Wining is Wonderful

I spent the day wining. It is my last day in Prague - we fly out to New York tomorrow - and I spent it with friends. And wine. Why? It just seemed to happen. Who needs lunch when there is a lovely glass of white wine - summertime aroma, light fruit flavors and not too sweet - that reflects the garden patio of an old family retreat on the castle hill? And after dinner we met another friend and she wanted to share a bottle of wine. Later we toasted again with dear friends. Now I think I'll have some sweet wine-free sleep!

Art in the City

This flat is full of some very interesting and varied artwork. Sitting on top of the television is a replica of the statue by Otto Gutfreund titled Anxiety (how fitting for the TV). And reflected in the window is a large, unsigned painting that hangs on the living room wall. There are all sorts of pictures on the walls - oils, watercolor, drawings, photos - most of them featuring Prague. It is an inspiring city!

After rain comes sun...and not just in the alphabet!

The weather in Prague this summer has been chaotic. One day it is hot and the next it is raining all day. This day it rained and then the sun popped out. Which means that there were puddles everywhere amongst the cobblestones reflecting the gorgeous facades in the historic city center of Prague. (Oh, and you can fuhgeddaboudit-smoking and rain are not compatible.) How many puddles have you admired lately?

Big is better

The Zwinger Palace in Dresden is expansive. And at noon on a warm summer day, it is not for the faint of heart. In the sculpture gallery each piece commanded its space.

Rodin's oversized bust against the window reveals the other side of the inner courtyard. Rich was delighted to find The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer by Degas. It is always fun to find sculpture that is dressed appropriately.

At the end of the afternoon we thought a bookstore cafe would be just the right thing. We ordered iced-coffees, but we got coffee ice cream instead! So much for our German language skills...

So this is Dresden

Rich and I took a trip to the old city center of Dresden. It was a quick and pleasant 2-hour train ride through the country to get there. After walking 15 minutes along a very modern shopping thoroughfare we arrived in the old town. The first thing that impressed me was this sculpture. The pose and the elongation of the limbs and other distortions were moving.

After a spectacular lunch we wandered a bit and then visited the Kupferstich-Kabinett, which is known for its drawings, prints and photographs.

But we didn't see a single photograph. It didn't seem anything like the description I had read. On the upside, we ended up purchasing some sort of multi-pass so we visited a few different museums in the Zwinger Palace complex. As you can see, all sorts of people were browsing. The square in front of our flat notwithstanding, it was some of the best people-watching we've had in Europe so far this year!

Punk rockers live!

My friend Dagmar and I were taking a Saturday morning walk up Petrin Hill when what do we spy by the fountain? PUNK ROCKERS! Speaking American English and acting like a tourist I was completely ignored by and delightfully included the punkers in my photos! It is heartening to discover that some things never change and people are people the world over.

Every day is a vacation!

Even though I work each day, I try to live every day as though I were on vacation. Living in a different country for a couple of months helps, but today I was inspired by the frolicking tourists on the square below my flat window. These two lovely young women were being coached by their camera-toting friend to jump around a bit for a photo. I am a big fan of silliness!!

National Gallery - Modern Art

We took a trip to the National Gallery in Prague at Veletržní Palác. Rich and I both love it there. It is a very fun and lively modern art museum. And you thought I was obsessed over reflections? This artist more so! Can you find Rich in the picture? He is ever so kind to pose endlessly for me...

Walking in waves

Rich and I were passing by this restaurant as a medium-sized herd of tourists (seen trailing on the right) were headed into the old Jewish section of town (you can see a synagogue on the left). I was dazzled and had to snap a shot. One's daily visual experience is so complex! My goal is to capture some of the complexity so that I can examine it with care - and share of course ;-D

Morning Ramblings

I have been persistently traversing the old town streets in order to put each boulevard, street, avenue and alley into an ever growing map inside my head. This day was no exception.

My first goal was to be able to find my way from the flat to the Charles Bridge using the street most trafficked by tourists. This is easy in the early morning because tourists do not wake up here until 10am. This day I reached my goal so I turned down an unknown alley to see if I could lose myself on the return. And you see what a fun treat awaited me at the end. Stenciled graffiti. Hah!

Hrad Okoř (Okor Castle)

We went to visit the ruins of Hrad Okoř, but it was the lunch that made the visit most memorable. At the foot of the ruins lies the castle gates, guarded by fierce lions.



There is a restaurant there too and that's where we had lunch. It was a rainy, drizzly day so we ate inside the round room. Delightfully, we had the restaurant to ourselves.



In the end, the lions won and we could not gain entry to the ruined fortress. It turns out that the lions may have denied us, but it was the rain that scared away the person with the key to the castle gates. We decided to have a bit of fun anyway!