Rich's Mom's cottage bordering a field that borders a forest that borders a river...
Lying in the uncut grass...
I tried to save the little flowers before their death by mowing... Here they are immortalized in photos.
Feeding Ríšo, the neighbour's dreaded dog
Dreaded 'coz he's got dreads in his fur. Very friendly.
The proprietess of the cottage - Rich's Mom Milena
the neighbours
buck buck buck.... buck CAW!
At Rich's aunt's country home
Beautiful... clematis? Any flower growers out there?
Frodo the lazy lab
Croplings and trees...
Prague - My sister Xenia in Vyšehrad cemetery beside the Church of SS Peter and Paul where many prominent Czechs are buried.
Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of his native Bohemia and Moravia.
This is the final resting place of some 600 notable Czech composers, writers, artists and musicians such as Dvořak and Smetana; Neruda, Němcová and Čapek; Mucha, Myslbek and Švabinský; as well as members of several religious orders.
Pretty doors of the church
Sun setting over the gravestones
Vltava River from the height of Vyšehrad, once a fortress.
Xe just landed that afternoon and we're already out on the town.. what a trooper.
A sailboat and ruins. For the record, to say "ruins" in Czech you would have to wrap your tongue around "zříceniny" which roughly sounds like [z-rzhee-tse-nyny]. Piece of cake, right?
Kimmy and Jordan join our crew and we're off to Kutna Hora or "Holy Mountain" - a town 90km SE of Prague which competed with Prague economically, culturally and politically in 13-16th centuries and since 1995 the city center has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our friendly driver ; )
Making Turkish keychain as an earring the fashion of the times
The Cemetery Church of All Saints, beneath which lies the reason we came here - Kostnice Sedlec. If I told you "kost" is a bone, any guesses for what lies below?
Kostnice is an ossuary. An ossuary is a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead. This one is almost as famous as the catacombs in Rome.
It contains approximately 40,000 human skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel by a woodcarver in 1870.
The enormous chandelier, which contains at least one of each bone in the human body.
The Black Plague and the Hussite Wars (14th and 15th century) greatly contributed to the mass graves. To make room for the new burials and the church built in the centre of the cemetery, skeletons were exhumed and stacked in the lower chapel. According to legend this job fell to a half-blind monk.
The work was commissioned and paid for by the Schwarzenberg family and it is said there are three main philosophical points of the arrangements.
1) The chapel acts as a bridge between this world and the next and people who have recently lost loved ones or who are coming to the end of their life's journey find comfort here, accepting the inevitable truth of our mortality through the eerie decor.
2) When we leave this world, there is nothing material that we can bring with us. Take this as a reminder that it's not possessions but riches of the Spirit that must be cultivated in this life.
3) Look around... 40,000 human skeletons - men, women, children... and they all look alike. We are all the same in the eyes of God. A very Buddhist reminder that we are all One.
The Schwarzenberg family crest... in bones, of course. Plus a tongue-in-cheek little birdie on the bottom right corner.
Xe, Rich, Jordan, Kimmy and an anonymous head.
And back out into the sunlight...
A cute little skull outside the cemetery gates.
Well she looks like a movie star... Xe in front of Kostel Sv. Barbory or St. Barbara Church in Kutna Hora. A tri-peaked roof (only 2 visible here) and double-arched fliying buttresses!.. whatever that means...
A Kutna Hora skyline
Back in Prague.... an upside-down horse bears a rider inside a decorous passage.
There are many passages and alleyways in Prague, ranging from narrow and grungy to spacious indoor courts. This one includes a movie theatre.
Propeller-heads.
A doorway in Old Prague.
Most Legii - Legii Bridge
This must be Bugs Bunny's house
Hehehe... guerilla art.
In the courtyard of the Kampa Museum of Modern Art.
Playing with art.
They even have a fun-house mirror!! Or did someone squish me?
Xe going "downstairs" in a small art shop. There is fantastic original art to be found all around the tourist district.
"Idiom" by Matej Kren, a Slovak artist inside the Municipal Library of Prague.
Inside the "Idiom".
the outside
Walking to Prague's Staromestske namesti (Old Town Square).
Stairwell in the Cubist Museum.
Neeeeeigh!
Pražský Orloj - Prague's Astronomical Clock. Its various components show current positions of celestial bodies, as well as calendar months. The astronomical dial shown here is a medieval astronomical device that functions like a primitive planetarium.
On the hour hordes of tourists gather to see The Walk of the Apostles, a musically-accompanied procession of figurines above the clock faces. Rich, Jordan and Kyle squint appraisingly at the show.
6 centuries after its conception, the 2-minute show is a bit of a disappointment, especially after a suspensful 15-minute wait. I did like the skeletal figurine of death wagging his finger... that chilly reminder seems relevant in any time period.
If Budapest employed generations of sculptors, Prague must've kept a small army of fancy door-makers busy for a long time.
Draw your own conclusions here.
Velvet, the beer that pours into your glass entirely in the state of foam and slowly gathers into a liquid.
Prague underground.
St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle - sublime Gothic style founded in 1344.
The rose window.
The grand main door - thank you my lovely assistant!
Stained glass inside.
Stained glass detail.
Yeah... us Leos have a thing for lions. And there's lots of them...
Happy...
Sad...
Stretched narrow windows.
The rose window from the main nave.
A canopy with angels above a relic
A fancy look-in-only side room.
Wow. Coloured light on the floor from the stained glass.
Reaching, reaching towards the heavens.
We found ourselves a field of poppies... Mostly white as they are bigger than their red cousisns and therefore produce more yummy seeds which are common in Czech pastries.
Stretching to the horizon.
One of these things is not like the other...
Pretty purple mutant.
Spring-green eaves at the sublime garden a relative of Rich's has created in her backyard.
Roses and pooch.
Rich with the Master Gardener.
Luscious.
hehe.... note the rubber chicken
At červená Lhota chateau.
A small family of Belgians comes to visit.
Marieand Fonz
Forest riches - blueberries and mushrooms
After a storm...
Karlštejn - built in 1348 by Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles's collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire.
Rich leaning against a small rainwater pool carved out of stone.
The Czech flag and buildings below.
The valley below.
Buildings inside the castle walls were added in a step-like formations.
The only army to ever break through the outer wall were the Swedes, but before they got to the third main tower they found out the war was over. (30-year war 1618-1648)
No pictures allowed inside... but here's a pretty window!
Romeo, O Romeo, wherefore art thou?
Wonder if that place is for sale..?
Roof detail.
Inside the posh hotel Pupp (it's pronounced "poop".. haha...) in Karlovy Vary during the 43rd International Film Festival with Rich's cousin Pavel and his leading lady Olushka.
Ceiling of the lounge, where moments before Christopher Lee passed us by!
Spouting hot mineral spring water for which Karlovy Vary is renowned world-wide.
Miss Piggy. That's my day job.
Bulby things and Ana
Pavel and Aleksandra
Glass art
Stone art
Surf-resembling art.
At a big sprawling chateau in the process of restoration in Letovice, a small town north of Brno.
Postcard view.
The week before the party we came for, a group of art students did what they do best all over the big run-down castle - make bizarre, humourous, stylish, improvised art.
The Cloud Corner
Every room and stairwell had something to look at
Old decor from the castle was arranged in the rooms, like this taxodermist's office where Rich found the Ninja Squirrel.
Labyrinthian Escher-like passage ways.
International Street Performers' Festival in Prague
Audience members getting into the action
I'm not even sure where the superhero fit into the plot... I blame my poor command of Czech.
This story had a prince and princess, a witch and her hench-cat, a dragon, magic, oh my!..
aaawww...
The Two Musketeers - French, of course... They were tossing sarcastic jokes, juggling pins and for their grand finale - flaming torches!
More audience participation, impromptu costumes and all!
Hoops and geeky character show from New Zealand
A classic clown from South Africa
Walking around Prague Castle
Red roofs spreading out from the castle's commanding view of the city
On my birthday we took a road trip south, stopping first at Hluboká Castle. On our way up the hill we came across this parade. A camel? Why I never...
Hluboká's entrance. This castle is the finest in all of Czech, by Rich's reckoning.
The big wooden entrance doors have these handles.
Hangin' with my Chinese Zodiac totem, the justice-seeking peace-keeping Goat.
Rich in the inner courtyard
Window detail
A fabulous balcony
Balcony detail
Mole's-eye view
Fine iron-wrought staircase at the back of Hluboká Castle.
Our main destination was Český Krumlov, a town I fell in love with on my first visit to Europe in 1999. It's much more over-run by tourists now, but we found this fantastic little hotel owned by an artist.
We stayed in the Buddha Suite with its own custom-crafted fireplace. It was much too warm for a fire though.
Holy martini, Batman! Actually it's my Pistachio Macchiato or some such outrageous coffee beverage I ordered not really knowing what I would get.
Český Krumlov is a protected UNESCO site. Here is St. Vitus Church towering over the Vltava River.
During the summer months huge numbers of Czechs canoe and raft down the river, stopping intermittently in riverside camps to refuel on food and BEER! - that's two of the top national pastimes, with gathering mushrooms being a close third.
Modern glass art and old architecture of Český Krumlov State Castle, namely its tower poking out from behind a... yes, that's a red-shingled roof.
The Castle Tower, visual symbol of the town and has been called "the towerest of all towers" by Karel Čapek, Czech author and playwright who coined and popularized the term robot in his 1920s play "RUR".
The prisoner of Krumlov Castle... From the official website: "Bears have been kept in the bear moat since 1707. Nowadays the area for bear keeping is adapted for the bears to be most enjoyed.Families with children like to have a walk and in the end to watch the bears in the moat." Uh-huh... and I'm sure the bears love it too.
What's the photo opp here, everybody?
Aaah, town scape with St. Vitus Church through a window the Castle wall.
Gorgeous hand-made jewellery inspired by the cosmos - on display in the Castle Cellars gallery.
One of the many ducks inhabiting the large lily pond in the Castle Gardens. The Castle also boasts its own Baroque Theatre.
Back in Prague - Zapa Beton concrete company certainly has a whimsical flair!
Sun bunnies in Prague.
Our last sunset in the Czech Republic... *sigh* Well, off to Egypt we go!
