Day 14 - The Climb Up To... Nothing

Weather is still somewhat discouraging. There was a strange fog like moisture in the air today that brought warmer temperatures (30F); it also seemed to bring a fog/haze that contained the cold as well...if that makes any sense. It still has not been great for getting out and about but we were determined to give it a go today. At night, when returning to the apartment, we can see a large structure lighting up the sky in the distance. It sits somewhere on the hill in between the observatory and Prague Castle. We decided to make this our target for the day and so we made off for another day of climbing. The cobbled streets up to our destination were covered in wet snow, making it a bit slick, but a great workout for the core and stability muscles :) but also very bad on Karl's broken toe. As we approached the top we could finally see that our target was a church (from the bottom of the hill you can't really see above/beyond the surrounding buildings). In any event, the church is not nearly as impressive as the nighttime lights make it seem to be. Especially because it is all gated and you can't get in to see it up close. Oh well, our journey wasn't all wasted because the view from the top (back down toward the city) was a good one...even if you couldn't see the whole city because of the fog. It was one of those moments where it was hard to capture what the eye actually sees. I did manage to take a few shots however. After about an hour we started to get cold and decided to head back down the hill, taking a different route for a change of scenery. I liked the walk down the other side. For one, it wasn't nearly as steep as the hike up had been and also because it was much less touristy and I took a few photos that I really like. Once down we headed back to the apartment, but not before stopping for a couple of trdelniks, of course!

For dinner we went to the Buddha Bar in the middle of the city. It’s an upscale Asian restaurant that Karl wanted to go to. The original one is in Paris, where he went to the grand opening and ate at often when he lived there. Apparently there are now a half dozen or so in major cities throughout the world. We overate... again. Vietnamese spring rolls, coconut shrimp, dumpling sampler, Kobe beef (which we sent back disappointed because it was crap), seared tuna, etc. We also had some cool sake drinks...with raspberry and cucumber. Very tasty.

The walk back was absolutely beautiful. It started to snow again and our route took us through all the beautiful city lights and squares. It’s sometimes hard to describe exactly how picturesque this city is. Despite the low light/visibility during the past few days (I have never used such high ISO settings continually!), nighttime is a real treat. It's like something out of a movie. Major churches, cathedrals and castles light the night sky. Street lamps light every road, path and alleyway with a soft, golden glow. The falling snow makes doesn't translate over into photographs as well as I would like taking, but gives us a solid visual treat that we won't need photos to remember.

The street outside the apartment. Just to show you what we walk through every day...

All of the sidewalks (previously mentioned) are all done in beautiful cobblestone patterns like this one. So much work went into almost every inch of this city.

Door... to the German embassy.

Looking down at what we slipped/trudged up to get to the destination of the day.

A panorama from the top. Still having the pesky vignetting issue...

Holding up the castle :)

Ditto!

Another view from the top.

Karl is thankful for Trdelniks.

Little Mole!

Little Mole taking in the view.

Our destination. Too bad we couldn't see any of it until we were halfway down on the other side.

Little alley stairway.

Lamp post.

Door.

The walk down some other stairs from another view point. I think I slid the majority of the ways down.

Day 13 - Rest Day

Today was a chill day. Still not great weather for outdoor shooting. The cold front is starting to pass but the forecast is still calling for clouds and some snow over the next week. Ugh. I will just have to get more creative in the coming days.

We spent most of the day inside (ok, all of the day). We skyped with the fam for almost two hours, made some more snowflakes (K actually made one!), and listend to music. We finally motivated ourselves to get out for dinner and went to a very nice Czech restaurant called Kampa Park (located in Kampa Park near our apartment). It was fine cuisine with a somewhat international flare. I had an amazing beef carpaccio to start, followed by peppered steak (I obviously like beef). K had pumkin soup and reindeer (yes, reindeer...he thought it was appropriate given the season). Strawberry cappuccino for desert, yum.

Not a lot to report other than that. Back to apartment to watch a movie and call it a night.

Day 12 - The Jewish Cemetery

So we survived to coldest night so far….6 degrees, buuuuurrrrr. Another late start due to the weather...and the fact that we can't seem to wake up before 10 am on a good day (but we do go to bed after 2am most nights). While I had been surfing the interweb last night looking up museums and such, I came across a list of things you should do in Prague if you where to be here for only three days. Since we are obviously spending more time here than that, I thought that we should probably at least cover what was on the list. On it was the Jewish cemetery. It sounded like the perfect thing to do today as it's not very far from the apartment and wouldn't require allocating an entire day to explore it. The cemetery is located in Josev, the name given to this Jewish neighborhood (“ghetto”) in the late 1700s. Most of the neighborhood’s houses and streets were demolished in the late 19^th century, but the cemetery and its synagogues remain. Before going in the cemetery we visit The Ceremonial Hall and The Pinkas Synagogue, both of which border opposite sides of the cemetery. The Pinkas Synagogue was particularly moving. Written on the interior walls are the names of some 80,000 Jews from this region (Bohemia and Moravia) who were murdered by the Nazis. It was beautifully done, but unfortunately you are not permitted to take photographs inside the building. Outside, the head stones of the cemetery appear rather disheveled...because they are. Back in the 14^th century, Jews were forbidden to bury their dead outside of the ghetto, so they were forced to reuse space over and over again until as many as a dozen dead where buried on top of each other. Not exactly an uplifting moment or day, but as Karl paraphrased what so many others have said…”we must never forget this moment in history so that it will never be repeated.” On the way back we stopped at a posh little corner restaurant for some comfort food…hamburger and fries…and I tried the apple strudel for dessert…I am going to admit, not the best dessert so far, but it is a local dish so I HAD to try it ;).

Back at the apartment we were glad to be in out of the cold. Though once again, the major living room is very large with a high ceiling so it is less than ideal when it comes to heat. We chilled out reading, emailing, and listening to music...all by the comfort of a couple of space heaters to boost the warmth of the furnace (we also have a fireplace but it doesn’t draw very well in this very cold weather and, since we don't pay for electricity, we like the space heaters). We also get a little added benefit from using the space heaters…the heat rises upstairs making the bedrooms more comfortable.

For dinner we hit another neighborhood restaurant called The Alchymist (there are two in the area...this one has a French infleunce). A major benefit to this neighborhood is all the foreign embassies. There are several nice restaurants that cater to their diplomats. It is bit fancier than Café de Paris (our local favorite) but we both felt like dressing up after being bundled in hats, jackets and scarves for the past few days. It’s also close enough to rough it without the need for them. The food was very good (we shared a fondue meal...K also started with one of his favorites..foie gras, sorry mom) and the restauraunt had a cool, unique decor.

Does this really need a title?

A good depiction of how crowded this graveyard is...

...

Another view of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge at night. It is such a beautiful scene.

Have I mentioned that it's freakin' freezing? This is me trying to smile as we walked back, but my face froze.

Day 11 - Snowflakes

Another very cold day. We stayed inside today until the temperature came up a bit. The main goal for the day was to find a store that sold scissors and paper. It has seemed to me that there is a lack of 'practical' stores - mostly just the tourist stuff. Maybe it is as Karl says; we have stayed on the more beaten paths of Prague and therefore don't see those types of stores. Anyway, K found a couple different art stores on the internet, so we headed out to find our artsy supplies to make better snowflake ornaments today (we were looking for indoor activities as the cold/snow doesn’t make for fun exploring and shooting). On the way to the art store we made a quick journey up one of the towers of the Charles Bridge to check out the view. As beautiful as the view is from the top, a camera can never capture the feeling you get when you are looking at an extraordinary view. I still feel like I got a couple good shots, but I will let you be the judge. Once back on the ground it didn’t take long to find the art store and get what we needed. We were both pretty cold by then so we tucked into an Italian restaurant to get warm and grab a quick bite. There seem to be more Italian restaurants then Czech restauraunts... Then we headed back to the apartment…not before stopping to grab a bottle of wine, of course. Back at the apartment we cuddled up to the space-heater and I made ornaments while K played DJ, spinning the best of Christmas tunes…ha ha. Neither one of us was particularly motivated to go back out in the cold. We had planned to get gussied up and go to a very nice French restaurant in the neighborhood but the thought of taking a shower and going out into the cold with wet hair shut that down. Instead we bundled up – unshowered – and headed to the local Thai restaurant that we had eaten at last week. This time I managed to eat my whole meal and then put away the most delicious crepe dessert with hot raspberries... sooo didn't need that.

It was a relatively mellow day.

The Charles Bridge from the west bank. You can see the tower that we climbed from here...

A door (obviously) underneath the foot of the Charles Bridge on the west side.

I made two panoramas from the Charles Bridge as we walked across on our way to the art store... #1

#2

Here are three different shots looking west from the top of the Charles Bridge tower. There is something different I like about all of these images so I am including all of them!

Day 10 – Greetings from Siberia!

Just kidding, but it was sooooo cold here today. High of only 16 F !!! And snow, but that only started once we decided to leave the apartment, of course. So much for my optimism about the weather forecast being wrong. Today we went to Prague Castle, which is located not too far from our place. It sits up on the second highest point of the city but, unlike the hike up to the observatory, this work out was less rigorous and a bit more “scenic”; we passed lots of interesting shops and restaurants (and tourist traps, of course) as we climbed the cobblestone streets to the entrance of the castle. The wind picked up and the temperature continued to drop as we approached. We couldn’t help but laugh and joke about why we didn’t decide to go someplace warmer (…we also joked later about wanting to go home to Maine where it was warm…ha ha). In our defense, we did know we were coming here at the start of winter because we wanted to a) be free of annoying tourists and b) enjoy the complimenting weather to the “cold” nature of the city (just looks…not the people). Karl said Moscow and Prague are two great places to visit in the winter, particularly at Christmas time, when the people are more cheerful and the unique archictecture creates the perfect backdrop for all the holiday festivities, lights and decorations. He also said Prague has turned much more touristy in the past 10+ years and the people are now much friendlier and welcoming year around (tourists = money). When we arrived at the entrance to the castle we decided to wait outside and freeze a little longer to witness the changing of the guard, something that occurs every hour on the hour. Karl entertained me as we waited (see images below). Not a great day for outside photos so we headed inside to the large central cathedral you can see in prior blog photos. It was quite possibly colder inside (like a stone freezer), and Karl was not thrilled that they asked him to remove his winter hat, but the fabulous architecture and gigantic ornate stained glass windows around the perimeter walls quickly distracted him (he has a great eye for detail, particularly when it comes to building techniques and styles...in other words he actually gets excited about a particular type of door hinge). Unfortunately it was a bit dark inside and flash photography was not permitted, but I still manage to capture a few shots (hello ISO 3200!!!). Admittedly much of the time at the castle was a bit of a blur. Brain freeze. We went into another structure (the old royal palace) but it was not that exciting and also very cold (perhaps it would have been more interesting if I could have felt my toes). Outside we grabbed a hot wine and grog (rum and hot water) being sold under an umbrella (in a snowstorm), where the attendee said to Karl in a hysterical foreign English accent (“okay, in a moment I get you spoon and sugar”…perhaps only Leah Young could have said it better). We downed our drinks and decided to head out (even the attendee was saying that she wanted to go home). Before exiting the castle we hit the public WC (bathrooms) where I pretended to drop in the 5 Krown in the snow covered payment box. While I was still inside, the toilet Nazi came out of a small opening and goes off on Karl for not paying…of course he has a blast with her…another hysterical moment (at least for him, I didn't actually witness it). Outside the castle, we searched out the nearest café/restaurant where we could get something warm to drink and eat. We ended up in a very tourist-y hotel restaurant. I tried my first goulash dish (Karl is an expert by now) and K ordered the pork special (which could have fed an army….four different cuts of pork, two types of dumplings and cabbage). We looked out the window and watched it snow, completely sideways! After 30 minutes or so our skin was still cold, but our bellies were full. Back outside, we walked (slid) down the sidewalks as the snow continued to fall. We stopped in a small craft shop, but I had a sneezing fit and we had to leave. Unfortunately I did not leave my allergies in Maine. At the bottom Karl also stopped at his favorite trdelnik booth for a quick snack (he justifies them by saying they are a fraction of the size of a typical cinnamon bun back in the US and therefore he can have several trdelniks in any given period). Back at the pad Karl emailed and I cut snowflakes out of paper (using small utility tool and a paper punch). We listened to Christmas music and sipped wine before our 8pm dinner reservation at Café de Paris (we ate there for lunch the other day and loved it so we wanted to try dinner…plus it is very close and it was still snowing!!!). Dinner was great and by the time we finished there was at least 6 inches of snow on the ground. On the way back we crossed over to Kampa Island park and walked along the river admiring the city lights as the snow fell...like something out of a Christmas movie. Snowballs, snow angels and a game of chase were all in order before turning in for the night.

A bit of a long plog entry today but, we didn't feel like we did a whole lot, and we did spend a lot of time just hanging out because of the weather. Cold for next few days so not sure what is to come.

The stairs up to the castle... we always seem to find a large set of stairs where ever we go.

Door.

Who is that?

The beginning of the entertainment...

Not sure what he was doing here.

Catching snow on his tongue?

Me. A little out of focus.

Beautiful door.

And... Karl again.

ha...

The new guard trooping out to take their posts.

The changing of the guard.

Looking out into the court yard of the cathedral. I waited for a long time to get the shot I wanted but no one would cooperate.. bummer.

The cathedral.

The pictures make it look a lot warmer than it was!

Very pretty stained glass all the way around the walls.

In the bathroom, covered in snow and freezing! (this is while K was getting yelled at by the attendant.)

Not an uncommon scene...

Little Mole!

A few of my ornaments... ghetto ornaments. haha.