Prague, Part 2

This style of elevator, that I've only seen in the Czech Republic, operates in perpetual motion, with the cars operating in a circle, one side of cars (more than one per floor), running up while the others run down. This one has been shut down for obvious safety reasons, but I know of at least one other that was still operating as recently as 2006, and you can see one in the movie "Kafka." This one is in the old DPP office building next to Vltavska tram and metro station.

This wasn't my first-ever shot of one of the new Skoda 15t trams, but it was my first shot of one in revenue service. This was at the Narodni Divadlo stop, and the only reason that I got the shot was that I was in the coffeehouse in the Nova Scena (formerly Laterna Magika) theatre connected to the Narodni Divadlo, or National Theatre.

Seen under construction in some of my older photos, the old Communist-era City Tower, unfinished in 1989 and not completed until a few years ago, is now full of tenants, as evidenced by this sign, with Raiffeisen Bank being the largest. This was the last photo taken by my Sony Ericsson W302 cameraphone, which survived being dropped into the bathtub only to become prohibitively unreliable a few days later, unfortunately after wrecking a lot of my Hradec Kralove shots (they simply disappeared from the phone's flash memory).

This was my first rail photo with the new cameraphone. #7210 is a Tatra T3SU, built sometime in the 1970's.

The Smart ED, essentially a Smart ForTwo with electric drive, has been much talked about in recent years, but this is the first one that I saw in real life, 2011 being the first full year of production. This one was being used by the Mosaic House hotel, although for what purpose I wasn't clear on. It isn't an ideal taxi, for one thing, as it doesn't have a full trunk for suitcases.

Contrary to the popular myth, May of 1945 saw a major uprising against the Nazi regime that ultimately ended in its fall. The story is complicated, but ultimately the Czech insurgency suffered heavy losses in spite of prevailing in the end (largely with the help of the Russians, both Soviet and ex-Nazi, illustrating the complications involved). A great deal of effort has been made to memorialise the insurgents who died, so the city is covered with these World War II memorials, often on the spot where they fell. The scattered nature of these memorials illustrates that the battles raged throughout the city, far more so than most history books admit. There are also photo books available showing the battles, as a number of photographers took considerable risks to document them. A similar effort has been made with Holocaust victims, usually marking the houses where they lived.

This was after our arrival on the CityNightLine service in Praha Hlavni Nadrazi. Our sleeper was a first class one, operated by JLV, making it actually the only Czech sleeper on the train, as the rest were DB (and possibly SBB, I don't remember). The train was heavy enough to be double headed, although as usual it ran under 160Km/h (99 m.p.h.) on Ceske Drahy. The trailing unit was #371015-9. I noted that both units were named. #371004-3 was named "Otik," and #371015-9 had a common Czech woman's name, although I've forgotten it. Does anybody know it?

Maybe the most famous pub in Prague, at least according to the tourist literature, is U Fleku. This pub supposedly used to be frequented by Jaroslav Hasek (like most of the older pubs in Prague, actually), and is a well-known brew pub as well. Their specialty is this very-rich, sweet dark beer. It isn't cheap, but neither is the pub, which is rarely frequented by locals anymore. The shot glasses in this photo have Becherovka in them, which is also passed around in this pub as if it were beer. It's not beer, though. I have photos elsewhere of the distillery for this herbal liquor, which usually has an alcohol content of about 38%, more powerful than most vodka or tequila, although there are some weaker, sweeter versions of it. In reality, though, the full-powered stuff is also pretty sweet.

Another brewpub in Prague, almost as famous as U Fleku, is U Medvidku. U Medvidku is mostly known for their X33 dark beer, supposedly the most powerful beer in the world (although 33 indicates 33 degrees Plato, rather than 33% alcohol). However, a milder, and far cheaper option is Old Gott, seen here. My understanding is that the name is a pun in several respects, referencing "God" in German, but also, probably, the now-geriatric Czech pop star Karel Gott.

As in most brew pubs, the U Medvidku brewery is openly displayed to the public. To see it, though, or to drink the products, you have to go to the second (in European terms first) floor, as the ground floor is a more food-oriented pub that serves Budweiser Budvar beer and other more mainstream products. This kettle interests me somewhat as I don't know exactly what it's used for. Here I'll confess my ignorance of brewing. At first sight, it looks like an extremely old fashioned, pre-industrial copper kettle for brewing malt, but it looks too shallow for that. On the other hand, U Medvidku's output in very moderate. Note that here the kettle is empty.

Here are two more industrial-era closed copper kettles, even if they are small. The all-paper office is a nice historical touch too, even if it appears to be fully operational (with a 1990's era phone, from the looks of it).

This is the fermentation tank at U Medvidku. Note that it's wooden and open.

There are several more brewpubs in Prague besides U Fleku and U Medvidku, and this is one of them. It's history has restarted several times after fires, but the current building dates mostly to the 1780's, in the era of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Supposedly he used to sit behind the kettle on the left, although I don't know if the current pub owners can prove this claim. The beer is good, and as cheap as Pilsner Urquell, which is also sold here.

This isn't Pilsner Urquell, although the mug is a Pilsner Urquell mug. This is actually U Dvou Kocek's house brew, made in their brewery. It's an unfiltered, unpasteurized beer, like most beers sold in Prague brewpubs, and would probably be considered a Lezak, or lager.

During the era of early-20th-Century Cubism, Bohemia was one of the few places in the world where there were Cubist buildings, as usually the style was associated more with painting and sculpture. Josef Gocar was one of the leading Czech Cubist architects, and for tourists, one of his easiest works to visit is the House of the Black Madonna, seen here, which isn't far from Namesti Republiky. Built between 1911 and 1912, it replaced an earlier building which it inherited its distinctive "Black Madonna" statue from. The Wikipedia article is here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Black_Madonna

One of the many Prague buildings undergoing restoration recently has been Masarykovo Nadrazi. This is the oldest surviving railway station in the city, built in 1845 (the original Dejvice would rival it, having been built even earlier for a horsedrawn tramway). I took this cameraphone shot right after they pulled the scaffolding off of the restored, repainted trainshed, which extends forward to the street.

This was what I found upon my return to Prague. Vaclav Havel, the former President and revolutionary, had died while I was away. This display of candles, cards, and so on, most of them around the older Svaty Vaclav (St. Wenceslas) statue, stayed up longer than planned, largely due to public outcry against government plans to dismantle it by New Year's Eve (remembering national heroes is a downer when people are on a drinking binge). If I'm remembering correctly, some elements of it were still up when I got back from my New Year's vacation to Wales.

This is a wider shot, taken from the front of the statue instead of the left side as before.