Prague

I finally caught up to the Czech version of the Fiat Pendolino a week or two ago, and here's my first photo!! Amazingly, it came out reasonably well, in spite of the 100 ISO film (unusual for me) and the low light. I didn't expect it to, so I ran down the platform to the lead end, rested the camera on a bench, and took a second shot. It didn't come out. :-) I guess it's good that I took this one on faith, then. :-) Hopefully I'll have more of these in the foreseeable future, but not soon, as Pendolinos are rare in this country. Enjoy.

This is the shot which inspired Picture 1, but as you can see, getting a picture is much more difficult when the trees and the wall are in the way.

Continuing in reverse chronological order from my night shots of Petrin, here's a day shot. :-)

The Strahovsky Klaster was built in 1120, but didn't become a officially a Monastery until 1143. It has survived ever since, in spite of many adverse conditions such as the Hussite Wars and Communism, and is now also a must-see for tourists. If nothing else, the view of Prague from Strahov, especially from the Petrin Watchtower, is worth a look.

Sidliste Repy is a Communist-era housing project consisting of "Panelak" apartment blocks built to standard designs. Although many other Sidliste projects have been fully renovated and modernized, Republiky is still a work in progress, and still has a great deal of its Communist-era grime. Here I've taken a picture of the tram terminus, where arriving passengers get off the tram before it goes onto the turning loop.

Tatra T3 #6777 is very noticable for Prague in that it's a black tram. I'm not sure if there are any others in the DPP fleet that look quite like it. Usually, it's covered in advertising, and here you can see some posters on the side. I took this on the turning loop at the Sidliste Repy tram terminus.

Bruselska, both the street and the tram stop in this picture, is only served by two tram routes, 6 and 11, at least under normal scheduling. Occassionally, though, it's used as a detour for 22 and 23. I was lucky enough to get this shot of two T3s passing in the sun.

Namesti I.P. Pavlova (not actually visible in this photo) has two tram stops, a Metro Station (just down the steps in the center and left of this photo), and a bus stop (way back on the left, two blocks away, around the corner), but it's just as often a place where you change trams or modes as it is equipped so well for the locals' use.

Here's a somewhat unusual view of the Mala Strana, seen from the south end of Cechuv Most (Cechuv Bridge). Notice the Petrin watchtower on Petrin Hill, to the left, and of course the Hradcany to the right.

Built in 1270, the Staronova, or Old-New, Synagogue is considered by many people to be the oldest in Europe. It's called the Old-New because an even older synagogue, the Old-Old, predated it, although it was demolished in 1867 to make room for the Spanish Synagogue, which still survives. Behind the Old-New, you can see the Jewish Town Hall, as Josefov, the former Jewish ghetto where this picture was taken was governed seperately during its years as a ghetto.

These 810 Class railbuses are everywhere in the Czech Republic, or at least I've seen them everywhere. They're not new, either, as they first entered production in 1973, and were built until 1984, always by Vagonka Tatra Studenka a name that is usually abbreviated Stud. The 810s are diesel-hydromechanical, like most railbuses, and are very quick to start and stop, although their maximum operating speed is only 80Km/h (about 50 m.p.h.). That last thing doesn't matter, though, as they're mostly used for local services on very primitive branchlines where the speed limit is usually closer to 40Km/h. Their only real vice, if you assume that you want a railbus for moving small numbers of people in local services, is that like most railbuses, 810s are noisy and not particularly smooth, although they're probably not as bad as the ex-BR Class 144 Pacers used in Britain.

Here's the glass roof of the Masarykovo station canopy, similar to many other stations, even if it isn't the grandest.

I like the way the sun was illuminating the bricks in this shot, so I figured I would compose it with the train and the platform for good measure. The main challenge was waiting for passengers to stop walking by. I also have had to burn this one in a bit.

I saw the abstraction and beauty of this shot immediately, so I took it, although I've burned the sky in here using Photoshop. The train itself is a Ceske Drahy Class 971 bi-level EMU (built by a consortium of CKD and Skoda), identical to the Class 471 in nearly everything but length, if I'm not mistaken.

I call this a "canopy" for want of a better word. I'm really not clear on what else I could call it. It's not a trainshed, in the traditional sense, because the trains pull up to a waiting area covered by it, but don't go under it. It's also too lightly constructed to really be considered completely a part of the Masarykovo station building, and indeed it isn't original, if you look at old prints from the 1840s.

I got the idea for this the moment I looked at it. I knew I would get a weird all-yellow shot of this bush because it was already yellow from the Fall season, and would be illuminated by streetlights with a yellow color temperature (thanks to abmarfia for the terminology :-)).

The Church of St. Nicholas is the most notable church in the Mala Strana, or Lesser Quarter, of Prague, although it is overlooked by St. Vitus Cathedral on the Hradcany (not visible here). I took this while I was walking around with my camera and tripod, and realized that I could get an almost perfect night shot here. It is imperfect, however, due to the aura on the lower right, which I expect is a streetlight.

This is from the bus and tram terminal of Nadrazi Branik, taken a few minutes after the Flying Leaves picture, as the rainstorm was fast, furious, and short, and followed by bright sunlight. Perfect conditions for a rainbow.