The Trip to Prague

Still no pictures. That won't happen until we get home. I guess that business people have no use for a graphics program and don't want to email photos home, so these computers in business centers have no graphics programs or slots for photo disks.

After we left Bratislava, we drove through the countryside in the Czech Republic, stopping at Telč (Telch) (pic above) and Čresky Bodejovice (Chesky Boo-da-veech). Both are lovely old towns. In Telč, the gothic chateau was destroyed and the lord of the manor sent for builders and craftsmen to rebuild it in the Renaissance style. When they finished, he said, "Just go ahead and finish the town in the same style," so all of the buildings have Renaissance facades on them. If you look carefully behind the roof line, you can see building backs that don't match. It looks like a Hollywood set. The fronts are decorated beautifully, many trompe-l'oeil works protraying old stone work. This restoration work was done centuries ago.

While staying in Čresky Bodejovice, we took a day-trip to Čresky Krumlov, a larger town surrounding a lovely castle. Along the same lines, when the castle was rebuilt after the Renaissance, they used the same technique, creating a Renaissance look for a Gothic castle. In the gorgeous chapel, the marble is applied with paint, a technique which cost them more than the original mable. I don't know if we'd have known the difference if we had not been told. They even painted cracks in the marble! On to Prague today.

We left Čresky Bodejovice this morning and drove to Prague. It was a nice drive, but thank heavens for our GPS! Across country is fine, but city driving is tough when you have to puzzle over the road signs. At home, we never give a thought to those international symbols on signs (like the pic of the airplane before the airport or the men and women on restrooms), but we've really appreciated them here! We look for them!

Houses in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic are almost always built using a technique like stucco. I've been interested in the process and taken a good number of pics of buildings in various stages of construction. There must be a good source of clay in the area because the under layer is made of a ceramic-sort of 3-D tile. Then the stucco layer is applied and a color layer on top. Mostly pleasant shades of yellow, but a lot of rose shades also. Wood seems to be used for decorative purposes only.

Anyway, we got to the hotel, and they had reservations for Dick and Dee, but not for the rest of us, so we went to lunch while the hotel got organized. Lunch at an Italian pizza place--much better than the Czech pizza place a few nights ago. Apparently no Czech restuarants open today. Who knows why. (These are really our only two lapses--we've eaten Czech and Slovak most of the time.) Anyway, we went back to the hotel and our little clerk (right) gave us all room keys and apologized for the problem. Larry and I went up to our room and found . . . . . . shoes, pajamas and fruit there. Somebody else's room. We went back to the desk and found no room at the inn. The upshot of the whole thing was that for tonight we're staying at another hotel and will go back to the first for the next three days. She threw in two small bottles of champagne. The substitute hotel is lovely. The clerk saved the day by finding us a room at the inn for the next few days!

Tonight we go to dinner and a folklore festival. We've been looking forward to this!

When I really have time, I'll tell about our night in the old winery with the gypsies.