The (Other) St. Nicholas Church

It turns out that Prague has two churches dedicated to St. Nicholas. This the largest (as you can see) and the most significant historically. This church is at the foot of the hill where the Castle sits. It was built between 1704 and 1755 and is hailed as the greatest example of Prague Baroque.

Klementinum

In the 11th century a chapel dedicated to St. Clement was built here. In the medieval period, the Dominicans too over and in 1556 the Jesuits transformed it into a college. As Wikipedian says:

In 1622 the Jesuits transferred the library of Charles University to the Klementinum, and the college was merged with the University in 1654. The Jesuits remained until 1773, when the Klementinum was established as an observatory, library, and university by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

What I toured was the library and astronomical observatory section. In the photo above you see the library which is now essentially a rare book collection for the National Library.

Jewish Museum - Pinkas Synagogue and Cemetery

What started with the intention to visit the medieval Jewish cemetery and a synagogue, once we arrived, turned out to include a visit to three synagogues and the cemetery. The first of these synagogues is, in fact, a memorial to all the czech jews killed during WWII.

This place is rooms filled with walls covered, as you see above, with names of those killed. To fit the wall in, the print is so small as to be illegibly small.

Old Town in the Evening

By the evening of the first day, the gray skies had lifted and pink clouds helped frame patches of the late-day blue sky.

Church of St. Nicholas

On the edge of the Old Town square sits the Church of St. Nicholas. Unlike the catholic church dedicate to the same saint in Valencia, Spain, this is a Hussite church. On the information board in the church is says that they are basically Presbyterians "with Episcopal elements."

The Top of Old Town Hall

Going inside the town hall and paying the entry fee gets you to the bottom of the elevator shaft that sits in the open center of the tower. The design of the railings and the sides of the round elevator in the multi-storied structure make an interesting pattern.

A First Visit to Old Town Prague

One our first day in Prague, we headed out early, at least by Prague standards. We spent what seemed like all morning walking fairly empty streets. Until they weren't. Next thing you know, there are swarms of tourists everywhere.

But before that, we saw some interesting things. For example, the art work suspended above the street in the photo above, is a man hanging by one hand. From the Atlas Obscura:

First created in 1996, the work known as “Zavěšený muž” (“Man Hanging Out”) is the vision of Czech sculptor David Černý, whose work can actually be found all across Prague. Many of Cerny’s works are seen as somewhat deliberately provocative, and this one is no different. The dangling Freud is surprisingly lifelike at a distance, and a number of people have sincerely taken it for a person in danger. However, it is simply a sculptural statement about intellectualism in the 20th century and Černý’s uncertainty about it.

Prague

After a long day that included a missed flight and long wait at Gatwick, we have arrived in our hotel. We have a map and many things are at the intersection of Check and American... There is a Lennon Wall, and Dancing building referred to as Ginger and Fred. (pictures to come).

We are pretty centraily located so I expect to get lots of interesting photos.

We're Off for Another Adventure!

After a long summer of relatively few postings, we are leaving tomorrow for another adventure. Now that Seamus and Charlotte are getting settled in, Seth and Anna are both employed and back to work, it seems like  good time for us to go away for a while.

Chihuly Museum at the Seattle Center

Today we visited the Chihuly Museum at the Seattle Center with our good friends, Bill and Linda Ingham. The well lit glass sculptures in the darkened rooms make for good (and easy) photography. all images today are taken with my iPhone.

Snoqualmie

Since Seamus has been so enamoured with trains, we decided to take him (and the whole family, of course) to Snoqualmie to see the Northwest Railway Museum and ride on the train there. There were beautiful train cars on our short little train, especially the one in which we rode, as you see above.

County Fair and Rodeo

Labor Day weekend is the last weekend for the Evergreen State Fair (a county fair, in spite of the name) and the weekend for the local rodeo. Since none of us had ever been to a rodeo, we had to go.