Monday 28 May 2012

City of angels

I'd forgotten the crick in the neck you get in Prague from looking up all the time.


This city has more angels and saints guarding it than any other I know ...

Doorways of old houses are topped by allegorical symbols (see here for an earlier post on this)

Walking around the old town feels like walking through a series of old oil paintings ... (count the saints in the shots below)



then lower your gaze and it gets even more interesting ...


A lone musician playing in the street seems to be from another era ...


... as do the beggars on every other street who prostrate themselves uncomfortably - a new sight for me - in silent supplicant's pose ...


Are they meditating? I noticed this one was (meditatively perhaps) scratching his dog's chin!


I couldn't cross the Charles bridge without snapping at the views, always changing in different lights, but here at dusk ...



Oh trdelnik, how do I love thee ... hot off the coals, from street vendors all over the city, these cinnamony confections get rolled on sticks over an open flame, the smell irresistible ...

This one kept me going on a hike up to the castle on foot ...


... where the Battling Titans make an awe-inspiring entrance to the world's largest ancient castle, seat of the Holy Roman Emperor ...

The door to St Vitus cathedral ...

the incredible interior of St Vitus a vision of dancing suspended angels and golden jewelled stars ...


On my last day the sun came out, and so did Praguers - here enjoying the spring sunshine on the banks of the Vitava (there was music playing somewhere nearby - something you hear a lot walking around in this city) ...



and on Petrin hill, students brought their homework to the grass and park benches ...




A final image from the foot of Petrin hill, where I found David Cerny again - his Disappearing Man sculptures showing a gradually disintegrating figure of a man

Goodbye amazing Prague

12 comments:

  1. Good evening to you, amazing Karen.

    How is it possible that you have been to both Capetown and Prague since we had that coffee time in London?

    Bravo to you! Prague is a place that's interested me for many years, and these recent posts of yours definitely encouraged me to keep it on my wish-itinerary. Your photos are wonderful, and your choice of subjects feature places that my eye would also seek.

    xo

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    1. Haha - one was a long-planned holiday and the other for work. It would be fun if our next coffee date was somewhere on both our wish-itineraries!

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  3. Prague has always been one of my favorite places I've traveled, and your photos are such lovely reminders of its beauty. Hope your stay there was magical!

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    1. It is a really special and unique place - I love it too. Thanks for visiting!

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  4. Thank you for your kind words on my blog and WOW your blog is so inspiring, too! I love your travel features! Will follow too!!

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    1. Thank you, Igor - and your blog has been my happiest recent discovery!

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  5. Another terrific post Karen - you certainly have an eye for interesting details. Many difficult not see and others missed by many no doubt!

    I like that your name appears 'graffiti'd' on the back of the bench - clever! Do you mind if I ask how you added your name to your pics and particularly how you placed the text on various parts of them? Is this a technique of a particular programme or blogger?

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    1. Hi BB, and thanks. I used the text-addition feature on Picmonkey to do this - it allows you to create text of different sizes and colours and drag it anywhere on your picture. I'm still a novice at this, though and would like to figure out a quicker way to watermark my photos automatically. The reason I'm bothering to do this is because I've seen my photos appear un-credited on other sites - mainly Pinterest, which although a great resource is also a massive opportunity for large-scale photo-theft. I'm delighted when anyone likes my pictures enough to reproduce them, but I do mind when they pass them off as their own, even if only by implication!

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    2. Thanks Karen. I'm afraid I don't know anything abut Picmonkey or Pinterest but I do like the idea of making life difficult for anyone who for some reason thinks it ok to pass off photographs belonging to someone else, as their own.

      Seems Photoshop have a watermark facility - which you may already know about - but of course there is always the cost... http://www.all-things-photography.com/add-a-watermark.html

      Hope you manage to find your way around the problem as you MUST continue to enthral us with your photography skills! Bella B!

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  6. Karen, you've outdone yourself with this one in originality of point of view --- and sheer beauty!

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  7. Very nice pictures! ;-)
    one detail - the last photo of disapearing men is not work of David Cerny, but this is work of Olbram Zoubek - great czech sculptor, but much more older generation than David is. Marek (PRG, Czech rep.)

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