Night Walks (3) – Yards of the Old Town (2)

Lights at the garden.

And now I go on with my walk through the yards of the Old Town, and its after dark. The previous part you can find here. We ended the previous post at Cathedral Cafe, and we are not leaving yet, as its courtyard is really nice as well.

And the next picture is really interesting, look at the white chairs and table, what they are standing at?

Is it a well?

Yes! It is an old well, older then the buildings, so when the buildings and courtyards were built, people just put halves of the well to the different yards. Let’s look at it from the other side.

Much better, what you think :-).

And a little closer look.

No water, but snow.

Courtyards of the Old Town and House by a Stone Bell.

Beautiful blue light at the yards of the Tynska street.

Brick a brack and cafe and private appartments.

House by a Golden Ring, museum that much worth visiting.

House by a Stone Bell stands on the Old Town Square and not long time age it had Renaissance facade. When I watch movies from 1970 and there are shots from this place, I wait to see it in its Renaissance version. But at late 70s they reconstructed the building and gave it the original Gothic appearance by taking down the Renaissance “dress”.

How it looks inside of the Stone Bell yard.

Look up.

And we are at the Old Town Square.

From Old Town Square I went through my favorite spot the Tyn yard to finish the evening at lovely Cafe No.3.

Ungelt (or Tyn).

Cafe no.3.

My espresso.

Cafe no.3 is fortunately (for me) empty at his time of the day and year, as it s cozy but small place with just a few seats and I am happy when I can have a chat with the owners Pierre and Zbyšek about life, taste Zbyšek’s delicious dessert (the pecan one, but others are great to). Sometimes I have just espresso, but mostly I get “štrudl” (hot apple juice with whipped cream and cinnamon), or London fog and white hot wine, that is just great as well.

Winter Walks (7) – Yards of the Old Town (1)

This post can be either in Night Walks or Winter, as I went out at the evening and it was freeezing :-). But still it was very beautiful to visit hidden yards and places just around the Old Town Square. Finally I decided to split the photos to before and after dark. And this post is about the before-sunset one :-).

I was happy to have a chance to visit the premises of the Monastery of Minor Brothers next to the Saint James Church at the Old Town. Its best years were in 14 century, when the weeding dinner of Czech King John of Luxembourg and his bride Elisabeth from Royal Czech Premyslid family (parents of Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV)) took place, next wedding celebration was the one of John and his second wife Beatrix. You can rent this place even now :-).

The refectory / ceremonial hall.

With its beautiful courtyard:

Paradise court of the monastery.

And even better pictures at the gallery:

After the visit of the monastery I have just wandered around the area, where originally meat and fish markets used to be, so the names of the streets will not surprise you – Masná (Meet st) or Rybná (Fish st) – and also the house signs reminds you of this business.

House U Podvinů

From Týnská street is also nice view to the spires of the Church Our Lady in front of the Tyn (Ungelt), or as we call it shortly Tyn or Ungelt, even thought the Tyn (or Ungelt, which is the same but in German and we historically use both names as synonyms) is in fact the courtyard behind the church.

Tyn church.

From Týnská street you can visit hidden courtyards.

Týnská 15.

Take a seat. Or not?

And as the dark is coming, you can also see the ceilings through the windows in enlightened interiors.

Look at the ceiling.

And finally some warming up in my favorite Cathedral Cafe.

Cathedral cafe.

Look through to its courtyard.

Cathedral cafe.

Winter Walks (3) – Vrsovice (1)

Another beautiful day in Prague, yeah, I know, it is freezing and it is getting colder and colder -9°C/15°F right now. But the sun shines like crazy and it almost makes you feel warm, when outside.

I decided to take a walk through the part of Prague, which in fact looks like Paris. It is called Vrsovice and it is more residential area with nice cafes and pubs, and it is not a coincidence that the famous Krymska (Crimea) street (nightlife) is there as well. The area is also really cosmopolitan, as you can guess from the streets names :-).

When I have finished this post, it looked to long to me, so I decided to split it in two. The second one is on this link (will be added after the second post will be published :-)): Winter Walks (4) – Vrsovice (2)

Mosaics by Free Mosaic

As there was a problem in the tram traffic today, we decided to walk to our destination through Vinohrady area, with some street art and first republic (1918-1938) villas and “colonia Svoboda (Freedom)”. This Colonia was realized between 1921-1924 as simple, but healthy and comfortable living at the new part of Prague. And it is in my favorite Artdeco – rondo cubist architectonic style.

One of the colonia’s double-houses in Czech traditional colors red and white and blue

And another one, this time villa in rondo cubism in red and white as well

Through the villas area we moved to the Parisien style quarter on this street:

Pink house at Norska (Norwegian) street

balcony detail at the same street

And doors in the gallery

After this little walk we entered one of the most popular cafes – Cafe Jen, but you can choose another one, like Cafe Slagr or Cafe Tvoje Mama (Your Mother), as cafe Jen was quite busy and we have to wait to find a place to sit. But then we have enjoyed our filter cafe and some warm and cozy atmosphere.

Cafe Jen from the outside

and the interior, just a short moment before the empty seats were taken

Warmed by the coffee we wandered on Kodanska (Copenhagen) street.

Just a normal residential house at Kodanska

and another one

and beautiful gables at the gallery

We continued to Heroldovy sady (Herold’s Gardens) with a book stall (we had to check it for something interesting) and nicely reconstructed palace Rangherka (seniors house now).

Rangherka from the bottom, originally built in 19 century by the entrepreneur in silk business Jindrich Rangheri, used also for breeding the silkworms and mulberry orchard with 200 trees next to it.

Gazebo above the stairs next to Rangherka.

Church if St Nicholas, baroque reconstruction from 1704, bell in the tower from 1511 and the clocks shows hours and phases of the moon as well.

Another view from the balcony to Husuv sbor (Hussite / reformed church) at Vrsovice Square, Nusle valley and Bohdalec hill on the horizon.

Find more at the second post about our walk in the next post.

Other Winter Walks you can find on these links:
1. Letná
2. Vyšehrad
3. Vršovice (1)
4. Vršovice (2)
5. Kampa

The series about Night Walks can be found here:
1. Prague Castle