After a very difficult 2022 we finally managed some time for ourselves away from caring for the parents and now have 3 holidays planned in 2023. The first is Prague for 5 days – arriving at midnight on the 14th Feb we had a later start than planned, but the sky was very overcast, so we hadn’t missed the sun.
Our hotel wasn’t far from Charles Bridge, so that was our first stop.
After a stroll along the river we headed for the library to have a look at a pile of books:-
Interesting pile of books don’t you think?
I can’t take the credit for finding these locations – I use an app called ‘Location Scout’ which I can recommend to help discover good photo opportunities. The next image was taken inside a restaurant near the Kubista Gallery.
This image was quite challenging and required multiple exposures to create an HDR image to balance the light and dark parts of the image.
Franz Kafta Rotating Head
Once every hour this sculpture rotates for 15 minutes, so plenty of opportunity to capture the spectacle.
Then back to the river where we find the ‘Dancing House’ which is actually a cafe. We caught it just before sunset where the building was lit with the golden light.
Finally we went for a drink waiting for the blue hour after sunset for this final shot of the day.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll get some early morning sunshine.
Day 2 in Prague
An early rise today and headed out from the hotel before breakfast. Unfortunately we had another cloudy morning but we wanted to get to the Charles Bridge and hoped it would be free of the normal crowds. We did take some images before heading on to other locations, but later noticed the sun appearing, so we headed back to the bridge.
We did have to wait some time for the steady flow of people to subside before this image.
This image of the water wheel was taken from under the bridge.
Walking along the river yesterday we took some photos of several ‘beaver like’ creatures, but the light was failing and produced soft images. Today, we ventured down the river and onto an island accessible from the Legii bridge and came across more of the same creatures
These can be found in large groups in the city center on the islands in the Vltava and along both banks of the waterfront. The water mammals are not native to the Czech Republic, and have no natural enemies in the area. The cute water mammals can become aggressive and even bite humans who approach to feed them or take pictures. Due to there long front teeth, their bites can be very serious, and there is also a risk of disease. Amazingly loads of people were feeding them – even children!
The National Theatre was just across the river from photographing the Copyu.
Time for a coffee – so we headed back to the ‘Dancing House’ which has a Cafe at the top.
The sun was setting so we started to wander and headed across town and back towards the Charles Bridge. This church was on route, bathed in the warm setting sun.
Finally ending up back at the Charles Bridge, but as expected the bridge was crawling with people. The only solution was to use a filter to reduce the incoming light and push the exposure up to 1 minute. Thus all the moving people blur and mostly disappear.
Possibility of rain tomorrow, so hoping to photograph the wet cobble stones.
Day 3 in Prague
Well it didn’t rain as much overnight as we had hoped, but the ground was damp, so we set out early to avoid the crowds in search of wet ground.
Some of the photos above were taken on the way up to the castle which we thought would be our only location for the day as we had already managed 20,000 steps each day and getting leg sore – certainly not a relaxing holiday.
There were too many people around to take the photos we wanted, so we decided that tomorrow morning we would revisit the castle.
Before heading off we took this view down to the Charles Bridge
And back at ground level
Rather than return to the hotel for a rest, we took a tram over to a bridge we wanted to photograph
Time for a beer whilst we waited for the sun to set to take a few more early evening photos.
Time to return to the Irish bar for dinner. Maybe tomorrow we’ll take it easy?
Day 4 in Prague
…. rounding up the loose ends…
To date, we’ve covered most of the locations we intended to photograph, but set out early again to revisit some areas. We had hoped for rain overnight to increase the reflections on the cobblestones. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the UK where the rain could have been relied upon. So we consoled ourselves with avoiding the crowds at 0700 in the morning when we returned to the castle.
From here we headed over to the Jewish quarter and passed the Rudolfinum (concert hall and art gallery) which until today had large blue banners strung down its front.
…..and onto the Jewish quarter….
We later visited the Jerusalem Synagogue a short distance away
On our way to the Synagogue we had one last pass through the ‘Old Town Square’ which of course was heavily crowded. These two photos avoided the people.
On our way back to the hotel we took a few additions photos:-
The afternoon was finally time for relaxation in the spa hotel, which we haven’t seen much of recently. Tomorrow is our last day in Prague, but we have decided to continue relaxing and will not be taking any more photos. So until our next holiday, this is all from Prague.
Bateson's Travel log 