CUTE KIDS

Saw these cute kids in Berlin.  The family of four were on a cycling holiday.  Dad on the right is doing what we have done a lot - gazing at the map wondering where he is!!  I asked the mother for permission to take the photo because I was amazed at their bike contraption.  It was all connected together, so they travel as one unit.  I have never seen anything like it before!

CULTURE COUNT

So we went to the concert tonight.  It was in The Estates Theatre, where Wolfgang Amadeus himself is said to have conducted his opera Le nozze di Figaro in January 1787.

At one point, His Lordship leaned over to me and whispered, "We've made it half way through."

We had lunch today at COWBOY, where the seats and bar stools in the main bar area are covered in cow hide.  But we climbed up the winding staircase in a tower to the roof terrace restaurant, and then up to the balcony above the wooden doors here.  But do you see the heads of the people up even higher on the square above?

Here I am underneath the statue my work colleague Svetlana told me about.  It is one of her favourites.  Depicted is King Wenceslaus, sitting on the horse, but the animal is upside down, dead maybe, so he is not on                        the animal's back, but mounted on the belly.  A day later I saw more art works by the same person.

Some of the magnificent sites we have seen around Prague.

Here is Robert, (aka Woodsie), as we cross the Charles Bridge and head into the Old Town today.  Yes, of course he is having a wonderful holiday.  He is just not so keen at me taking his photo all the time.

Christmas Carol Crisis

Who knew? Each Festive Season I've been warbling an historical Inaccuracy. According to our tour guide Peter yesterday, Good King Wenceslaus was never a King. He was only a Duke. Still, he must have been a good sort as he was made a Saint. Prague is such a beautiful city, with so many wonderful facades on the buildings, often pastel coloured in blues, orange, pinks and yellows. It is full of outside tables at cafes and restaurants. Considering it can plunge to 27 degrees below in winter, you can understand the desire to soak up what warmth and sunshine there is. Forget a regimented grid pattern. These medieval streets curve and turn. A small square might have six or more streets and alleys off it. Shop windows sparkle with Bohemian glass. I asked Peter about life under Communist rule. He replied that his mother likened Communism to a wasp sting in the arse. On our tour we passed a set of steps in a public garden with various statues there, in memory of those who died under Communist rule. The River Vltavi separates the two sides of the city, with various bridges across it. I love that 'new town' is still dated from the 1400s whilst the 'old town' is the earlier 1100s. Today we headed for the Old Town. Rob found a Torture Museum, which I had NO INTENTION of visiting. Waiting in the square outside, a young man went somersaulting through the air near me. Then I noticed his four friends filming him. All wore "life is Porno" gear. Later he cartwheeled across the road. (in Australia we call this urban activity 'parcor'). We walked across the Charles Bridge, which was full of Souvenior stalls and portrait and caricature artists. We finally found the KGB Museum, run by an enthusiastic man who personally took us around the exhibits. He didn't push an opinion about their reign. He just has a collection of insignia, uniforms, weapons, photos and other items, like the gifts given to all officers on special occasions. He had a cigarette box that fired bullets and a manual for interrogation. Quite a place and he was certainly a character. For lunch we entered a dark building, then up a tower of steps, to emerge to the rooftop. Great views and best food so far. On our wander back, Rob noticed a sign about 'provocative art'. This time it was his intention to give it a miss and wait for me. Basically it was new young artists' work displayed in an old palace. Peter had shown us the famous "hanging horse" work of David Cerny yesterday.


  This gallery featured his works GUNS and SHARK too. Tonight we have booked for a music concert. Prague offers many such concerts, in various venues. It only goes for 60 minutes, so should be a good size dose of culture for us, without overdoing it. You know several things that appear to be everywhere we have been? Thai massage, Italian restaurants and Irish pubs. We saw the funniest Souvenior yesterday. The Russian style dolls, one inside the other. The outside one wore the Mighty Reigning Premiers AFL Footy jumper of Geelong. Open it and inside was the footy player called JOHNSON, inside him was KELLY, then CHAPMAN, then ENRIGHT. The dolls come in all the AFL teams. Something tells me Prague has its share of Australian tourists!!!!!

The Boys from Brazil

We wandered around the streets and alleys of Prague. Lots of tourist shops here in The Old City. Bohemia glass ware sparkles everywhere. Delightful old buildings in abundance. In one main large Square we were approached by a cheerful pair of young men, asking us to take their photo. In turn they offered to do the same. I suspected a trick. "you are not going to run off with our camera?" One replied his friend was too fat too run. (he wasn') So the guy with camera wrapped cord arou d his hand, to tease us. He said to Woodsie, "smile, sir." Turns out they are from Brazil, even though the joker put on convincing broad US accent for us. One of the funny interactions with others that makes me smile and enjoy this trip even more.

Prague Pendind

Jusg arrived in Prague, in the Czech Republic. It is 4 in the afternoon, or as is more common here, 1600 hours. On train with young couple Rebecca and Nathan from Sydney. Nice to hear the Australian accent. We got taxi to hotel with the wonderful name GRAND BOHEMIAN. Even our taxi driver said it was a great location. We are over the river fro. The trai. Station I. The Old City. Like some many European cities it is not set out in squares. Streets run off little squares at all angles and the buildings curve off out of sight. All so delightful. Now off to explore ...

Memorial Stones

I am still thinking of my time at Berlin's relatively new Holocaust Museum. Check out this amazing place. The play of light changes the appearance. The concrete is so imposing, yet the sides of each stone are so smooth. The paved walkways between are not even, but roll up and down. The tall stoned lean in or back. The whole effect is to u settle you. And below is the Museum, where the mass killings of millions are brought down to the most personal level. Find it on: architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ss/holocaust/htm and flick through the images.

Potsdam

Phoned my Dad in Shepparton this morning. Dad is nearly 93 years old and though he may be slower these days, his mind is certainly not!!! "Hello Dad." "Hello. Are you home already?" was his cheeky reply. Today we caught the train out to Potsdam. A bus tour was easy to obtain. This is where many palaces were built. The most fascinating for me was SCHLOSS CECILIENHOF, built in early 1900s in English Tudour style. The magnificent surrounding parklands were also English in design ... Many stately trees, hedges, flower beds, some topiary and enormous lawns. It was here that Russia, England and USA signed the Potsdam Agreement after Germany's surrender. I stood right outside Stalin's office. As today is Monday we could not enter any palaces. But as we have had drizzle each day, we were happy enough that weather was sunny and clear today ... right up to MERE MINUTES after we returned to back inside Bahnhofspassengen Potsdam for the train trip back to Berlin. Our guide was a 30 year old former GDR woman, who is very proud of her background. It was interesting to hear her bias for her area, Potsdam and Brandenburg, over neighbouring rival Big Bad Berlin. We drove through the former "forbidden city" : the Russian KGB area. We both loved the film "The Lives of Others" about a German Stasi officer. She said the training school was only a few kilometres away. A family friend of her family was discovered, after the Wall came down, to have been a Stasi informer. One of the rulers built an enormous SCHLOSS (palace) but as bricks could not be produced fast enough, had fake white lines painted the red exterior to look like brick. Seriously!!! Voltaire spent some years living there until the two fought and fell out. The town of Potsdam itself is delightful. There is a Dutch quarter built to entice Dutch workers, who knew how to drain swampy land, to settle and work here. Great idea. Only tempted 20 or so families of the 100 + it was built for. Swampy land is a theme we keep hearing. We have noticed large pipes, several side by side, emerging from lots of big buildings. One had a truck hooked up and pumping something from the building. Not a pleasant smell so you can guess what we thought it was!!! WRONG! Berlin is a former swamp and boggy water needs to be pumped from building foundations regularly. In new builds they have an ingenious system of lolly pink pipes which go up and over pedestrian walkways so they don't have to dig up paths and streets constantly. And so our fascinating time in Berlin is nearly over. Tomorrow another train. Another city. Another country. We can't wait.