Black and Whites

A companion to the ear sculpture, this part of the memorial symbolises the voice of truth.

Part of the Národní Památník Odposlechu, or National Eavesdropping Memorial or Park, this ear sculpture symbolises the listening ears of the Statní Bezpečnosti (StB) secret police during the days of Communism.

This water tower is part of the original Plzensky Prazdroj Pivovar (brewery) in Plzen, home to the world's first Pilsener beer, Pilsener Urquell, invented in 1842 with the construction of the brewery.

Here's a general view of the Plzensky Prazdroj Pivovar, built (mostly) in 1842-1900 or so.

In the old days, Plzensky Prazdroj had its own industrial railway, and the equipment is still there on display. The designs of the equipment are noticably Czech/Austrian, although I don't know a lot about all of it.

Real proper breweries, regardless of age, brew their beer in copper kettles, and that naturally includes Plzensky Prazdroj. I was amazed that I got this photo to come out at all, since I shot it with 100 ISO Fomapan shot through an Ikoflex, using a bad light meter.

.....I like this version way better than the color version. :-) The balloon in the background, a genuine old-fashioned gas balloon, and not a hot air balloon, had me fascinated for the several weeks (months?) it was floating over the Mala Strana. It was a really, really cool piece of 19th Century (basically) technology that I never thought I would ever see in real life. :-)

Therefore.....given that my other shot is hard to distinguish from a black and white photo, I made this version black and white. I think that in the end it's the better photo, although I could be mistaken.

I did several versions of this shot, and this one, converted to black and white, is my favorite. I wanted to convey the sheer ugliness of the malls currently wrecking Britain and everything of value in Britain.

One of my side trips while I was in Wales during New Year's 2007-2008 was to Swansea, and here I have the first of four photos I shot of the castle. Wikipedia says this about it: "Swansea Castle was founded by Henry de Beaumont in 1106 as the caput of the lordship of Gower. The original castle seems to have been a sub-rectangular/oval enclosure overlooking the River Tawe on the east, surrounded on the north, west and south sides by a larger sub-rectangular outer bailey. The inner bailey probably contained a motte but the other view is that it was a ring work. The new castle was attacked by the Welsh in 1116 but the inner castle held. After various other unsuccessful attacks the castle fell in 1217 but was restored to the English in 1220 as part of the settlement between Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and Henry III of England. Immediately after this the inner castle was probably walled in stone with at least one tower. Swansea Castle Later in the 13th century the large outer bailey was also walled. The only visible remains are two sides of a rectangular "new castle" built in the South East corner of the outer bailey in the late 13th/early 14th century. The south face (which ends in a tall garderobe tower) is capped with an elegant series of arcades at the wall-head, which are similar to structures at the Bishop of Saint David's palaces at Lamphey and St David's. By then the castle had lost its military importance. It is not known whether it fell to allies of Owain Glyndŵr early in the 15th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries parts of the castle were variously used as a market, a town hall, a drill hall and a prison. Part of the interior of the new castle was demolished early in the 20th century in the construction of a newspaper office. The remains have now been consolidated and opened up to view from the street."

Here's my second shot of the castle.

Here you can see the BT building, although I don't know if this is the "newspaper building" mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

Again with the BT building....

Swansea has always been a port city, of course, but today most of the traffic is in small boats. I'm pretty sure this is some kind of tug or ex-tug, although someone who knows ships or boats better could probably give more information. I do note that this one doesn't have any tires on it for padding so......

Swansea has a small but interesting city museum, featuring the town's history as a port, manufacturing, and mining town, and much of the history has to do with the industrial revolution, as in the case of this beam engine.

This is St. Mary's Church, which I photographed on the way back to the train station. I don't know a lot about it, but I figured it would make a nice photo....

Jumping ahead, this was on the final leg of my trip back to Prague, the day following my departure from Cardiff, and with a completely different camera, my Zeiss-Ikon Contina LK that I took to Swansea. I shot this just after we crossed the border at Decin, as you can clearly see Decinsky Zamek up on the castle mound.

Usti nad Labem also has a castle, Hrad Strekov, which dates to the beginning of the 14th Century. The bridge of sorts in the foreground is actually not the famous Usti nad Labem bridge, but a sluice gate on the River Labe called the Strekovska Zdymadla.