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Visit of Elena's parents (August 2012)—Part 3
Part 1 - a loop to Baden-Württemberg · part 2 - The klamms · part 3 - Czechia
Part of our trip to Czechia is in Germany, as we stopped on the way.
Charlottenhofer Weihergebiet
Our first stop was at the Charlottehofer Nature Reserve, a pond area (a residue of an older pond area). It is a shelter for many bird species, although we mainly met with stunning vegetation, which was, however, worth a stop.
Download the gpx file for this track.
Julio tasting the local corn.
In the wood towards the ponds.
An impromptu attack on Elena.
Julio with swans.
Guille preparing a skirmish on the family picture.
Between two ponds.
Inma collecting things and touching everything.
A shaky stairs to the sky.
Ducks in another pond.
Nabburg
Nabburg was another possible stop instead of the pond area, as it is so close from the highway. As we passed by, resuming from the previous stop which was the one that had been finally selected, everybody wowed at the sight of the nice looking city. We thus finally decided to stop there too.
The church.
The old rathaus.
In the biergarten. We were below an apple tree.
The main street.
Carpe Diem, on the Schmidt-Haus.
This beautiful building turned out to be the police station.
and the Mähntor, beside.
Nice rooftop and bridge on a little square.
This is the little square.
Plzeň
Now we are in the Czech Republic at last, in Plzeň, or Pilsen in English, home to a famous beer and to the second largest synagogue in Europe (after Budapest). The hope for Guille and Julio was to arrive by 16h00 to see the Basket final of the Olympic game, which Spain finally lost 100 to 107 against United States (no bar seemed to be interested in that event; I got informed of the score by our friend Vase through sms).
The main square, with the renaissance Town Hall, dominating.
Stunning architecture, from the square
and from above.
"From above" means from the tower of the cathedral,
the highest in the Czech Republic with 102.26 m.
Strange golden fountains in the shape of Greek letters.
The katedrála sv. Bartoloměje (13th century)
Guille more imposing than the cathedral.
A statue of stone,
and a statue of gold.
A covent.
Tasting the Pilsner Urquell.
Praha
At last, Prague (Praha in Czech), our main destination. And rightly so. It is the sort of beautiful places that make you see the whole world differently again. Even if you know beforehand that it is stunning, it still takes you aback when you reach the Old Town Square. The most surprising to me was the famous astronomical clock. Since infancy, I had pictured it highly perched at the very top of a slender tower. What a sensation to discover it, at the height it had always been, for centuries before it even start to exist in my mind, almost on the floor. What a sensation to be standing in front of this jewel of art, time and technology.
We had a whole day which was spent along a rather traditional route, I believe. From there we took the famous Charles bridge, strolling back and forth among the statues, went to the castle of Prague, visited the cathedral, also a gripping sight, went to the Jewish Quarter (Josefov), then along the river, played with the dancing house and came back to where we started, the old square, through the other side of the river.
The cathedral has nice stained glass artwork, particularly that from Mucha, familiar and unsettling at the same time as combining his characteristic art-nouveau portraits with the stained glass iconography that is everything but the smooth, Boticelli-like delicate drawing he couched on the glass. The light effects were splendid, but sadly difficult to capture with the camera. His window allegedly compiles a thousand years of national Czech history [1].
After the cathedral, we visited a Restaurace, the most insignificant looking we could find in an attempt to taste something a local would get. That attempt was successful (the evening one less so). The food was excellent, particularly for the price. Inma had the roasted pork knuckle and Elena the duck, that you will see on the photos below. Julio had a Strogonoff, Guille some chicken skewers while I had a Goulash. With drinks and coffee, it all came to around 1500Kč, i.e., about 12€ per person.
The Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí), maybe the most beautiful place in Prague.
This is the other side. It's just stunning everywhere you look.
The tower behind is the one supporting the famous Prague Orloj.
Meanwhile Guille was playing this instrument (apparently of Swiss origin).
Elena and the Church of Mother of God before Týn.
The Orloj.
The oldest medieval clock still in operation.
The Powder Tower at the entry to the Charles bridge (Karlův most).
St. Francis Xavier, cofounder of the Jesuit order, sent to baptize other cultures (featured are Indian, Tartar, Chinese and Moor).
Statuary of St. John of Matha, St. Felix of Valois and St. Ivan, representing captured Christians.
St. Nicholas church.
Beautiful statue (one of a countless collection in the streets)
The Schwarzenberg Palace, a baroque .
Its walls are finely decorated witha a beautiful black-and-white sgraffito.
St. Vitus Cathedral (Chram svateho Vita).
An excellent example of Gothic architecture.
With interesting modern stained glass artwork.
Detail from the Mucha window.
Czech food.
פראג היהודית. Visiting the Old-New Synagogue.
Portal of a shop.
Detail of a capital.
The National Theater (Narodni divadlo).
Elena and the Tančící dům (Dancing House).
Portraits on the Vltava.
Familia del Valle Reboul.
Meanwhile, the Orloj kept running, as it did since 1410.
Karlovy Vary
We stopped by Karlovy Vary, which is a nice little Spa town. However, coming from Prague, it suffered from an unfair competition, and we decided to carry on and to stop in a small village instead.
Karlovy Vary.
A water city.
A famous Spa in background.
Sokolov
The place we stopped was completely random, it turned out to be Sokolov. The place was nice, we had another copious meal even cheaper than Prague for no less quantity nor quality (1000Kč), it had a lot of local activity, with a free concert of popular music on the square. We also visited a lake (Michal) with various activities (including two gigantic sliders) charging a minimal fee and, beyond being much fun, was also quite illustrative of the quality of life of Czech people.
A church with interesting shades of orange,
and in a playful mood,
making an eerie-like background.
A fountain statue.
This one was of a child catching an eel.
The main street.
There was a local concert in the afternoon and the street became busy.
The center shielded from the rest of the village.
The lake Michal, nearby.
