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

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