Gazing Downward

Today was another train ride, this time from Prague to Munich. Instead of sharing random blurry scenery, I'm going to backtrack a little and share some sidewalk photos.

I look down at my feet a lot when I walk. Not just because I'm playing Pokémon Go on my phone — even before the development of mobile phones I had a knack for stepping off curbs or into holes and spraining my ankles. And many of the places I've visited on this trip have quaint cobblestones, which require an extra degree of caution. Sometimes this view of the world turns up (down?) interesting things.

Vienna has its own Hollywood Walk of Fame, feauturing composers, conductors, and other musicians. I didn't photograph every star I saw, so a few of these are photos I found online, but I did actually see each one in this collage in person. Maybe the next time I go to Vienna I'll look for the rest

The sidewalks in Prague are tiled in little square cobblestones in gray, white, and brown. Each building had its own pattern out front. Churches often had crosses, and Castle Square (third row on right) had this zigzag that kind of reminds me of crenellations.

Other things seen on the ground:

Verona: Original city plan

(Prague: Plaque by the Charles Bridge, marking the spot where Wenceslas Column used to stand)

Prague: Municipal House lobby

Cathedral floors

Tonight was the first of Beth's performances this weekend. Before the show, I grabbed a "döner kebab" at La Casa de Kebob, another Google Maps find. Talk about multicultural: Turkish food at a restaurant with a Spanish name in Germany. It was very tasty, and I would go back again.

Since Beth was only in the first piece tonight, she gave everyone permission to go home at intermission. Looking forward to seeing her dance again the next two nights — I haven't seen her perform in person since high school! And I'm excited to have my laptop back; will have to go back through my posts and do some editing :-)

Prague, Day 2

Prague is beautiful, and packed with tourists. The woman who checked me into my hotel last night said it was good that I'm here in the middle of the week, since it's less crowded. I think I don't want to know what it's like on a summer weekend!

I slept in today, and started my morning with a leisurely cup of tea (I carry my own teabags when I travel), the last of the delicious apricots I bought in Vienna, and a pastry that I grabbed at the store last night. I still don't know what this pastry is called, but it was tasty.

After breakfast, I joined the hordes streaming over the Charles Bridge.

I got to the Old Town just before noon, and saw the astronomical clock glockenspiel play. I also poked my head into town hall.

Town Hall glockenspiel

Inside Town Hall 

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There are so many beautiful old buildings here. I might label these properly when I get back to my computer next week, but for now here are a bunch of them, in no particular order:

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For lunch today I had a trdelnik with ice cream and Nutella:

  

Next stop was a grocery store, where I picked up some sandwich stuff, fruit, and snacks:

After a round trip up and down to my room (64 steps each way), I headed up to the Castle Quarter. First stop there was St. Vitus' Cathedral. Wow!

Nave

Organs (baroque one above, modern one below)

Rose window

Tower

Pulpit

St. Wenceslas Chapel

Tomb of St. John of Nepomuk

A couple of other photos from the Castle Quarter:

Basilica of St. George

Lamppost

(When I started up this picturesque stairway to the castle, I had no idea there were 208 steps along the way.)

Last stop of the evening was back in Old Town. There are a ton of concerts here aimed at tourists: almost all feature Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, plus an assortment of Mozart's greatest hits. I decided the organ concert at St. Francis of Assisi sounded more promising: there was a mezzo soprano, flute, and organ, and although the program had a lot of baroque music, some later stuff was also programmed.

There was at least one substitution on the program: How Beautiful Are the Feet is *not* from Judas Maccabeus.

The Best of Vienna

First stop today was a cafe, where we enjoyed our breakfast ouside. After that, we headed over to the Hofburg.

 

 

We started by touring the Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments.

Sisi's bedroom

Sisi's exercise room — I don't think I've ever seen one in any other palace

Dining room

Place setting

 

 

Next stop was the Imperial Treasury. It's funny, real gold is so shiny and untarnished that it looks fake! There was room after room of scepters and capes and crowns and all kinds of other regalia. Here are some crowns:

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The weather was sunny and warm today, with only a brief sprinkle of rain (despite not bringing the raincoat), so for lunch we opted to sit in a cafe and enjoy some Eiskaffee (coffee with ice cream):

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Next we went to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We toured the main nave and catacombs (no photos allowed in the catacombs), but ran out of steam for the towers. Here are way too many photos:

Pulpit outside the north tower

Roof detail

Nave

Altar

Limestone pulpit

Pulpit detail

Pulpit detail

Nave looking toward organ

Organ

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For dinner, we decided to fully embrace being tourists and ordered wienerschnitzel.

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After dinner we sat in a park and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Brahms statue

Karlskirche

Karlskirche detail

Co-inventor of the sewing machine

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Last, but certainly not least, we went to a Vienna Philharmonic concert. On the program was Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, conducted by Adam Fischer, with the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien choir. Despite the many different choirs both Susan and I have sung in, somehow neither of us has every sung this piece. Fantastic concert, amazing venue!

The concert hall (Musikverein Wien)

The performers

The organ (not used for this concert)

Happy tourists