Prague's Nusle Bridge...

Here is an article about the Nusle bridge in Prague that connects New Town to Vysehrad. The red line metro passes through it, and there is a nice park under part of it. We have been over it several times and visited the park a couple of times. It's very big and the fact that it's made of nothing but concrete makes it very imposing. It is not a subtle bridge.

Praguescape: Birthday bridge
By Kristina Alda / Prague Daily Monitor / Published 26 February 2008

When I told my father I had spent a Sunday afternoon strolling on Prague's Nusle Bridge, for a split second, he seemed a little worried. After all, Nuselák, as locals call it, belongs among the city's most popular destinations for suicide jumpers, and that's what the bridge has become best known for.
Its architectural merits are often overlooked. That's surprising, since many consider it an engineering marvel. In fact, the bridge, which celebrated its 35-year anniversary last Friday, was named the Structure of the Century in the transportation building category in 2000.


As bridges go, Nuselák isn't pretty. It doesn't share the ethereal beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge or of the George Washington Bridge. It certainly lacks the handsome hoariness of the Charles Bridge or of the Pont d'Avignon. Nuselák is imposing the way a bare rock face is imposing – for its sheer height, mass and sturdiness.

Spanning from New Town to Vyšehrad, high above the sleepy streets of Nusle, the Botič brook and railway tracks, the bridge is 486 metres long, and its four pillars are roughly 42 metres tall. It's part of the four-lane magistrála freeway, and the C-line metro passes through its interior, travelling from I.P. Pavlova to Vyšehrad.

Construction began in 1965, based on a design by architects Svatopluk Kobr, Vojtěch Michálek and Stanislav Hubička, and took five years to complete. Sixty-six tanks rolled over the bridge in 1970 to test the sturdiness of the concrete and steel skeleton structure. Later, explosives were fired off the bridge to further test its strength.

Like so many of Prague's Cold War structures, the bridge bears the marks of the country's communist history. Its opening in 1973 coincided with the 25-year anniversary of the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, known as Vítězný únor. The bridge originally bore the name of Czechoslovakia's first communist president, Klement Gottwald. It was renamed to Nuselský most in 1990, following the Velvet Revolution.


Plans for a bridge over Nusle date back to the early 20th century, but the two wars delayed construction for decades. The concrete behemoth that was eventually commissioned by communist authorities was far removed from earlier, more elegant iron designs. It would be nice to be able to say that the bridge, in its uncompromisingly stark ugliness, has become a period piece, a reminder of the country's grimmest years. If you take a look at the concrete railway overpass that's going up between Žižkov and Karlín, however, you will notice striking similarities to Nuselák.

Grimmer still than Nuselák's architectural legacy are its suicide statistics. The bridge has been attracting jumpers since the first days following its opening. About eight people jump off Nuselák each year, and by 2000, the bridge had claimed an estimated 300 lives. Authorities installed 2.7-metre-tall metal railings in 1997 in the hope of detracting people from jumping, and smooth metal barriers were added at either end of the railing last year to make climbing over even more difficult.

The measure seems to be helping; according to a recent Mladá fronta Dnes article, there hasn't been a single suicide on Nuselák in the last six months. This is good news not just for paramedics, but also for those living near the bridge, as there have been several rare incidents reported where jumpers landed on pedestrians passing below.

On my recent Nusle walk, though, as I wandered along the bottom of the valley to the base of the bridge, it was hard to believe this was the site of hundreds of tragedies. I was only reminded when I passed by the rather morbidly named U Skokana (The Jumper) bar on Oldřichova Street. From below, contrasting against a solid blue sky, the bridge looked more like some absurdly geometrical rock formation than a piece of architecture – as though it's been part of the local landscape for centuries.


The view from the top, meanwhile, was spectacular as I walked along the span from Vyšehrad to New Town. The Žižkov TV tower jutted up on the horizon to my right, to the left was Petřín hill and, directly below, the meandering Botič brook and the tidy, car-lined streets of Nusle, all submerged in a quiet Sunday lull.

Kristina Alda can be reached at kristina@praguemonitor.com

The children of Terezin...

I will finish up posting on Terezin today with our visit to the Ghetto Museum.

The Ghetto Museum in Terezin is about a 1/2 mile from the Small Fortess. While nearly all of the buildings within the walls of the old town (the Large Fortess) are from the time of the Jewish Ghetto (late 1941 to May 1945) only one building serves as the museum.

There were a couple of particularly interesting items. First, there is a room with the names of the thousands who perished in the ghetto, which are listed in alphabetical order. Surprisingly, there are two Tischler - Manfred and Ernesta Tischler. I and my cousin Rick have been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to follow our Tischler line back into Europe. Who knows if Manfred and Ernesta are some long lost relatives.

A stairway in the Ghetto Museum has copies of dozens of drawings from the children of Terezin.
Also, there was a room with dozens of pictures made by the children of Terezin. Thousands of drawings from the children were hidden and found after the war. They were quite moving. Each drawing had the name of the child who created it and thier fate. Most of the children ended up at Auschwitz where they died. Noah went through the drawings looking for the ones that were by children who survived the war. He would call to us when he found one and was happy. I guess it was his way of dealing with magnitude of the suffering of the kids (many his age). Yes, some did survive.

One of the drawings of life in the ghetto.

Arriving at the ghetto.



Here is a book I think I have ordered from Amazon. It's Fireflies in the dark: the story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the children of Terezin by Susan Goldman Rubin.
From a review of the book: Although this book has the look of a picture book for younger children, the messages contained within are for older readers. Artist Dicker-Brandeis ran secret art classes for children at the Terezin Concentration Camp. She and nearly all of her pupils perished, but 5000 of the drawings and paintings were discovered hidden in a suitcase. Many of those works are found in this book.

More on Terezin...

From the web site Jewish Virtual Library:

Hitler, the world was to be told, had built a city for the Jews, to protect them from the vagaries and stresses of the war. A film was made to show this mythic, idyllic city to which his henchmen were taking the Jews from the Czech Lands and eight other countries. Notable musicians, writers, artists, and leaders were sent there for "safer" keeping than was to be afforded elsewhere in Hitler's quest to stave off any uprisings or objections around the so-called civilized world. This ruse worked for a very long time, to the great detriment of the nearly two hundred thousand men, women and children who passed through its gates as a way station to the East and probable death.

The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin once. The village of Terezin was spruced up for the occasion. Certain inmates were dressed up and told to stand at strategic places along the specially designated route through Terezin. Shop windows along that carefully guarded path were filled with goods for the day. One young mother remembers seeing the bakery window and shelves suddenly filled with baked goods the inmates had never seen during their time at Terezin. Even the candy shop window overflowed with bon bons creating a fantastic illusion she would never forget.

When the Red Cross representative appeared before this young mother, she remembers being asked how it was to live in Terezin during those days. Her reply implored the questioner to look around. Be sure and look around, as she herself rolled her own widely opened eyes around in an exaggerated manner. The Red Cross reported dryly that while war time conditions made all life difficult, life at Terezin was acceptable given all of the pressures. The Red Cross concluded that the Jews were being treated all right.

There were so many musicians in Terezin, there could have been two full symphony orchestras performing simultaneously daily. In addition, there were a number of chamber orchestras playing at various times. A number of distinguished composers created works at Terezin including Brundibar or the Bumble Bee, a children's operetta and a number of chamber compositions which only now are being resurrected and played in Europe and the United States.

This was not a death camp, by the usual definition. There is no way to compare Terezin to Auschwitz-Birkenau or Treblinka or any of the other death camps where hundreds of thousands were gassed or murdered in other ways each year. Terezin, by comparison was a place to which people would apply so as to avoid a worse fate.

Leskley painting "Beautified and Phony - Red Cross Inspection"
Eli Leskley's Ghetto Diary (from the University of Minnesota Holocaust and Genocide Studies web site)

Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Terezin, the show camp and ghetto established by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. He hid them, retrieved them after the war and recreated each one. The paintings are available in sets of 15 or the complete collection of 40. Many of the originals were damaged. Part of those paintings were saved and mounted. Immediately after the war, Leskley repainted all the images to provide a satiric and poignant view of the camp at Theresienstadt.

Terezin

On Saturday we made the 45 minute drive north of Prague to Terezin. Terezin is most notable for its role in World War II, as the location of a primary Jewish ghetto and for the political prison also there.

The Jewish cemetary just outside the small fortress.

A fort named Terezin, or Theresienstadt in German, was built by the Hapsburgs in the 1780s to protect against the Prussians to the north. During WWI it was used to house prisoners of war.

From Wikipedia:
The Small Fortress was part of the fortification on left side of river Ohře. Since 1940, the Gestapo used it as a prison (the largest one in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia). It was separate and unrelated to the Jewish ghetto in the main fortress on the river's right side. Around 90,000 people arrived there and were usually sent to a concentration camp later. 2,600 people were executed, starved, or succumbed to disease there. A possible 1,100 children survived of the 15,000 sent there.

The 1st gate of the small fortress with the slogan "Work will set you free". Most of those who died here were worked to death as slave laborers.

Noah stands in the hallway of the building that housed the more than 20 cells for solitary confinement. Conditions here were horrendously bad. Only one of these cells was not used by the Nazis during WWII - Cell #1 had housed Gavrilo Princip, the Serb who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife, starting the First World War, and he died here of tuberculosis in 1918. I was able to enter the cell - it was an interesting feeling.

The shower room of the Small Fortress. Noah asked if this is where the Jews "got acid" meaning the poison gas. But Terezin was not an extermination camp. The Terezin ghetto, like all of the Jewish ghettos, was a place to accumulate Jews before deportation to the East for extermination in places like Auschwitz. Terezin was the western most of the Jewish ghettos.

During WWII, the Gestapo used Terezín, better known by the German name Theresienstadt, as a ghetto, concentrating Jews from Czechoslovakia, as well as many from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark. Though it was not an extermination camp, of the over 150,000 Jews who arrived there, about 33,000 died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. At the end of the war there were 17,247 survivors.

Part of the fortification (Small Fortress) served as the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, separated from the ghetto. Around 90,000 people went through it, and 2,600 of those died there.

It was liberated on May 9th, 1945 by the Soviet Army.

Under the Charles bridge...

During my stroll yesterday morning I ended up on the west side of the river under the bridge. I had never been there before so I snapped some pictures.

You can see the statues that line the bridge. Also, note the wooden barriers in the water that serve to protect the bridge from ice and runaway boats.

Looking southeast towards the center of the city. You can climb the tower at the end of the bridge (I have several times) and view is spectacular. The cost is about 50 crowns (less than $3).

Looking eastward under the Charles at one of the other bridges that serve the city. There are 13 bridges spanning the Vlatava in Prague, and more or on the way as two ring roads are being built. (Sadly, like the extension of the metro to the airport, we shan't be here for the completion).

I got a bit lucky with this picture, with the duck landing in the foreground just as I took it. I could see it was coming, but there is a split second delay from when the button is pushed to when the picture is actually taken. Like I said - luck.

Artists on the Charles bridge...

Sunday school was back in session today after the holiday break (when most families leave the Czech Republic for wherever home is). Kathy had a doctor's appointment this morning so it was just Noah and me.

After dropping Noah off at the church for Sunday school I took the usual stroll to the Charles bridge. It was quieter than usual today. If there is a low season for tourism in Prague, this is it. After the holidays and before the weather warms in March and the outdoor cafes begin to reopen.

Today I took some pictures of the wares that are sold on the bridge. As a pedestrian bridge and one of the main tourism spots, it is a prime location for selling things. Thankfully, most of the items sold on the bridge are artistic in nature and not the typical junk sold elsewhere in the city (like the "Czech National Drinking Team" T-shirts).

There are probably 50 or so vendors selling things on the bridge - here are a few.


There are a few caricaturists. You see Joe Cocker, who was just in concert here a few weeks ago.

Original art is very big on the bridge and represents probably the single largest category. You can get water colors, color and black and white photography, etc.

The other primary category is jewelry of all kinds. Like everything else on the bridge it is pushed as local and hand made, but you are never really quite sure.

Here is a one of a kind on the bridge - a man, his monkey and a calliope. He plays the music and people throw money into the little bucket. The calliope plays well enough but a little calliope music goes a very long way. He even has CDs to sell, but I'm not sure who buys them. On the way back across the bridge there were a few Japanese tourists who were looking at the CDs and he was trying to describe the kind of music that was on them by acting it out - I surmised that one CD had uptempo music while another was slower (!?). I didn't stay to see if they bought anything.

Lidice followup...

The visit to Lidice caused me to do some additional research to write my post (that post had gotten quite involved before I decided to scale it way back and have readers, if interested, look at two linked sources). In that research I found that
It wasn't until after I posted about Lidice that I found a succinct description of what happened and why. From the web site http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-lidice.htm:

On May 27, 1942, SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, had been attacked in Prague by Free Czech agents who were trained in England and brought to Czechoslovakia to assassinate him. They shot at Heydrich as his car slowed to round a sharp turn, then threw a bomb which exploded, mortally wounding him. Heydrich managed to get out of the car, draw his pistol and shoot back at the assassins before collapsing in the street.

Heydrich survived for several days, but died on June 4 from blood poisoning brought on by fragments of auto upholstery, steel, and his own uniform that had lodged in his spleen.

In Berlin, the Nazis staged a highly elaborate funeral with Hitler calling Heydrich "the man with the iron heart."

Meanwhile the Gestapo and SS hunted down and murdered Czech agents, resistance members, and anyone suspected of being involved in Heydrich's death, totaling over 1000 persons. In addition, 3000 Jews were deported from the ghetto at Theresienstadt for extermination. In Berlin 500 Jews were arrested, with 152 executed as a reprisal on the day of Heydrich's death.

As a further reprisal, Hitler ordered the small Czech mining village of Lidice to be liquidated on the fake charge that it had aided the assassins.

In one of the most infamous single acts of World War Two, all 172 men and boys over age 16 in the village were shot while the women were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp where most died. Ninety young children were sent to the concentration camp at Gneisenau, with some taken later to Nazi orphanages if they were German looking.[ It has to be noted that the vast majority, more than 80, were gassed by carbon monoxide in a truck specially built for that purpose - AMT].

The village of Lidice was then destroyed building by building with explosives, then completely leveled until not a trace remained, [even corpses were removed from the cemetary - AMT]. with grain being planted over the flattened soil. The name was then removed from all German maps.

In an interesting footnote, several towns around the world changed their name to Lidice, or changed the name of streets and squares, after the scope and horror of that tragedy became known.


Towns and villages

St. Jerónimo – Lidice, D.F. Mexico
Lidice, Illinois, USA
Lidice, Brazil
Lidice, Panama

City quarters
Caracas, Venezuela
Lima, Peru
Regla, Cuba
Gan Yaoneh, Israel

Squares, streets, monuments, parks, schools and associations

Santiago, Chile
Montevideo, Uruguay
Callao, Peru Molo, Peru H
avana, Cuba Caibarien, Cuba
Philips, Wisconsin
Tabor, South Dakota
Valparaiso, Chile
Budapest, Hungary
Bogota, Columbia
London, Great Britain
Golla, Great Britain
Bremen, Germany

Lidice...

I have been struggling for a day and a half to compose a post on the visit Kathy and I made to Lidice on Thanksgiving. I have the beginning down pat, here is how it goes:


Last Thanksgiving, with Noah at school, Kathy and I spent a couple of hours at the Museum of Communism which is just off of Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. It was a sobering experience in a general, non-personal sort of way. Afterwards we were left feeling grateful that we won the Cold War and were spared the tyranny of Communism.

This Thanksgiving, Kathy and I visited the museum and grounds of Lidice, just 10 minutes northwest of our house. I was unfamiliar with the story of Lidice before moving to Prague and it is likley that you are unfamiliar with it as well.

From here I tried to give a summary of what happened in Lidice, less than 10 miles from our house, in June 1942. But I ended up going into great detail and the post got to be too long and I was never happy because I didn't want to leave important information out.

Well, the only way I can finish this post is to just put in a few pictures and link to a couple of sources and let you look at them if you like. It is really a heartbreaking story, so be forewarned.

We got there at just after its 9:00 am opening and for the two hours we were there we were the only visitors in the museum and on the expansive grounds. Being alone only made it seem sadder. It was grey, windy and cold, which fit our mood. Still, visiting Lidice was also a very fitting thing to do on Thanksgiving. As we drove away after our visit I have never been more thankful for Noah and Kathy and our family and friends.


Lidice before (top) and after (bottom) June 10, 1942.




All men of Lidice 15 or older (over 150 in all) were marched out and shot by firing squad by the SS before the town was raised.



After the town was completely destroyed the Nazis even removed bodies from the cemetary. There was to be no proof that Lidice ever existed.

The women were sent to a concentration camp. A few of children were allowed to be adopted by German families (because these children looked "German") while the others, over 80, were gassed at the camp at Chelmo, Poland a few weeks later.

Here is the memorial for the children of Lidice.




Here is the link to the web site of the Lidice Museum and Memorial.

Here is the link to the Wikipedia entry on Lidice.

Grey Prague...

This is our second winter in Prague. Last winter we were amazed at how mild the winter was, especially considering that Prague is the same latitude as Winnipeg. The temperatures were quite mild, with just about every day being over freezing, and most days in the 40s. I think the lowest temperature we had all winter was a low of 15 degrees (F), and the sun, while more scarce than in MN still made regular appearances. There wasn't much snow either. We only had a single snowfall that was more than a dusting, and that was about a foot in early February. Because of the warm temperatures even that amount of snow was gone within about 5 days.

We had been warned that last winter was an anomaly but didn't really believe it - until now. We have seen the sun exactly three times in the last month. Today was one of those times, but it was only briefly, maybe a few hours. It has been cold and grey and depressing and nothing at all like last winter.

While Noah was at Sunday school this morning, Kathy and I walked to the Charles bridge before stopping at a nearby coffee shop to shake off the cold.


Here is the Charles bridge. There are still a lot of tourists, particularly Asians, but the volume is a fraction of what it is through the summer.















Looking up river from the Charles bridge.















Looking down stream from the Charles bridge at two boats for river cruises. It would not be as enjoyable now as it would be in warmer weather.















A riverside cafe that is in hibernation until late April.

Misty Prague morning...

Kathy and I were waiting at the bus stop across from the International school after dropping Noah off a few days ago. She was coming with me into the city to have a coffee with me at Coffee Heaven (the Czech equivalent of Caribou) before I went in to work. It was foggy and we noticed a nearby tall office building jutting up out of the mist. Luckily she had the camera and I snapped this picture.

Prague's Lennon Wall...

Noah had his first Sunday school class on Sunday, which meant that Kathy and I had an hour to wander around before picking him up from class and going next door for mass. It was a beautiful near-fall morning, and we did the usual walk across the Charles bridge, but on the way back we decided to take a detour on Kampa island. We had both been on Kampa island before so we didn't expect to see anything new, but then we saw a small side street with a sign for a cafe and an arrow pointing up the street. We decided to see what the cafe was like and were disappointed that 1) it was closed and 2) it was also a laundromat. Oh, well. But we came out the other end of the street to an area we hadn't been before. We crossed a small pedestrian bridge over the small canal that runs parallel to the Vltava river, and we came across the Lennon Wall. I knew of the Lennon Wall from the multiple books on Prague that we have seen over the past year, but we never really knew where it was. We both thought it was in some park on the south end of the city (don't know where we got that idea). It was one of those fortunate accidents and it was fun to find.


From Wikipedia:

The Lennon Wall was formerly an ordinary historic wall in Prague, but since the 1980s, people have filled it with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs.

In 1988 the wall was a source of irritation for the then communist regime of Gustav Husak. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as Lennonism and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism.

The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paints. Even when the wall was re-painted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace.

The wall is owned by the Knights of the Maltese Cross, who graciously allowed graffiti to continue on what actually is a lovely Renaissance wall, and is located at Velkopřevorské náměstí (Grand Priory Square), Malá Strana.

A little burcak and cheese...

We have been experiencing a babí léto, literally a grandmother's summer, which is the equivalent to our Indian summer back home. Part of the yearly transition from summer to autumn is Burčák which is derived from fermenting grape juice, known as must, shortly after the grapes have been crushed. At a point determined by the winegrower, the must is deemed worthy of consumption and a part of it is sold as burčák. The rest is allowed to mature into adult wine. The alcohol content of burcak is 5-8%, so it gives quite a kick. But since it is so sweet it can sneak up on the unsuspecting drinker. The country’s best burčák is found in Moravia (the eastern half of the Czech Republic), but plenty of it ends up in Prague.

Today the three of us when to the grounds of Troja palace, next to the Prague zoo, to see vinobraní, the traditional festival celebrating the new wine harvest and burcak. We picked up a litre of burcak and walked the grounds of the castle which still has acres of vineyards. Because of the festival they also had food vendors and music in addition to the dozens of burcak vendors. The processes and recipes of the burcak is closely guarded by each maker so there is a variety of tastes. The first one we tried used white grapes as a base, and we chose it because we prefer white wine to red. The burcak we bought was sweet and tasty, and though it was cloudy, it did not look as much likel muddy water as most of the others, so we decided to just buy a litre rather than continue sampling (plus, I had to drive, so I could only sample a little).

There wasn't much for Noah (no games or anything special for kids) so we stayed an hour and headed home.


Here is what burcak looks like. It tastes better than it looks.




Folks enjoy their burcak overlooking the maze on the grounds of Troja Palace.


One of the bands at the festival. Yes, that's an accordion.


More drinkers. Overlooking the vineyards and Troja palace.

Beautiful Prague...

Here is a link to a web site with scores of pictures of Prague. It's worth a visit.


http://www.pbase.com/ronhrl/prague_images

Konopiste (another medieval castle)...

We visited another castle today - the third castle visit in four weeks. Konopiste doesn't look that old, thanks to a renovation about 100 years ago, but was actually constructed in the 13th century. From Wikipedia:

Konopiště is a castle located about 50 km southeast of Prague, outside the city of Benešov. It has become famous as the last residence of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I. The bullet that killed him, fired by Gavrilo Princip, is now an exhibit at the castle's museum.

The castle was initially constructed as a Gothic fortification in the 13th century. It was later transformed in a Baroque style. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria bought Konopiště in 1887, with his inheritance from the last reigning Duke of Modena, and rebuilt it into a luxurious residence, suitable to the future Emperor; which he preferred to his official residence in Vienna. He invited William II, German Emperor to see his roses early in June, 1914; insofar as they discussed politics, they discussed Romania, but conspiracy theories about their planning an attack on Serbia or a division of the Austro-Hungarian Empire arose at the time and since. Since 1921, the castle has been a property of the Czechoslovak and later Czech state, one of 90 such in state ownership. The Ministry of Culture is said to spend more than US$ 800,000 per year to maintain the castle, and recovers about as much from entrance ticket sales and rental for occasional functions.

Konopiště castle is now open to the public. Visitors can observe the residential rooms of Franz Ferdinand, a large collection of antlers (Franz Ferdinand was an enthusiastic hunter), an armory with medieval weapons, a shooting hall with moving targets and a garden with Italian Renaissance statues and greenhouses. It is a popular place for weddings.

Currently, HSH Princess Sophie von Hohenberg, a descendant of Franz Ferdinand, is claiming for the restitution of the castle to her family, which was never recognized as part of the House of Habsburg, on the ground that the provisions of Article 208 of the Treaty of Saint Germain, and the Article 3 of Law no.354 of 1921 in Czechoslovakia, do not apply to them. She filed a law suit in December 2000 in Benesov, the nearest city, for the Castle and its dependencies comprising 6,070 hectares of woodland and including a brewery.


Kathy by one of the many, many statues on the grounds of the castle.

















Kathy and Noah try to generate some good luck by throwing some coins into this fountain/wishing well.









Two peacocks saunter past a statue of a hunter with two restrained hunting dogs.













A view of the rose garden. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe with a view over the rose garden. We all had sausages with mustard and bread. Very good (and only about $1.25 each).


It was a nice day for a short drive and a visit to another castle. They close for the winter so we only have 1-2 months to visit more yet this year.

The hanging man in Prague...

During Styopa's visit we were in Old Town looking for the Sparta fan shop so he could buy a jersey. He happened to look up and asked, "What's that?". He pointed skyward and this is what we saw.

According to the internets, This sculpture, more often referred to as the Hanging man was first exhibited at the exhibition “Respekt 97” at the Villa Richter in the Prague’s Lesser Town. Later installed at the Czech Cultural Center in Berlin; Moderna Muset in Stockholm; National Theatre in London; and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London. Dimensions: 233 x 60 x 45 cm, 1996.

Somehow it ended up at rooftop level in Stare Mesto. When there is a breeze the man sways back and forth, so he's not hard welded to the horizontal poll. Of course, that could be an accident waiting to happen.

Another castle visit - Vysehrad...

The upcoming family visits has been an incentive for us to see some of the local sites that we haven't gotten around to seeing before. Last week was Karlstejn castle and yesterday it was Vysehrad. Vysehrad is a castle within the city, and it's only two metro stops from my office on Wenceslas Square. I didn't know that or I would have recommended it to Styopa while he was here.












Part of the cemetery. It contains over 600 graves of the more famous and influencial Czechs.







Here is some information from Wikipedia:

Vyšehrad is a castle located in the Czech Republic, built in the 10th century, on a hill over the Vltava River. Situated within the castle is the Cathedral of Saint Paul and Peter, as well as the Vyšehrad cemetery, containing the remains of many famous people from Czech history.

Vyšehrad and the area around it became part of the capital city, Prague, in 1883. The area is one of the cadastral districts of the city.

When the Přemyslid dynasty settled on the current site of Prague Castle, the two castles maintained opposing spheres of influence for approximately two centuries. When Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV began to build the Prague Castle in its current dimensions (in the early 14th century), Vyšehrad was abandoned as a royal home.

At the beginning of the Hussite Wars, it was captured by the Hussites.

It underwent a renovation in the 17th century, when the Habsburg Monarchy took over the Czech lands after the Thirty Years' War and became a training center for the Austrian Army. It was also incorporated into the Baroque era city walls around Prague.

We had a good time, especially because it is so close to home. Kathy liked it better than Karlstejn (although I prefer Karlstejn). Still, it definitely worth a visit. Also, since entrance to the grounds is free, it is a cheap way to spend a few hours. The cost to get into the beautiful church is just 30 crowns (about $1.50).




















One of the beautiful mosaic doors on the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Also, a view from the rampart looking south (upstream) on the Vlatava River.

Prague Hotels

Karlstejn Castle...

We took a little excursion to Karlstejn Castle on Saturday despite a spot of rain. We had not yet been to Karlstejn and figured it was high time to make the short journey - it's only about 25 minutes from our house. The numerous castles in the Czech Republic close over the winter and since we arrived in August we didn't visit Karlstejn Castle before they closed.

From Wikipedia:


Karlštejn (German: Karlstein) is a large Gothic castle founded in the 14th century by Charles IV. The castle served as a place for safekeeping the Empire coronation jewels, holy relics and other royal treasures. Located about 20 km southwest of Prague in the Karlštejn village, it is one of the most famous and heavily visited castles in the Czech Republic.

The castle was founded in 1348 by the Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV who personally supervised the construction works and the decoration of interiors. The construction was finished nearly twenty years later when the "heart" of the treasury – the Chapel of the Holy Cross situated in the Great tower – was consecrated in 1365. With the outbreak of the Hussite Wars, the Czech coronation jewels were moved to the castle and were kept there for almost two centuries, with some short-time breaks.

The castle underwent several reconstructions: in late Gothic style after 1480, in Renaissance style in the last quarter of the 16th century and finally a neo-Gothic reconstruction between 1887 and 1899 carried out by Josef Mocker that gave the castle the present look.



Here is a view of the castle from the village of Karlstejn.

This shows some of the elevation change on the way to the top of the castle.

Looking back at the village below.














Kathy and Noah stop dodging the raindrops long enough to pose for a picture.


















Noah liked the swords and other weapons that were a common souvenir for sale in the tourist shops.