Francois_Dumas Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 On Christmas Day Vivian and Menno took us for some tram rides and walks out into the center of Prague, over some of its many bridges and into the oldest citadel along the river...... I made many photos, but have collected some showing the city streets and the city. I'll post some more threads showing the old buildings and churches separately. Here's the street where Viv and Menno have their small apartment: The Dutch Jeep parked across the street Found this on the street too. The Czech are also into separate garbage collection for recycling. Good ! Prague is built on many hills, and that means one has to do quite some climbing and descending. Not a bicycle city, unless you are into mountain biking. The tram station with the bridge leading to the old stadion on top of a hill above... a place where in communist times the big parades and events were staged.... All street name plates, house numbers and other signs are made in this same fashion.... the really old ones are rusty, but in general they looked pretty nice up here ! The streets are pretty bumpy in many places, because they are paved with the old boulders (as in Holland and many old cities in Europe).... that made for ' moved' images in the bus ! The trams were everywhere or so it seemed. From Viv's apartment it was a 5 minute walk to line 22 and that took us into town center in 10 minutes Since all Czech drive Skodas, of course so do the Smokey Bears..... After some walking in the pretty cold air we reached one of the bridges. " That's were we're going," proclaimed Menno, pointing at the black double steeples in the distance. "Where is the tram?" I inquired. "Ummm..... no, we go on foot," he replied ....... Bummer ! (Can you tell I'm a lazy so-and-so?) Looking back into the relative warm and protected city center..... At this point we had come a long way already...... the bridge we crossed in the distance. "Tomorrow we'll go to TAT church in the distance", Menno said cheerfully. I was starting to have second thoughts about coming to Prague... that thing looked even further away AND higher up ! In fact, it WAS ! And darn.... that church appears to be on a hill too... and not getting much closer yet ! The old rail bridge.... you can actually get onto it and walk across... if you don't mind trains whizzing by at 2 feet, that is..... Under the rail bridge For Louise..... We were down there, just a few panting minutes ago...... I wonder what happens to your general shape when you sit at a desk for 20 years on end...... This is about streets, so I skipped the climb into the fortress..... here we are looking over the rail bridge and the city from above already.... Oh that's handy... a table showing you where you came from ! More streets... along the river.. and trams..... why did we have to walk !!??? The main square (Wenceslas Square.... spelling ?) is headed by the National Museum. The square measures 45.000 sq, meters ! We walked most of them.... several times ! For Larry...... Where Budweiser really comes from ...... More for Larry .... !!!! In the old days this used to be the Horse Market..... they must have had quite a few horses in those days !!!! A tram passes the main theatre. Don't know what the ugly building in front is... librabry maybe. Just some streets. we were pretty surprised....... and my moaning about the walking is just to make fun of Menno....... sort of.... partly..... Link to comment
ltljohn Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Francois, You are bad for the European economy, because of all of your wonderful trip reports I don't have top go and tour Europe. Thanks for taking me along on your trip Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Wait till I get back to the States...... Link to comment
ltljohn Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 If you come to the Philadelphia area you have a place to stay. Link to comment
Husker Red Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thanks Francois, I really enjoyed those photos. Being half Czech myself I would love to visit Prague someday. Link to comment
skinny_tom (aka boney) Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I'll just add that to the list of places you've shown me that I need to visit. Link to comment
yabadabapal Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Magnificent Francois. Great Pics and many thanks for reminding me of the many beautiful and historical places around the world that I have yet to see. I thought it might be interesting to see pics of Praugue prior to Hitlers invasion and the bombing, compared to the pics you showed. Best wishes Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 Thanks for looking everybody. Actually, I bought a book while there showing pictures of the same places and buildings now and in the past. Some of them before the war, others even further down in history. We also visited two museums from the Labowitz family (an old noble family who owned many estates, castles and other riches since the early 1500's and have now returned to Prague from the US to put all their possessions open for the public). There we saw many old etches, paintings and prints depicting many places of Prague long time ago. Very interesting indeed. Will post more about those trips, but can't show anything from inside, since photographing was forbidden. Prague was relatively 'lucky' in the war regarding bombardments. Not like Rotterdam or some of the German cities that were completely leveled. So most historic buildings survived and have been beautifully restored, even during the communist reign. Link to comment
Mark K Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Great shots! You seem to be able to squeak a little color out of otherwise drab surroundings. Would you mind sharing what equipment (camera, lenses and (I'm assuming) film) you're using? Thanks! Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Hi Mark, thank you! I stopped using film a few years ago and work digitally only now. My camera is a lowly Nikon D70 with a 18-70 Nikkor zoom lens and a 70-300 lens for special shots (which I do not lug with me all the time). I'd love to buy some more professional equipment, but currently that's not in the stars. Regarding the color, that's a different story. Of course the camera needs to be able to capture the colors, but I think nowadays every Nikon, Canon or other in that class does that pretty well. It is more of recognizing that there is color everywhere.... even if it is not always obvious. For some of the city shots for instance I usually wait for cars to brake, to get bright red lights added to the general picture. Getting traffic signs and stop lights in the pictures also helps. The bright painted houses and advertising on the trams is something that is helpful in Prague too. But even on a mainly white and gray ski slope there is usually color to be found. Be it the brightly colored equipment of skiers, or perhaps some gondola's of a ski lift, or advertising on a ski restaurant..... it is a matter of looking for it and adding it to the picture Kind regards, Francois Link to comment
R80RTKen Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Very nice pics.. I love Prague... My Brother lives in Holesevice (Praha 7) and you took some pics at the bottom of the hill near where he lives.. -Ken Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 I am always amazed at how small our world has become ! Link to comment
Mark K Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I'm even more impressed with your images now that I have learned you're all digital. You definitely have a very adept eye for photography and the skills to make it come to life in some tricky situations. (I especially enjoyed your night shots!) You do not need more sophisticated equipment. That 18-70mm is obviously serving you well. I apologize for the hijack.... Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 With kind words like that you may hijack my threads any time Link to comment
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