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~Trinidad~ Thursday, 29th June 2006 Thursday morning ~ and i am back from Prague. it's somehow almost surreal to think that just a morning ago, i woke up in Trinidad, in a room with rose tapestry. smile. strange as it sounds, but that was the name of the hotel where we staid for the third night, after the two nights that were available in the Miss Sophie apartment in Nove Mesto. and it turned out to be a perfect match, as Trinidad was on the other side of the river, not far from the castle, right next to the metro station Malostranska and the Waldstein Palais and the connecting park.
as it turned out, there also was a tram stop next to the hotel, so after checking into Trinidad on Wednesday, it was easy to figure out what we would be doing next: take the tram to the castle. “we are still early,” we said when we arrived up there, and walked past the castle park. well. we weren't, we had to realize, as we stepped through the gates, and right into the crowd. “Tour A – all buildings, B – Saint Vitus Cathedral and St. George's Basilica, C – Golden Lane”, a signpost offered. we took Tour D: a tour through the castle grounds, followed by a walk through the castle garden with a view.
for the way back, we took the walkway that leads from the castle to the river – and with that, to the restaurant we had discovered on the first evening, a laid back place with a garden terrace, and great Czech food: Cerno's Place.
it was also the place where we had our goodbye lunch yesterday, after a lyrical last walk along the Vlatava, across the Charles Bridge, and on the new Kafka Museum, where two very kafkaesk water statues were caught in an endless competition of showing off.
from there it was just another five minutes to get back to the Waldstein Palace, and to the connected building that once was home of the Wallenstein Riding School, and now belongs to the National Gallery and is temporary home of paintings, yet still carries the historic name. there was a Duerer exhibit the time we were there, in celebration of the anniversary of one of his masterpieces: the Feast of the Rose Garlands. which almost could be a name for Prague, if you only changed the last two words, and turned it into: the Feast of the Thousand Towers, for that is what the architects of Prague seem to have celebrated in this place. i just went through my photos again, looking for one photo that could sum up the time in Prague, and finally found it – the photo of a painting seller stand on Charles Bridge, with a medley of moods and places, transformed into colour on paper.
oh and it was so good, me and Inge together in Prague, walking the streets, discovering places, taking photos, visiting exhibitions and cafes and second hand book shops. in one, they even had old copies of the New Yorker. and in another, named “Anagram”, i found the perfect book for me, a book that tells about Prague history and art. it's called “The borders of Bohemia”, and also has quotes in it, lines of stories, lines of poems. one of them, from Milan Kundera: we shall flee rest, we shall flee sleep ~~~ back to: the Prague page |
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