2010

I was sitting in an Italian/Greek restaurant on Korunni and I discovered that it wasn't a bad tram watching spot. Nothing exotic showed up by Prague standards, but I generally like Prague trams. 8667 is a Tatra T6A5 built around 1996.

This is a considerable edit of a larger shot. 8701 is another Tatra T6A5.

9156 is a Skoda 14t, which makes it the most modern class of tram currently in service in Prague, but not for long. Two Skoda 15t's, #'s 9200 and 9201 are already in testing, and I've spotted 9201 several times already. That church in the background is St. Ludmila's in Namesti Miru.

I got this lucky shot walking on Chotkova. I've finally solved the mystery of the Moravian flags in Prague (which is in Bohemia), I should add. Wikipedia didn't make a mistake, rather, the flag of Moravia is also the flag of Prague. See here.... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Moravia.svg and here... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prague_flag_with_CoA.svg Of course, the official flag of Prague, as seen on Wikipedia, has the city's coat of arms on it, but most of the flags actually flown in the city, even from government buildings, don't have it.

I took this photo on the same day as the bike picture in Nadrazi Cercany, but I didn't notice it when I was selecting photos on Monday. In any case, I think it's one of my better cameraphone shots.

This is a bed of flowers near the Horcickova bus stop in Haje, that was mowed down (literally) a few days after I took this, but then allowed to regrow. I quite like it, but I expect that the yuppies complained about it, causing it to be wrecked, and then the normal Czechs, who seem to love flowers, complained again, allowing them to grow back. I think this looks nicer than a mud pit, a parking lot, or chemically-treated grass 15mm tall, don't you?

Here's a closer shot of the flowerbed that came out better than most that I attempt with the camera phone. Does anybody know what type of flowers these are?

This tower, at the corner of Reznicka and Vodickova, is supposedly part of the Novomestske Radnice, a building that I don't know much about. What it shows more than anything is how the Nove Mesto or "New City," isn't so new at all. In fact, it's medieval.

I don't know as much about Tunel Blanka as some people, but honestly, how much do people need to know? The project has been going on for years, turning Hradcanska and the north side of Letna into a dirty, noisy construction site, with blasting going on. The blasting has resulted several times in lethally dangerous cave-ins that have opened giant holes in the ground in random locations in parkland full of tourists and hikers, and even the cut-and-cover method of construction often being used isn't what the city said would be used, resulting in massive disruption beyond what they had promised (even if admittedly it's not as dangerous as the blasting). Then there's the purpose....to encourage automobile use and the car culture, increasing traffic congestion in the city and diverting business out of it, potentially collapsing the local economy and leaving taxpayers with an astronomical bill for construction. The reason for this? Apparently they think people are ignorant enough to believe that freeways reduce congestion instead of increasing it. You'd think that after Communism people would know better, but apparently the Communists' ideas about urban transport haven't been adequately discredited, even though everywhere freeways have been built, everywhere in the world, they've been catastrophic failures in traffic abatement.....at least until the local economy collapses to such a degree that all the people leave.

This was a lucky shot that I got walking into Zizkov at dusk, which actually meant quite late at night, as during the summer in Prague it doesn't start to get dark until after 2100 hours. This looks to be a Class 111 with a rake of auto racks, although whether these are new cars or the cars of rail passengers (to be coupled to a long-distance passenger train) I don't know. The bridge was built after I moved to Prague, around 2007 or so (It took awhile to build, starting around 2005) as part of major rerouting of the mainlines through Karlin and Zizkov. On this particular night, I had the chance to walk one of the recently abandoned roadbeds (if I'm not mistaken), only recently converted to a bike path. It would be cool to post some info on that sometime soon, but I haven't got proper photos of it since I didn't have enough light on this particular night.

This was the first of a series of photos I did on a long walk through Prague on the 12th of June. I've got more photos on the way shortly, from the next roll of film.

Here's my fourth shot taken from Vysehrad, with the castle wall visible in the lower right.

The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the older churches in Prague, although the site is far older. Many of the vaults in Vysehrad castle, which has no keep (like Prazky Hrad) have exhibitions of art treasures that are too valuable to keep above ground, although many other statues and sculptures can be found in the gardens around the Basilica.

These tennis courts have been in this condition for the whole time I've been in Prague. I don't know how old they are, but they never seem to be in use. At the same time, they're not too overgrown, so it gives me the impression that someone is caring for them.

During my day-long walk, I took a break at NOD, a bar and coffeehouse on Dlouha. While I was sitting at a table by the window (NOD is on the first, in American terms second, floor, above Roxy, the famous rock club), and randomly noticed with my cameraphone that this would be an interesting shot, in its own way. I took pictures with both the cameraphone and the N80, though, and in the end the better camera won out, so this is an N80 shot.

Letna is a surprisingly short walk from NOD, so I walked across the river and up the hill, into the beer garden. I wanted to hang out there, but changed my mind and continued looking for photo opportunities, getting this somewhat gloomy shot of Stefanikuv Most and the Ministerstvo průmyslu (Ministry of Industry). It was actually a sunny day, but the sun was behind a cloud when I took this.

Here, from a different angle, it's possible to see Zizkov and the Zizkovska televizni vez, or Zizkov Television Tower, the tallest structure in Prague.

Turning further to the southwest, the Ministerstvo průmyslu becomes visible again, this time on the left, in addition to Tynsky Chram, which is just visible in the distance in the Stare Mesto.