A Nice Surprise I do not know why I was surprised, as I surely should have thought ahead of time that there would be a manger scene, a Bethlehem, at the St. Vitus Cathedral here in Prague. But I was surprised when I saw it. It was located just to the left of the Golden entrance way and was made completely of straw. I must say the artist was quite skilled in forming straw into the manger scene. Figures made of straw struck me as very appropriate. After all Mary, Joseph and Jesus were probably surrounded by straw and, indeed, in [View Full Entry]

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Winter in Prague - Season of enchantment I love spring and summer in Prague when the days are long and the sun is abundant. I never thought I would enjoy being in Prague in the fall when days became shorter and nights longer. I was always pleased that we arrived in January when days were lengthening and that we stayed until May and June when the sun was up way past setting time in Maryland where we live in the USA. So, this fall when I arrived in September and knew I was staying till the middle of December I [View Full Entry]

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The Czechs call them Betlems, the French Creches and the Americans Manger Scenes In 2005 when we were going to Prague in January people we met who had lived in Prague for a year on a Fulbright teacher exchange told us they were so sorry we were going to miss Christmas in Prague since we would not, in all likelihood, be seeing any of the famous Betlehems (The Czech spelling of Bethlehem) which are such a traditional part of the Czech Christmas scene. They explained that in the past each family would devote a room or a part of a [View Full Entry]

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Tis the season in Prague. Christmas is coming and Prague is getting ready. The Christmas stalls are up and running in Old Town Square and at the end of Wenceslas Square. Actually there are stalls in other parts of Prague also. People are shopping. Street light posts are decorated and the temperature is falling ... but so far no snow. The food looks great and what we have sampled tasted great. Each time we have visited Old Town Square has been completely filled with people and everyone seems happy. Parents hoist children onto their shoulders so they can see better. Everyone [View Full Entry]

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Main Train Station - Guide Book Description In a guide book we have there is a beautiful photo of an Art Nouveau decoration. When I saw the photo in the book I thought, "We have traveled from and to this station quite a number of times and I have never seen any art nouveau. Where can it be?" I thought it strange that we had never seen this piece of art. The artwork in the photo was obviously large. It wasn't like it was asomething small could be hidden easily. Additionally the guidebook states that the station is "one of the [View Full Entry]

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Faces on the Wall In another entry we talked a bit about the faces on the outside wall of the train station. Because we had never previously walked around the outside of the station, we had not seen them. We hope you enjoy the photos. [View Full Entry]

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Czech National Gallery of Art The first Wednesday of each month the National Gallery of Art here in Prague opens its doors, free of charge, from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. . We decided to visit today. The gallery is huge. There are at least five floors displaying art, and each floor is large. We spent about 3 1/2 to 4 hours and only covered two floors and we did not spent a lot of time in front of each exhibit. I could have taken hundreds of photos, but restrained myself. Photos are allowed as long as no flash is used. [View Full Entry]

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Sunny Saturday Saturday started off gray, but gradually the sun burned away the fog. By noon the sun was shining brightly. Nancy had worked all morning editing a 176 page book on the early history of Baptists while I (Bill) worked in the library. I walked up the 'infamous' 47 steps to our room and said, "Let's go. It is beautiful outside." Nancy agreed. "What do you want for lunch? Pizza? Italian? Chinese?" Nancy thought a minute and exclaimed, "Afghan. Let's go to the Afghan restaurant." Several years ago we discovered an Afghan restaurant and had promised eac [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday October 29th, 2008 Zelezny Brod - Centuries of glass making, centuries old houses Glass Making Last spring we learned of a glass making factory in the small town of Zelezny Brod that lies in the small mountains in the northern part of the Czech Republic. Nancy had picked up a brochure when we were in Mala Skala advertising the beautiful glass beads that are made there. Our friend, Debbie, is an artist in Massachusetts and she often glues small objects in her water color paintings and Nancy wanted her to know about the factory. Debbie wanted to visit a glas [View Full Entry]

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Nymburk -- Not in the Guidebooks Nymburk is a village that does not appear in any guidebook that I have read. There is information on the town on the Internet. That is how I found Nymburk completely by accident. I was checking the train schedule from Prague to Jicin where there are several very nice hiking tails. Last spring we enjoyed our hiking at Mala Skala and had planned on returning to the Cesky Raj for more hiking if we had the opportunity to do so. I saw there were hourly commuter trains to Jicin and that many stopped at Nymburk. [View Full Entry]

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