Old Jewish Cemeteries, Prague & Sarajevo

The Prague photos are from a bit more than 10 years ago and the Sarajevo photos a bit over 9 years ago. Apparently people need reminders :(. You can see the scars of the civil war in some of the Sarajevo stones.

Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague

Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague

Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague

Old Jewish Cemetery - Sarajevo

Old Jewish Cemetery - Sarajevo

Old Jewish Cemetery - Sarajevo

The Way Back Machine - 2008

From 6 years ago, "The Wooden Church in Dobříkov"

And The Saints Go Marching In...

The Wall

I believe this is post #300. In any case, this is a photo of a rock wall I ran across today during my effort to repopulate AdobeBridge (after reviving my computer last week) with the keywords I've applied to all my photos the past 3 years or so, It is about here, March of 2008 that Bridge keeps choking on loading/saving the keyword lists and I keep banging my head against a wall.

Wall - Zámek Žleby, Czech Republic

Jeff Takes People Pictures Too

They are a very small percentage of what I take, and I'm not particularly good at it (especially not good using flash), but occasionally I end up quite pleased with some of my informal, non-posed portraits.

Elesa Remembers What it is Like to Have Little OnesCzech Republic, Spring 2008

The Wooden Church in Dobříkov

DOBŘÍKOV - Dřevěný kostelík z Podkarpatské Rusi

This small 17th century church was "rescued" from the Ukraine, and moved log by log to the little village of Dobříkov, not far from Choceň in 1930 or so. The interior is very dark, (well actually the exterior is too :) but everywhere you look is yet another iconic depiction of a saint or two. There isn't a whole lot on the internet that I could find about this village and church, beyond what is here and here. We stopped by and checked it out a little closer and one of the local women let us in and gave us a little tour. We'd originally visited back in 1995 I believe when we went through the area and my parents stayed at a small bed and breakfast a few hundred yards away. I probably have slides of it somewhere.


The Crucifixion - Dobříkov, Czech Republic



Saints - Dobříkov, Czech Republic

Abandoning All Pretense of Originality

I thought this was pretty original. I mean really, how many people would think to take a photo of a sewer lid? Well apparently pretty many others have. Enough that someone actually googled the terms: prague castle sewer. On the bright side, I was the second hit in the results list :) and the googler took a look at my photo.

I can pretty much guarantee that the photo below has been taken a million times. Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand of them are for sale on the Charles Bridge. Here is my version.


Prague Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj) at Night - Prague

Self Portrait with Shelby

A "fun" photo I probably would have never taken just a couple years ago in the days of film. When Shelby and I were out with our cameras in Prague, on our way up to the castle, I noticed our reflection in a menu written on a mirror across the street. I zoomed out to 200 with my 70-200 and focused on our reflection vice the written menu....and shazam!

Self Portrait with Shelby - Prague, Spring 2008

Prague, Three Details

Noticed On the Way Up the Hill - Castle District, Prague




The Powder Tower (Prašná Brána) - Prague



Somewhere Near Charles Bridge (Karlův Most) - Prague

Charles Bridge (Karlův Most) -Details

I take a lot of "detail" photos in cities...and Prague is detail heaven. Here are a few of the details that caught my eye on Charles Bridge (Karlův Most)

Man's Best Friend - Charles Bridge, Prague(Apparently considered lucky)



...not so lucky...Behind Bars - Charles Bridge, Prague




And From the Heavens Burst Forth... - Charles Bridge, Prague




Although from the portion in this photo, you wouldn't necessarily notice, the entire statue reminded me of the plague columns I've seen in other parts of Czech Republic.

The Struggle - Charles Bridge, Prague

Looking Up - More Prague

A look up at three of the more famous landmarks in Prague


The Powder Tower (Prašná Brána) at Sunset - Prague




Church Our Lady before the Týn - Old Town Square, Prague
Kostel Matky Boží pøed Týnem




Saint Vitus's Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta), Prague Castle

Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

More from Prague. Below are a few of the many photos I took at the Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hřbitov). The cemetery contains an unknown number of graves, layers of graves, gravestones one upon the other. Estimates commonly seen on the internet say 12,000 or so headstones and 100,000 buried there from the late 1400's until the late 1700's. As cemeteries are among my favorite photographic subjects, Elesa and Carl had to wait a bit while I (and Shelby) took "one last" photo. The light was constantly changing as the sun played peek-a-boo behind the clouds.

A Jumble of Headstones - Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague




Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague




Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague




Old Jewish Cemetery - Prague

Prague, Even the Sewers are Cool

I haven't had much time to mess with photography the past week or so. Now I'm just getting back to going through the photos I took in Prague. I like taking photos of little details in cities. Things on the sides of buildings, statues and portions thereof etc. I noticed walking through Prague that even the sewer lids there are a cut above...

Sewer Lid - Prague



Utility Access - Prague

And then we got to Prague

...which is my favorite city in the whole world...

Like hundreds of other people, I took a few photos from the far end of the Charles Bridge (Karlův Most). But unlike about 90% of them, I didn't use a pop-up flash :)

Prague Castle District at Dusk - Czech Republic

Odds and Ends

I was able to replace my monitor a lot quicker than I feared. I now have a BRIGHT new LCD that weighs about 1/4 of my dead CRT screen and takes up far less room. I'm still trying to get the colors and brightness etc at least close to right...so if a photo's colors, brightness etc are way off, please let me know. It might be my monitor for a change...because before, it was certainly yours :)

Here a few photos that I was working on when my previous monitor went to monitor heaven....

I love seeing all the crucifixes, small chapels and other little monuments and memorials along the roads in Czech (Slovenia has a lot of neat ones too). This one was at the edge of the little village where we pulled off the last of real road to drive up the trail to the bunker, Tvrz Bouda. Weathered and worn, I was struck by how the color persevered.

Roadside Shrine - Near Tvrz Bouda, Czech



On the drive back from Tvrz Bouda to Choceň, we stopped by the church of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Sorrows, Homol (Pilgrimage) church It was built in the 1690's and sits above a massive staircase. The staircase goes up the side of the hill to the chapels and the main church. The weather was cold, wet and windy with some snow mixed in with the rain. My photos of the church itself sitting atop the lengthy staircase left a lot to be desired....like... I desire to go back at a better time of day and during better weather :)


Looking Down the Steps - Homol Pilgrimage Church, Czech




Chapel - Homol Pilgrimage Church, Czech



Sometime, probably the early 1900's, the trains came to Choceň. They just cut their way deep and straight (and I do mean straight!) through the hill. It must have been an amazing engineering feat at the time.

All Trains Lead to Choceň - Choceň, Czech

Kutná Hora, Part 1

After Zámek Žleby, we stopped by Kutná Hora for a couple hours. Its historic town center, the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Kutná Hora is one of the most popular day trips for tourists from Prague and there were a lot around. The
St. Barbara Church lends itself to typical postcard photos and the interior has all kinds of neat details, carvings, paintings, statues, stained glass etc.

St. Barbara Church - Kutná Hora, Czech Republic



Flying Buttresses, St. Barbara Church - Kutná Hora, Czech Republic



Stained Glass, St. Barbara Church - Kutná Hora, Czech Republic



Statues Along the Path, Church of Saint James in the Background, Kutná Hora




...next....the "Bone Church"

Zámek Žleby

The next day on our drive to Prague, we detoured off a couple miles to a little village with a big castle. According to the short wikipedia entry, the village population is about 1200. The weather was a little foreboding and chilly with the sun peeking out a bit every once and a while.

Zámek Žleby - Žleby, Czech Republic



Like many other things, the interior of the castle was closed until sometime in April. The entrance was guarded by a fierce looking (anatomically correct it appears:) bull.

Guarding the Entrance - Žleby, Czech Republic



And the Sun Came Out - Žleby, Czech Republic

Hradec Králové

After our morning in Litomyšl, we headed up to Hradec Králové for the afternoon and walked around there a bit. I spent a bit of time trying to get this first photo right. I wanted the beautiful sky and the steeple(s) of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the background, behind some of the sculptures of saints around the Marian Column (or Plague Column) in Velké Square. In retrospect, I should have popped it with a little bit of fill flash, but that would have meant getting the flash out of my camera bag and all sorts of other excuses.

"Plague Column" - Hradec Králové, Czech Republic



From the monument, we walked around the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (Katedrála Svatého Ducha). On the one side there were maybe 4 or 5 reliefs embedded into the walls. I'm not sure and can't find any mention of them, but my guess is that they are probably tombs of early bishops.

Sent to the Corner - Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Litomyšl

One morning we drove over to Litomyšl. The castle complex there is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Most places in the Czech Republic outside of Prague, such as as castles, churches etc aren't open to tourists and tours until April. This was no exception, but we still walked around and had a look at the outside and the grounds of the complex. Then we spent a little time in the town square area. The drawings on the side of the building are pretty cool (you can see the details a bit if you click on my photo below)

I couldn't resist the juxtaposition of the little pink soviet era car parked by all by itself in the courtyard of this famous castle. I have messed with a bunch of different crops of the photo, but for now, this is the one you get to see :)

Pink "Cadillac" & Castle - Litomyšl, Czech Republic



Litomyšl is the birth place of composer Bedřich Smetana. To be quite honest, as far as composers go, I don't go much beyond Bach, Beethoven and the Beetles. So I don't really recall ever having heard of this guy. But he must be famous, his statue was in the town square :)

Bedřich Smetana - Town Square, Litomyšl, Czech Republic

Czech Artillery Fortification Bouda - Tvrz Bouda

One of the first things we did on our spring break vacation was drive up through the still snowy forest to get a personalized tour of Czech Artillery Fortification Bouda (Tvrz Bouda). It is near the town of Těchonín, and close to the Polish-Czech border.

The basics. It was one of many fortifications built by the Czechs in the time between WWI and WWII, but one of only five of this type of massive artillery fortification. Built in less than two years 1936-38, it could hold a garrison of over 300 men (hot bunking) who could survive sealed off for a couple weeks if necessary (they had a method of basically collapsing the entrance on itself). The main tunnel corridor pictured below is about 1/2 a mile long and has over 180 feet of solid rock above much of it. Although the structure was completed before the Czechs were sold out to the Germans by Chamberlain, the massive retractable artillery gun which the bunker was designed to control was never completed and installed. You can read more facts and figures and historical context on the linked page. If you click around the Czech language portions of the web site, you can see more photos and diagrams.

Here are a couple of photos I took during our tour.

Main Corridor "Trvz Bouda" - Near Těchonín, Czech Republic



Incomplete Section for Power Plant and Fuel Depot, Trvz Bouda -

Back from "Spring" Break

...a week and over 770 photos later. The "spring" part was a little more winter-like than what I usually associate with spring break. It snowed at least a portion of each of the first three days, and then the weather turned nicer and more spring-like. As I get things organized over the next few weeks, I'll be sure to post photos from all over the Czech Republic.

For now, here are the first and last photos I took on the trip.

Snow Outside WWII Era Bunker "Trvz Bouda" - Czech Republic



Roadside Chapel - Near Znojmo, Moravia, Czech Republic