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By cosmoravian, 09/02/2011 11:06 am

After that treacherous descent down Petřín Hill we got to reap our reward – no ascent to the Castle! Well, except for a short bit of about 50m of a steep incline up to a monastery, but from there it was a breeze of a gently sloping downhill walk towards the Castle. Recommended!

It was 11.45 when we came near the general area of the Castle and happened upon this procession of guardsmen getting ready for Changing of the Guards:

This explained why the Castle had become Tourist Magnet all of a sudden! We went to have a look too but it was mostly one big mass of tourists wildly snapping into the air, not my kind of thing …

We didn’t go inside the Castle, seeing how it wasn’t a fortress (the kind of castles we like) and we thought admission was overpriced: 250 CZK or 10 EUR for the “short visit”. But we walked through the courtyards to St Vitus Cathedral which you can access for free but you can’t walk very far inside before you have to show a ticket.

Even if you don’t go inside the Castle buildings there is plenty to explore on Castle grounds, and we strolled from the Cathedral past an alidade, more beautiful buildings and an outer walkway with spectacular views over Kleinseite, Vltava/Moldau and Prague in general. We were *so* lucky with the weather too, it was February after all! It could’ve been sleeting, snowing, freezing all week-end …

From there we walked the loooong castle steps down to river level and then roughly along the river to get to Charles Bridge. By then we were on the prowl for lunch as well, no wonder after three hours of walking … We didn’t find anything but very smoky restaurants offering *very* Czech cuisine (knee of pork with spongy dumplings anyone?), so we walked on and across Charles Bridge:

Back in the Old Town we concentrated on finding a lunch place. We had vague plans to find a Jewish restaurant “behind the Spanish synagogue” that Nadine had read about but after looking around the Old Town Square and Astronomical Clock we decided to lunch at one of the many places there. What we found was an Italian restaurant, Caffe Italia, in a stunning vaulted cellar! We definitely paid a premium for lunching in such a scenic (and central!) place but it was well worth it. Fantastic atmosphere! And well, at 40 EUR for 2-course lunch and drinks for two it was hardly worse than eating out in Amsterdam …

Still more to come…

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By cosmoravian, 08/02/2011 9:15 am

I had a gorgeous, fantastic time in Prague last week-end! It was so good to meet up with my dear friend Nadine who I hadn’t seen since I left Holland in August – Skype is great and a fantastic tool but nothing beats a girlie week-end!

This was my third trip to Prague after the day trip with Mam to the Ministry of the Interior in November and a day trip with a youth organisation in summer, eh let me think, 1993. I’d never spent more than a couple of hours there but I’d seen the main sights and was keen to find something new for me to see this time as well. The night before I browsed around TripAdvisor for things to see and came upon the Petřín Lookout Tower. It is situated on a hill on Kleinseite, the left bank of the Vltava, same as where the Castle is. I read it offered a fun trip up (taking a funicular), amazing views from the tower’s panorama platform and then possibly a *descent* to the castle instead of the usual tourist shlep *up* from Charles’ Bridge!

From our hotel (this one, we liked it, and it was excellent value for money) we walked about 15 minutes (to the river and across) to the lowest station of the funicular. Passing the memorial to the victims of Communism.

“The memorial to the victims of Communism is dedicated to all victims, not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism.”

The funicular railway. Using it is included in the daily public transport ticket you can buy for 100 CZK. It’s a very fun and different mode of transport!! The kids in our cabin were all squealing with delight. Czech kids btw, just like the rest of the people on the funicular and later in the tower – we didn’t see any international tourists there. Maybe just like me they’d never heard of it before?!

The Lookout Tower! Lovely Victorian architecture! You shouldn’t suffer from vertigo, though, especially if you’re up on the (encased, closed) panorama platform when it’s windy … It swayed!
Entry is 100 CZK plus 50 CZK for the lift – or 209 steps up. We took the lift up (we were taken up by a guy in Victorian costume) and walked down. The views from the top were AMAZING! So worth it!!

Charles Bridge!

I’d read on TripAdvisor that the descent was quite steep but I didn’t think too much of that. I should have! Oy! Not only was it steep, in our case it was covered in patchy ice! We slid our way down, holding on to whatever we could grab – initially, though, it was a dirt road with crass abysses on either side and no rails or fences … We were glad once we got to this walled part as we could then hold on and slide sideways … We arrived whole and uninjured but with trembling legs and drenched in sweat. In retrospect I’d have taken the funicular down to the middle station and walked from there!

So much for Part 1, a lot more to come!

Larger versions of all photos available by clicking on them!

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By cosmoravian, 03/02/2011 9:23 pm

After the weekly knitting meeting at Cafe Maia I’ll be off to Prague in the afternoon to meet up with a dear friend from Amsterdam for the week-end! I can’t wait, I haven’t seen her since August, and Skype is fantastic but just not the same as hanging out together!

So stay tuned for lots of photos …

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By cosmoravian, 11/11/2010 8:51 pm

Without further ado, here’s our trip to Lednice two weeks ago! Life is good these days!

Not the UNESCO World Heritage Castle but a Victorian folly

Lednice Castle

One of the follies – a minaret. It doesn’t look very far away, does it? Let’s walk there!

More follying

It turned out to be a lot bigger than expected – no wonder walking there took a lot longer than expected too …

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By cosmoravian, 03/11/2010 12:53 pm

We needed a document relating to the sale of our German flat (yes! finally!) to be apostilled in Prague, so my mum and I went on a wee trip yesterday! I’ve been to Prague before, for all of one day in 1993, but it was an unexpected first for Mam – so much fun to watch her be amazed that she gets to visit Prague Lovely.

Here are some photos from yesterday. I should really get to know my DSLR so I can get better results than with my compact. But then, yesterday was an “errand”! Which went beautifully btw, apostilling a document at the Interior Ministry was a breeze, took all of 20 seconds, and I had a fun chat with their security guard who is learning German to move to a German-speaking country. He wants to move close to the Alps but also to an area where people speak the cleanest standard German possible – my fellow German speakers will understand why that had me literally laughing out loud

Still to come: Photos from our week-end trip to Lednice! Where I took my DSLR but hadn’t charged the battery and ended up snapping away with Mam’s little Canon …

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By cosmoravian, 23/10/2010 2:14 pm

At last we went and explored a bit more! I had serious cabin fever from not leaving Brno but now B is okay again, and it looked like it would be a cold but clear and bright day (one of the last, if you look at the forecast!). We drove about 40km to Hrad Pernštejn, a late Gothic/Renaissance castle. The main structure was built in the 13th century and then further enlarged in the 16th century.

Courtesy of the official Hrad Pernštejn page

Although the main structure was hewn into the rock Pernštejn is known as the marble castle because of the marble-like stone used in window and door frames.
“It was founded by the Lords of Medlov probably between 1270-1285. The family branch seated at the castle and adopted the then fashionable name Pernštejn, which is the Czech version probably derived of the German name, Bärenstein – the “Bear Rock”. Its history is closely connected to the Lords of Pernštejn (Pernštejnové) and their descendants. It has kept its intact appearance in the Gothic and Renaissance form as it was finished in the first half of the 16th century by the Pernštejns, then the richest and most powerful lordly family of the Czech kingdom. Pernštejn is one of the most preserved castles in Czech Republic” [from Wikipedia]

It was a gorgeous day for a trip like this, we got to soak up some autumn sun and walk through crunchy leaves If you’re close by and want to visit you’ll probably have to wait until spring as the castle reduced its opening hours to Saturday/Sunday for October, the last month it is open this year. At just 10 CZK/person (~0,40 EUR) it is an inexpensive and fun trip to one of Moravia’s major sights – and the winding country roads will lead you through colourful villages with plenty of Burčák on offer everywhere …

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By cosmoravian, 08/08/2010 7:26 am

What to do with a somewhat cloudy August Sunday that is also our wedding anniversary? #9, for the curious reader – I told my friends I would marry that guy in Israel whom I’d met online and whom I was flying out to just a week later!

We’re new enough here that any destination is Fun! New! According to the Rough Guide I got as a leaving present from my Amsterdam colleagues there was a town about 60km west of Brno that was a UNESCO heritage site due to its old Jewish quarter/ghetto, so we set off there.

Wanting to avoid most of the podonk!podonk! motorway we chose to drive a scenic route through forested hills, amazing views over wide valleys, apple tree-lined alleys and alongside little rivers and lakes. It’s so different from Holland! Sorry for sounding like a broken record …

Třebíč. A small town nestled into Moravian rock. A little river, the Jewish quarter on the Other Side. Signposting sending tourists towards the somewhat hidden bridge across. Sadly pretty cringeworthy signposting! I guess I’m supposed to find them funny …

Colourful little houses, two synagogues.

We visited one of them, the “rear” synagogue. It is still in very nice shape, it is more colourful than other “heritage” synagogues I have visited.

The rest of the quarter was … pretty much devoid of any character or atmosphere, though. I’ve been to the Jewish quarter in Prague, to use a place closeby, and despite the hordes of tourists you can feel the rich atmosphere of lives lived, lives ending cruelly, sadness, simchas, a history that is kept alive, that you take with you after visiting. The Jewish quarter I saw today was an empty shell. Despite every other restaurant or shop making a reference to the Golem.

It didn’t touch me, I don’t feel any pull to go back. Pity – but I’m glad we went and had a look around. Not least of all because of the little art gallery where I bought these for our new home. I’m a sucker for stained glass in lead!

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By cosmoravian, 01/08/2010 5:56 pm

[Squirrel Castle. I need to find out how to find Czech letters on my keyboard, so I don't need to copy/paste!]

Today we used the gorgeous sunshine to go on a first drive to explore our new home. After cruising through some potential flat-hunting grounds we drove out towards Bystrc [where we shopped at Penny and marvelled at all the salamis] and then to The Lake. It’s a reservoir actually. Very pretty!

Typical for us, we missed an exit to go where we wanted to go but found this here instead:

We parked, and then we looked up at the castle. 2pm. Hot. Very steep path up to the castle. I don’t do well with heat but I was determined, so I started walking up, and B followed me

Admission through the first gateway was a very affordable CZK 10/person (about EUR 0,40):

This old kitchen/refectory provided welcome relief from the mid-day sun:

This guy was working a historical forge and sold creative wrought-iron items such as candlesticks.

I missed out on buying something but I got his website, and he’ll be at the Medieval Festival in Znojmo in September so that goes on our list of week-end plans!

Back down to the car park: