC)And I rather thought other pet owners might recognise the "look"!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-17 10:53 am (UTC)And most definitely!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-06 11:24 am (UTC)I look forward to your Art Nouveau post - I love that style :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 02:27 pm (UTC)We visited the Mucha Museum, too - that was a lovely place!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-07 10:10 pm (UTC)Great photos, and I am waiting patiently for the Art Nouveau post.
Is that a picture of M there taking the photos? If so, I must inform you that G has that same hat! Thanks so much for posting this, it's so nice to see such interesting (and compared to the US) ancient cities!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 02:34 pm (UTC)Ans yes, that was M taking pictures - I love him in that hat (which he wears a lot as he needs to stop his pate getting sunburnt!). I do like men who can wear hats with style - so snap for G!
A lot of the European cities are very ancient, of course but Prague is just threaded through with culture and a sense of timelessness, in a way I have not noticed so much elsewhere.
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Date: 2008-06-17 04:08 pm (UTC)I just grinned like an idiot when I saw M in the hat, the coincidences no longer surprise me! I don't know about over there, but in this country practically every man wears baseball caps in lieu of real hats. G has an extensive collection of proper hats, straw, felt, summer, winter, even caps (not baseball, cloth ones). He's rather famous at his office for wearing hats!
I'm still super behind on my LJ and flikring, Fergus keeps me hopping and I'm trying to slowly catch up.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 08:06 pm (UTC)Prague looks so lovely. I'd love to visit some day.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-16 02:35 pm (UTC)