2014

As you might have noticed, I took a lot of cameraphone shots in 2013, but this year I'm going to attempt some more serious photography. Those two boxes of Fomapan are old and expired, so I'm hoping they don't turn out too bad, but the Tmax is fresh.

Here's the continued construction at Narodni Trida. At the moment, it looks like the new Metro station will have offices and possibly some shops over it, while the tram stop will remain in the same spot.

Here they are again! I know that it's odd that I'm posting all this cameraphone shots from concerts without any audio, but I'm working on that. I don't know if I'll do any concert videos in the end, since I'll want to ask the bands.

During my lunch break, I had some extra time to go to Hlavni Nadrazi to watch trains. I hadn't done so in a number of years, and I got lucky at least in that the fog that day made the pictures slightly more dramatic. This is the south, or west (southwest?), throat.

This shot is slightly further in, and to the right of the last shot following the tracks on the east side.

This building is close to the station, and at the time I took this I didn't know what it was. It looks impressive enough to have been built by someone very rich in the past (or possibly a government), but at the moment it's serving as an elementary school.

These Taurus electrics are spreading across the world at the moment, with even Amtrak buying them. Most of the customers are still in Europe, though, and Railjet is one of these, being a private train operating company that partially serves Praha Hlavni Nadrazi. This was taken on the north, or east, throat.

For the most part, the winter of 2013-2014 has been extremely mild in Prague, abnormally so, in fact. However, January saw normal below-freezing temperatures, frozen lakes, and so on, and this was one of the snowstorms.

When I took this in Mnichovice, it was still January, so there was still snow on the ground. That's a City Elefant in original livery departing to the south with a Benesov service, operating PID Linka S9.

Mnichovice actually has two station buildings. The main one behind me which I've shown in other photos, and this one, which shelters southbound passengers. This building, as you can tell from its appearance, is also old, so it doesn't date to the recent corridor reconstruction. Mnichovice now has a passenger subway at the north end of the platforms, but this subway doesn't cross in the middle of the platforms, and to the best of my knowledge Mnichovice hasn't had a passenger walkover recently, so this shelter is actually quite practical. It would just be nicer if it was a proper, enclosed building with heating.

Here's a northbound City Elefant operating Linka S9 again. This was the same day as the previous two shots. This would normally be a shot where the number would be easily visible, but the shot blurred, so it isn't.

Zamek Pruhonice is on a hill, and this is evidence of its heritage as a medieval castle site. Many zameks, or chateaus, in the Czech lands were originally hrads, or castles, so when "zamek" and "hrad" are translated, they are frequently both translated as meaning "castle." The Pruhonice site is of somewhat unknown origins, but written records go back to the 1270's, when the Zdislav family owned it. The oldest building nearby is the Chapel of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, but the rest of the comlex is more recent. The first renovation was in the 16th Century, and it is believed that at this stage it retained its defensive fortifications, although no pictures have been found of the castle before or after this rebuild. It is believed that the entire estate was heavily damaged in the Thirty Years War, with the current buildings probably dating to the time that Sir Antonio Binago owned it, starting in 1636. However, several more reconstructions followed in 1742-1744, 1800, and 1889-1893, with most of these reconstructions being intended to make it more habitable for the nobles who lived there. Over the years, it has served as a manor house (prior to 1669), as a monastery (1669-1685), as a manor house again (1686-1927), and came under control of the Czech government in 1927. Although it remains a tourist attraction and can be a venue for weddings and other public functions, its official use is as a laboratory for the ASCR, which roughly translated is the Czech Institute of Botany. Extensive greenhouses are maintained on site for this purpose.

This is much closer, obviously, through the parkland added to the site in the 1740's. Out of frame to the right is a tea house which is open to the public.

This is behind the zamek, showing the pond, which is artifically maintained by a dam out of frame to the right (although exactly how it works is unclear to me, as it appears to dam up water coming in from the right in this photo, rather than the other way around). The official name of this pond is Podzamecky rybnik, or "Behind-the-Chateau Pond." I am unaware, however, of which reconstruction added the dam and pond. On this occassion, it was frozen by the cold winter weather, which as about -16 Celsius, or just above 0 Fahrenheit, if I'm remembering correctly. This was in contrast to the rest of the 2013-2014 winter, which was very mild, almost like summer.

Often, even in very cold weather, fast-moving water doesn't freeze, so while the Pruhonice pond froze, the faster-moving water by the dam didn't. The dam, like many dams, creates an artificial waterfall.

I've taken pictures of Frantisskanska Zahrada before, almost from this exact same angle, but in the summer. In this case, I happened to be there in the winter.

St. Mary of the Snows church naturally is open year-round, but here's an actual picture of the church in the snow. Officially founded in 1347 (some sources say 1397, so this could be wrong), this church is physically the highest in Prague with a 34 metre-high vault, even though this photo doesn't make it obvious. This height record doesn't include spires, as St. Vitus Cathedral and several other Christian places of worship have spires far above 34 metres. The altar at St. Mary of the Snows is also higher than any other in Prague, at 29 metres.

Ion at An may not be a strictly traditional hardcore punk band, but for that matter their guitarist plays an 8-string.