Halloween

Yes, the day approaches when...

the strange creature flies over the church

while the deities look on.

The old churchyard gives up its secrets

and the sacrificial pig is slaughtered.

The dog brings a stick to the disembodied heads

while his double guards the inmates of the dungeon.

I fear he's seen it!

And he has too....though he pretends to be brave.

Yup, it's the......thing....!

Happy Halloween.

A Walk by the River: Prague

One of the pleasures of visiting a foreign city is merely wandering aimlessly around. These pictures were taken the Castle side of the Charles Bridge. 

We did not take a boat trip despite the spiffy uniform of the crew member. We did not attach a lock to the fence by the river.

We did observe the creepers turning fall-like

and the poor statue who had lost half her face

and the statue of calm and tranquillity.

The Charles Bridge in the distance.

A  fine day for walking

seeing reflections of willow branches rather Corot-like

and the closed up picnic umbrellas.

More of the same 

and more reflections.

We are now back in New York...

More Ordinary

A tram goes past on Na Porici

In response to Frances and others yesterday - yes, I do rather tend towards recording the pretty bits - in the blog anyway.
I didn't go into shops much at all - since I was only there for a week. The one supermarket was rather like supermarkets anywhere. Gift shops ditto. I did not buy any Kafka t-shirts...
There were very few beggars and none of the gipsies I was warned about.
Most people dressed 'down' - none of the chicness of Vienna or Florence.

Herewith some of the ordinary-ish photos...

Restoration of an old building. Me trailing behind rest of family...

Splendid man-hole (person hole?) cover

and another.

Men at work...

More men at work with the man on the right making suggestions...

Up on the roof - a bit alarming.

Prague politician, Dan Hodek, who, so far as I can gather, is running for office since his picture is everywhere. RFS - of Czech heritage.

Ugly graffiti 

More ugly graffiti

 a concert I did not attend.

Dull rural railway station.

Wig shop.

My least favorite flower shop.

Laundry with artifacts from the olden days...

and an awful warning.

Statues, Shop Windows and Doors through a Lens

More Prague - and since I have Hipstamatic on my phone herewith some pictures of:

King Charles right by the Charles Bridge

a statue adorning the bridge - rather a nice clean one - some are very black indeed.

Near the astrological clock on the main square

and just over the Charles Bridge shot from Krusta - the delicious pastry shop from yesterday's post.

Art deco indeed.

Another door - caryatid and mysterious people.

The clerk in the Kafka bookshop.

A shop window with a very old television, reflections and a little antelope skull...

here reflections and old toys...

here glasses and assorted bric-a-brac.

Six swans under the Charles Bridge.

For a post on my other blog about the Czech National Gallery go to elizabethwix.com

Czech Food and Drink

Angry Parsnip asked yesterday about Czech food.
And yes, it's wonderful and we ate lots and lots of it. Probably too much.
But I'll start off with the drinks...

Well, there's beer - lots of it and very good indeed according to the beer drinking part of my family. There is a Beer Museum - really a bar - where you can have a tasting menu of five or ten types brought to you in a wooden glass container. (Guess which is my drink!)

You can go to the Yellow Tiger where Bill Clinton drank with Vaclev Havel

and admire the decor unchanged for years and years (note wonderful beer brawl print.)

You can have swanky drinks  - I had a Bellini - at Hotel Pariz

or coffee severed with water and a tiny candy

and glorious cakes

elegantly served.

Here is a pig's kuckle waiting to be devoured

and pork ribs and potato pancakes and mashed potato and breaded cauliflower. You could do OK as a vegetarian here but meat-eaters will do better, I think.

This is a meal that defeated us - potato dumplings, bread dumplings, duck, sauerkraut, red cabbage, pork and ham all on one place.....wonderful stuff but we could have shared with each other...

After that we had to have a night off and ate Italian...

An inviting look into a charming rustic restaurant.

But here is the piece-de-resistance -trdlo - dough cooked over open coals wrapped round metal poles. Rolled in sugar and cinnamon and nuts and eaten as you walk along...

My daughter's idea of heaven.

Though I love food, I'm not really obsessed with it, so apologize for  the ho-hum photos.