Londonderry Air or London Derriere

We are off tomorrow to have a gaye olde time in merry olde England. And since Londonderry Air is an Irish ballad, I don't think we will hear it in London. :-)

Photos when we return!

The "Whistler"

Owen has a strong whistle... listen !

Out and about with Owen

Yesterday we took Owen to a street festival (the Teatrotoc festival) that was heavily advertised for children. Although Tom and I were a little disappointed in the scope of the fair (it was not at all as large as we thought it would be) we all had a lot of fun.

This marionette show was in English - always an exciting discovery.

After walking through the performance area, we were disappointed that we hadn't found any clowns or face painting areas, so we decided to search a little further. We didn't find any more festival attractions, b ut we did find one of the babies that climbed down from the TV tower. When you are looking at them on the tower, you don't realize how large they really are!

Back in the festival area, this booth offered an opportunity to make your own puppet. Owen decided to construct a spider.

Those legs were hard to push in!

Waiting for the next act..... Owen is listening to some musicians who were practicing in the tent.

Owen's self portrait - waiting for food is a chore!!

Apparently he and Grandpa had a face-making contest while Grandma was getting refreshments.

Good times!!!

Fleas anyone?

We found the Prague flea market last Saturday!

This is like a neighborhood garage sale that takes place every Saturday morning. Some of the vendors obviously come every week because they are equipped with tents and/or booths, but others appear to have rented a spot just to get rid of excess stuff. There were all manner of things for sale here - paintings, antiques, electronic items, furniture, clothing, and junque!

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and shortly after our arrival the heavens opened up and the rain poured down. So - we need to go back, as we did not have the opportunity to buy anything!

Yes, I think that tire had a price tag on it. The others all floated away!

Tom's challenge

How to tax Cyndy's brain today? I know, I'll throw a bunch of random photos on the blog, and see if she can write something coherent to tie them all together!!!



So let's see - We have had a few days of very high temperatures and lots of sun throughtout the day, topped off by great thunderstorms in the early evening. This storm produced a double rainbow!



When it stopped raining, we went out for a bit to see what we might find. We found a new market not far from our flat that is bright, modern, and clean. It is amazing to us how many products can be displayed and marketed from small stores like these. And yes, Susan, that looks like another Christmas tree!!

Another day while riding the trams, Tom took the photo below. He was quite taken by how close together the tracks are, and the lack of space when they are passing each other!

We were riding the trams to the Prague marketplace, Prazska Trznice, which has some great old buildings. This area that is located in Prague 7 used to be the slaughterhouse for all of Prague.

I didn't know that before, I just looked it up! Anyway, there are some decent shops in the complex- this "hall" is all fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Some of the chain stores have outlets here, ( I bought a great pair of sandals at Bata) and there is even a McDonald's for those not brave enough to try the local fare. We found a furniture store, a couple of antique stores (pricey!!) a few second-hand shops (nothing like yours, though, Diane) and a weird Army store.

But what we found so fascinating were the acres of small Vietnamese ( or other Asian-owned) booths, selling all kinds of cheap clothing, shoes, handbags of all varieties, household goods, and weapons. We would walk down one aisle of such booths, and realize that there were hundreds more just around a corner or through a passage. If we stopped to look at something, we were immediately approached by a person carrying a calculator- who would offer a discount on whatever the item might be. The items were basically the same every 5th shop or so, and one jacket that Tom looked at which was "discounted" to 1200cz at one shop, and then reduced to 900cz as we walked away, was offered to him around the corner for 500cz. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to watch the people!

And lastly, we have been trying to get out for some regular exercise every day. I finally figured out that I am not walking as far as I thought in the course of a normal day, so we now head off to the park for some serious exercise.

The park is on the top of a hill, with many, many, many steps leading down to the road beside the river. We walk down the steps, and then of course have to go back up. I have tried to count them on the way up, but I am usually puffing so hard after the first few levels that I lose count. I know that there are over 100 though! Why are real stairs so much harder than a stair stepper??

I thought Tom was photographing the lovely staircase we needed to ascend, but it turned out he found the hole at the base of them much more interesting. This is an example of the kind of things you would never see in the States, but abound here. We've been told that if you stepped in this hole and hurt yourself, it would be your fault for not watching where you were walking.

That's all for now- as you can see we haven't had much excitement lately!

Two days, three castles

Our friends Bruce and Connie wanted to do something different for the 4th of July, so they proposed that we take a little trip. We decided to go to a VERY small town called Hluboka nad Vltavou, which just happens to have a castle! Bruce and Connie were in charge of the car rental, and I booked the hotel. After a few wrong turns trying to leave the city on the 4th, (no GPS's available) we headed out for the Bohemian area of the Czech Republic. Monday, July 6 is a major Czech holiday, so many Czechs were leaving the city as well, and we ran into a LOT of traffic. It's a good thing we are all very calm people!

It was a very beautiful hot and sunny day, so upon our arrival we headed straight to the castle.

We did tour the interior of this castle- the rooms are vast, as you might imagine, very well preserved and/or reconstructed; and the woodwork, tapestries, furnishings etc. are magnificent. Unfortunately, photographing the interior is not allowed.

Decorative and unusual door handles abound here - this is one we liked that was on a shop we passed on the way up the hill to the castle.

And this one is on the castle door. It seems the owners of the castle didn't much like the Turks, having helped conquer them once way back when, and this image is part of the coat of arms of the royal family.

While we were touring the interior, a thunderstorm came up, and so we waited out the rain in a glassed-in conservatory type area that was very pleasant. We saw a wedding party come through and pose for photos on the steps inside, then the bride and groom braved the rain for photos in the gardens. We stayed inside. :-)

The rain caused the temperature to drop by about 20 degrees (well, it felt that way to me) so we opted not to go swimming at the public pool - which even had a large, curvy waterslide. I was kind of disappointed! We wandered about the town instead, and after dinner and a game of cards, we headed back up to the castle for the night view. The change in the temperature caused some fog to roll in, making this scene even better.

On our way out of town the next day, we spotted this stork nest. Those are actually the baby storks- we passed Mama on her way home from the river a few blocks farther on.

We opted to stick to back roads as we traveled, and we were rewarded with beautiful sights around every turn. The countryside is so much like upstate NY that we felt right at home, except for the way the road would wind through small villages with centuries-old buildings close to the road, and sights like the one below that came into view as we crested a small rise.

This road was actually a fairly major route-note it's wide enough for one lane in each direction, unlike some of the roads we traveled later! The turnout in the front of the photo is a bus stop- there were stops like this on all the roads we travelled, many of them seeming to be in the middle of nowhere.

We goofed on the next photo, we had a better one to show how close the road actually was to these towers. The road doesn't go between them as we had first feared, but it passes just to the right of the towers. You could touch the first barbed-wire fence that surrounds the facility from the shoulder of the road, and a second fence is only a few feet beyond the first, and then the tower wall. Scarey! We were a little leery of going forward- we checked to be sure we didn't start glowing or something.

The countryside was filled with fields of various crops- wheat, barley and poppies! The cultivated poppies were mostly white ones as in the photo below, but some were pink, which made the countryside gorgeous. Red ones appeared to be a wild variety, and were visible along the road edge and in uncultivated fields. I had to look up the cultivation of poppies, and although some countries grow them for medicinal purposes, it appears that the Czechs grow them for their seeds. A few years ago the Czech Republic was the world's largest producer of poppy seeds.

Most of the smaller roads like the one below are lined with fruit trees. It is hard to see, but these are cherry trees, with fruit ready for picking. We also drove on roads lined with apple and pear trees, and I imagine that folks in the area appreciate such bounty.

When we arrived at Zvikov Castle, we were elated to find that this one is NOT on top of a hill. It is on a promontory at the confluence of the Vlatava and Otava Rivers. Although this castle is listed as being ruins- we found there was much to see. The displays in the rooms are open to view without a guided tour, so you can spend as much time as you want in each area.

This site had a lot of natural beauty rather than well-kept gardens. There were lots of trees to provide welcome shade as we wandered about. Below is kind of the "no-man's land" between the outer and inner walls. The wall on the left fronts the river, and if invaders got over that wall, they could be attacked by the defenders from the wall on the right.

Unfortunately, this tower is not open to visitors.

Part of the castle living quarters fell into the river and has not been rebuilt, and much of the building is in disrepair- but there is enough preserved to make this a wonderful visit.

This area is below ground, and probably was used for food storage and the kitchens.

This is actually an "up" staircase, leading to a minor tower with a great view - of the river, of course!

And oh look- there's a houseboat on the river!!

The chapel room is below- we photographed the English description (see below) because we were so in awe of the dates involved.

Another room with well-preserved wall decorations followed by the description....

And then, because the day was so beautiful, and because we had to go that way to return to Prague, we stopped at the Karlstejn Castle. This is a major tourist attraction and is listed in the Prague guides as one of those "day-trips from Prague". We walked up to the castle to tour the grounds but we did not take the guided interior tour.

View from the wall....

The Czech Republic has been described as the land of 1,000 castles - we only have 996 to go!

Our garden

This is our "green space", where we can catch the sun in the forenoon, and relax with a cool, refreshing drink once the sun is over the yardarm.

Tom loves it because there is NO GRASS to mow!!! We think it might be even better than the boat!

It is so pleasant, we find ourselves reluctant to go anywhere else. Lazy days!