Malostranska namesti...

We did the usual Sunday school and Mass last weekend. I had the camera with me in case Kathy and I went for a walk while Noah was at Sunday school, but we decided to go for coffee instead since it was chilly. However, after Mass we were waiting for the #20 tram at Malostranska namesti that takes us back to Dejvicka where we park the car, and I decided to take a series of pictures form that one spot.



The Easter markets are open now. Maolstranska namesti is quite small compared to Old Town square and Wenceslas square, and even Namesti miru. But they have room for half a dozen or so stalls.





There was a brisk business on the square, being noon on a Sunday. The new Starbucks is in the background - it was busy as always.


This is a fresco (mural?) on the other side of the street from the Easter market stalls. I am not sure what the building is, but it sure is a pretty work of art.


Some of the other buildings along the small square.

The Sunday trip to church...

E very Sunday (well, almost every Sunday) we drive from our village of Horomerice to the area of Dejvicka where we can either take the metro or a tram to the church of St. Thomas just off of Maolstranska namesti. Because the timeing is right we usually take a tram - a #20 tram comes at 0930 and gets us to church just in time for the start of Sunday school at 0945. On weekends the metro runs only about every 7-8 minutes so if we just miss one at Dejvicka it would mean we would be late.

Passing another tram on the way into the city.

Prague public transportation relies on the honor system. Human nature being what it is, ticket inspectors are used to perform spot checks on random metros, trams and buses. Today there was an inspector on the tram, and while we all had tickets (the last ting we want is unwanted contact with the police) a young check couple sitting behind us did not - and the inspector wrote them out a ticket. I believe that the fine is about $25.

Here is where we get off - Malostranska namesti. On the right is where the new Starbucks is going. We hear that it will open this Tuesday.

Here is the imposing door to St. Thomas' church. It is a very beautiful Church and I will post more about it in the near future.

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.

A stroll on the Charles bridge...

After visiting the Old Town Christmas market we went to the new Palladium mall. Not surprisingly, it's much like every other mall in the world this time of year with lots of stoes selling the same stuff - although the Palladium is very upscale, so their stuff is pretty expensive. We stopped for coffee (hot chocolate for Noah) at a nice cafe inside the mall and then went for a late lunch at a restaurant on Bethlehem Namesti. Kathy had taken her family there when they visited this fall but I had never been there. After a leisurely lunch we headed home, and crossing the Charles Bridge on the way.

It was quite cold (but as a Minnesotan I am embarassed to say that I was cold even though the temperature was a balmly 20 degrees). Here is the Charles Bridge with the castle - actually St. Vitus Cathedral - in the background. The boat on the river is one of the many that offer dinner cruises. There is an open upper deck that can be used in better weather.


A view from the bridge.


One of the many statues that line both sides of the bridge. I don't know which saint this is (I probably should) but I like the gold cross with St. Vitus in the background.

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.

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.

Bee Hive...

Here is a picture from a park near our church - St. Thomas. I took it on a Sunday walk with Kathy last month while Noah attended Sunday school. I didn't post it at the time - I used other pictures of peacocks in the park instead. Anyway, this is a pretty neat bee hive. You can't tell from the picture that there are a LOT of bees coming and going from this hive. They enter and exit from the slot under the "chin". I didn't linger after snapping the picture.








The second picture is just that of a vine covered chimney of a greenhouse that is very near the bee hive.

Peacock Park...

Another Sunday morning stroll while Noah was at Sunday school. The weather has been glorious lately and it was as well today. A little cooler - around 60 - but sunny and pleasant. We walked to a park near St. Thomas church that I had stumbled upon earlier. It is Vojanovy Sady and is about as big as a square city block. Fodos says of the park "the Vojan Gardens originally formed part of the Archbishop's Palace before becoming the property of the monastery attached to nearby St. Joseph's church. Hidden behind high walls, they form a peaceful retreat from the surrounding bussle." There is only one gate to get in and out and there are several peacocks wandering about. There are also two old chapels on the grounds. Here are some pictures.

Here is the park...

Here is one of the peacocks...

Here is one of the two old chapels on the grounds. Notice the trees growing out of the walls of the chapel.

Here is a sign in the shape of a peacock for a hotel located just outside the gate of the park...

A Sunday morning stroll...

We are back to our typical Sunday schedule. February was bad with Kathy having her little medical situation, then we spent a weekend in Geneva, then I was gone for two weeks for my dad, then Danny came for a visit. This is the first Sunday in a long time where we did our usual thing.
Noah has Sunday school at 9:45 at St. Thomas church near Malostranska Namesti and then mass is at 11:00. That gives us about an hour to either take a walk or go for a cup of coffee at one of the many cute cafes nearby. Today was a sunny, crisp spring morning so we decided to take a walk. We went across the Charles Bridge and explored some back streets that we hadn't gone down before.


Here is a cafe overlooking the Vlatava river at the Charles Bridge.

This is a blind girl who regularly sings on the Charles Bridge. She sings opera and has a very good voice. She accepts "donations" and I think she does quite well.

Here is something interesting we saw on our little walk. It is a figure above a door with "CERMAK" above it. Cermak is the family name of my oldest sister's family.