Weekly Photo Challenge: Love

This was the year when I was dating my husband, we were in love (we still have been :-)) and I went to Montenegro without him. I was thinking about him all the time and I wanted to make him a calender full of hearts, full of my love. Therefore I tried to collect as many shots of hearts as possible. It was not really easy, sometimes it is really difficult to find a heart on the shot. But it shows the love I have for my husband, which is sometime hidden, it is not perfect, but it’s there :-).

Light heart at Stari Bar

Heart nature and bar collection

Heart in the tree

Written for Weekly Photo Challenge: Love.

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Travel theme: Walls

For Travel Theme: Walls I want to show you three walls. The first one is a part of our history and you may have heard about it. The second one is extremely famous and played a big role in the history of Europe.  The third wall is nice, but nothing really important on it :-).

John Lennon’s Wall

During communistic regime rock music was under the ban, mostly played underground. But as you can’t keep people away from music, we all knew Beatles and other world famous musicians from the other side of the iron curtain. When John Lennon died, students from the art school painted one wall as a memory to him. From that day people quietly celebrated memoir of John Lennon at the anniversary of his death with lightning candles, singing his songs. They were always under the control of state’s police. The wall is still there, but it beacame more touristic place with a lot of graffiti more than memorial.
These three shots are not mine unfortunatelly. I was not able to find old shots of the wall in my archive, therefore I took them from here, here and here.

John Lennon’s wall at 1981, 1983 and 90s years

I managed to find some shots of nowaday wall, where John Lennon can be seen between other motifs.

John Lennon’s portraits and heart

Beatles covers

Berlin Wall

This wall separated two worlds for 28 years. The shots were taken at Potsdammer Square in Berlin, you can find there remains of the wall, now painted with colors.

History of Berlin’s wall

I love Berlin and frankly speeking Berlin is a magic city to me, I can still feel the strange atmosphere of “divided city” there.

Check the bottom right shot, the “wall” is still on the ground

The last pair is from our family album. The first shot is from our family visit to Berlin somewhere around 1979 (I am the only child on the BW shot). People were not allowed to go closer to Brandenburger Gate and you can see the wall down behind the gate. It’s also chilling to see the people on the left (not our family) looking to Western Germany. Maybe they had a family there? The next shot is two years old. Quite different, what you think?

History and today

Berlin ZOO Wall

The last shots are also from Berlin. But this is a new wall. Wall of Berlin’s ZOO garden. Walls are dividing, but also protecting us. We must handle with them sensibly.

ZOO wall

Weekly Image Of Life: Places

This summer it will be already five years, when I visited port Vergi for the first time. Immediately I fell in love with the place but I can’t explain you why. Maybe it was the weather and clouds, maybe the water, maybe the feeling of freedom … Most probably all these together and what is strange, my husband fell in love with the place too. Last summer we went there once more, with our family and small dogs, and the feeling was there again.
Port Vergi is a small port in natural park Lahemaa in North Estonia, you can park your yacht here, there is a small restaurant and hostel opened during summer. But I think this info is not that important, beacuse it is the feeling, which is inside me when I remember port Vergi. I hope you will be able to feel it at least a bit from my shots.

Post is written for Weekly Image Of Life: Places.

Sea, restaurant / hostel, port

View from restaurant

Wanna take a boat?

Pub and delicious food there, no I don’t mean our dogs, I mean the bottom line

Stones at the sea

Prague Towers (3) – Petřín Watchtower

Rose garden bellow watchtower

Looking at Prague panorama you see something familiar, even when you are here for the first time. Eiffel tower? Yes, Eiffel tower!
Czech Touristic Club visited Paris in 1889 and they stole the top of the Eiffel tower and brought it to Prague … sorry, wrong story, no :-). The tourists fell in love with Eiffel Tower and they wanted to have it at home, even bigger if possible. Money was the problem, but people were donating money for new “lighthouse” for Prague after big PR actions. The construction of Petřín watchtower began on March 16, 1891 and hard work started. The works were finished only four months later, July 2, 1891. Our new tower had better elevators – modern gas ones – comparing to ordinary hydraulic ones at Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower?

Grand opening was on August 20, 1891, the tower was covered with national colors (white – red – blue) and on the top of the watchtower waved our flag. The standard was 17 metres higher then the top of Older sister in Paris. The dream was fulfilled.

Climbing up

At the same time the funicular to the top of the hill was finished and one year later also the Mirror Maze below the tower.

Mirror Maze (roofe and spires on left) and the Church of St. Vavřinec (red with green spires)

Technical parametres:
weight 175 metric tons
bases were deep 36 feets / 11 meters
the watch platform is in the height of 180 feets / 55 meters
you have to climb 299 stairs to reach it
total height is 297 feets / 60 meters

Student’s dormitories (left) and Strahov stadion (right)

Left bottom: monastery and hospital of Karel Boromejský, middle right: Prague Castle, horizon: biggest Prague housing estate Bohnice

Little Quarter with St Nicholas Church. middle horizon: Letná hill

Charles Bridge and view to the Old Town

The next tower will be tower of St. Nicholas Church at Little Quarter, here as seen from Petřín Watchtower.

St Nicholas Church

The whole series to be found here

1 Introduction
2 Bell Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral
3 Petřín Watchtower
4 St. Nicholas Bellfry
5 Little Quarter’s Bridge Tower
6 Old Town’s Bridge Tower
7 Astronomical Klementinum Tower
8 Tower of the Old Town Townhall
9 Powder Tower

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Wood

The third element in Cee’s Challenge is Wood. I invite you to visit places where you can find beautiful wood art works. We will start at the north, in Lithuania, where we will visit lake natural park Aukštaitija with its Beekeeping Museum. The next stop is in Neringa (also Lithuania), in a small village called Juodkranté, where is “witches” hill with lots of wooden sculptures, place full of stories, history and creativity. Finally I will take you pretty far to Yemen, to wadi Hadramawt, around town called Shibam, maybe you have heard about Desert Manhattan? I will show you doors, locks, door latches carved from the wood.
Beekeeping museum in Stripekai and wooden statues showing bee and/or honey connected moments, beehives.

Beehives

Bears robbing wild bees for honey

Wooden bees and honeycombs

People working in woods, honey god

Hill of Witches in Juodkranté, nice walk through the wood with lots of statues.

Seat

Musicians and devils

Faces, gods and totem

Wadi Hadramawt, Shibam.

Doors

Locks and wooden windows

Door latches or other door connected wooden objects

A Word A Week Photo Challenge – Weather

I love snow in Prague. Right now we have in Prague the weather you can see on my shots for A Word A Week Photo Challenge – Weather. I combined the shots that were done with and without flash. I want you to see the difference between them and choose which one is better. Usually I prefer shots without flesh, but here I like the ones with snowflakes taken with flash more.

Snowflakes at the Square of Republic are so big that you have to keep your eyes closed :-).

Snowflakes at the Square of Republic

The top of the Wenceslas Square with a horse statue and St. Wenceslas, meeting place for Prague people. Meetings are mostly planned “bellow the tail” (of the horse). Big building behind is the Czech National Museum.

St. Wenceslas on the horse

More walking in the snow at the Wenceslas Square.

The traffic signs are reflective.

On the right side of the shot is a House of Fashion, opened during communistic regime to prove, that we (means: communistic countries) also have nice fashion and House of Fashion was the place where to buy it (for whole Czechoslovakia). On the other side of the square was a House of Food, similar, but not the only place with food in CS, but the only place with delicatesses.

Snow

Travel theme: Up

What I always say to my clients when I am giving the tour in Prague is: Always look up. Everywhere there is something that surprises you, some nice detail that worths seeing, something unexpected. The Travel Theme: Up is therefore easy for me. I want to show you ceilings, domes, vaults and arches, which you can find in Prague but also around it.
As usually we start our tour at Prague Castle, with vaults of St. Vitus cathedral, Vladislav’s Hall and Lands Rolls.

From top left: Chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral, ceiling of Land Rolls offices in Royal Palace, valuting of St. Vitus cathedral, Vladislav’s Hall

Above you have examples of gothic and Renaissance vaulting, bellow is the dome of St. Nicholas Church in Little Quarter in Prague, the peak of Baroque in Czech lands.

Dome of St. Nicholas Church

We are coming to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Vaulting on the left is from the Church of St. Ludmila from the end of 19th century, the right is the shot from the passage of Czech National Bank (our Fort Knox), built at the beginning of 20th century.

Vaulting of St. Ludmila Church and passage of Czech National Bank

There are a lot of passages and galleries around Wenceslass Square in Prague. Specially these are the places where you stop doing window shopping and you look up to see all the glass and metal around. Most of the passages is nicely reconstructed.

Passages at Wenceslass Square: Koruna, Rokoko and U Stýblů

Trains are a good way of travelling around Czech Republic, the next shot is from the oldest train station in Prague, now it is called Masaryk‘s, after the first president of independent democratic Czechoslovak republic 1918-1938.

Masaryk’s train station platform

With the train we can reach Kutná Hora, another place in Czech Republic that is written in UNESCO World Heritage List. Now we are not going to visit the city center, but let’s see quarter called Sedlec, where you find bone chapel and beautiful Church of Assumption of Our Lady.

Kutná Hory / Sedlec, Ossuary (Bone chapel) and Church of Assumption of Our Lady

You already saw the works of Santini in one of my previous posts and there is the dome of the Church of St. John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou, another monument written on World Heritage List and protected by UNESCO.

Ceiling od the Curch of St. John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou

Last but not least is my favorite city Olomouc and shots from the Cathedral of St. Wenceslass, a beautiful cathedral from 12th century.

Arches and roof of St. Wenceslass cathedral in Olomouc

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

As English is not my native language, I always have to study hard all the meanings of the Challenge Words. The word for this week’s Photo Challenge is Beyond. In my post I tried to use it from different views, and I hope you will enjoy it.
Seven years ago I visited Yemen, different country that is quite beyond to me. This trip changed my life, I met a lot of nice people there and I learned a lot about other culture. We visited cities and country as well, and now I want to show you some shots from this different country.

We took a walk in Haraz mountains arounf the village Al Hajjarah, it was early November morning and clouds were all around us. What’s hidden beyond them?

Walking in the clouds

Getting closer we saw crofts with grain and Indian millet.

Crofts

Buildings started to appear above the crofts.

Crofts and buildings

Soon the mountain village loomed in front of us.

Al Hajjarah – mountain village

The village was built on a rocky hill, accesible over the small valley and then we climbed up to enter the place.

Cross the valley, climb the rock – on the stairs

Finally the clouds left, sky was ultramarine blue and we saw the clay houses all around us.

Almost skyscraper, what you think?

Most of the buildings were decorated like gingerbreads, in fact pictures of these gingerbread houses had made me want to visit Yemen and finally brought me there.

Gingerbread house

What was hidden beyond the walls? Any place in Yemen, doesn’t matter how deserted it looks when you come, is soon full of children talking to you, wanting you to take their picture, laughing and opening their hearts to you.

Waiting for visitors

Finally they invited us home to find traditional interior as well as TV, where Anna and the King with Yul Brynner was on.

Living room

The visit was really precious for me, and I was able to see for just a minute, where and how people lived there, in the country that is so beyond for me.

Prague Towers (2) – St. Vitus Cathedral

The introduction to Prague Towers series can be found here.

St. Vitus behind Royal Summerhouse

The first tower I chose for my Prague Towers series is the tower of St. Vitus cathedral in Prague Castle. That’s the green one, which you will find on any panorama picture from Prague, also on my blog here or here or here and also at some other posts, I chose just the panoramatic ones. Today I start with a bit unusual view from the Prague Castle’s back, from Royal Summerhouse.

St. Vitus Cathderal was founded in 1344 by Czech king and Roman Emperor Charles IV as the most important church in Czech lands. It was not built in the city center, as it is quite usual in Europe, but above it, in the complex of Prague Castle.

Bell Tower from the 3rd courtyard of Prague Castle (you can easily guess this shot was not taken the day I climbed the tower up …

It was built in four phases, finished in 1929. At the interior and the exterior you can see the traces of the centuries, but the building itself is gothic, despite the fact that the final works were done in puristic gothic style in 20th century.

The tower we will talk about was founded in 14th century by Petr Parléř and it is called Bell Tower. The height of it was 180.5 ft (55 m). The tower partially burned during the big fire in 1541 and was rebuilt again in 1544. Therefore,  Renaissance arcades were added with baroque green spire on the gothic bases.

Bells are hidden in the tower behind the golden bar

Lots of bells rang from the tower, today you will find there these 7:

• Zikmund (Sigismond) from 1549, the biggest Czech bell, done by Tomáš Jaroš, weight 13.5 tons and diameter 6.6 ft (2.56 m).
• Václav (Wenceslass) from 1542, done by Ondřej and Matyáš Pražský
• Jan Křtitel (John Baptist) from 1546, author Stanislav
• Josef (Joseph) from 1602, author Martin Hilger

From 2012 there are three more bells from the workshop of Dytrych family (from Brodek by Přerov)

• Dominik (Dominus = Our Lord)
• Maria
• Ježíš (Jesus) – the smallest

You can listen to easter ringing of these bells from 2012 at this link.

From St. Vitus bell tower there is one of the most beautiful views to Prague, even when the visibility is low.

Important buildings from top left: Černín Palace – ministery of Foreign Affairs, Royal Summerhouse, Lobkowicz Palace – German Embassy, Karmář’s villa – seat of prime minister

Looking straight down from the tower.

St. George basilic, oldest church at Prague Castle, roofs od the Cathedral, 3rd courtayrd of Prague Castle – main entrance to presidential offices

Deatils on the roofs.

Details

And finally view to the city.

View to east, Little Quarter and Charles Bridge

Little Quarter square with St. Nicholas Church and former jesuith college in the middle

Vltava river bridges, direction Letná, Karlín and Holešovice

Our next tower will be Petřín Watchtower, how viewed from Bell Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral.

Petřín – watchtower

The whole series to be found here
1 Introduction
2 Bell Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral
3 Petřín Watchtower
4 St. Nicholas Bellfry
5 Little Quarter’s Bridge Tower
6 Old Town’s Bridge Tower
7 Astronomical Klementinum Tower
8 Tower of the Old Town Townhall
9 Powder Tower

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water

Drops on the web

The second element for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is water. I remember one day when I was with a group of students at the trip to Baltic states, and the first morning – it was quite yearly yet – we visited the Centre of Europe (Europas Centrs) in Bernotai, close to Vilnius in Lithuania. The place is nice itself, hidden in woods by the new golf course. The European centre point is a few hundred metres from the parking lot and now you can see, what we saw that early September morning all around us. In this post I really recommend to click on the shots to see the details properly, it worths it.

Silent morning

Getting closer

Beads, spiders worked hardly all night to make it in time for the morning dew

Lovely