Bratislava - Japanese food

This is Ebi Soba, or rather, the Bratislava version. It is inferior to any of the soba noodles  that I have eaten whether inside or outside Japan.  Still, it was a welcome change for a jaded palete.  The Sencha green tea was the real McCoy, but mistakenly served in a cup that was bigger than the teapot.     

Bratislava - Hlavné Námestie

It's off season, and there was hardly a tourist in sight at the Main Square, Bratislava. Today, it was overcast, windy and rather chilly.  As I have only packed for summer weather, I looked a little bit short sighted in my white capri pants.  
The Old Town is as charming as I remember it from my last visit.  Today, most of the stalls on the square were selling painted Easter Eggs.  But trade was slow.

The Old Town Hall dominates the Hlavné Námestie

The splendid Art Nouveau building (centre) from the turn of the century

The 2012 Bratislava Marathon

Dawn and Dusk at Bratislava

Morning breaking at Pribinova 

Sunset at Roznavska

There are no noticeable changes in the landscape since leaving Bratislava in December 2011.  Not that I expected any.  But, the colours on the tower blocks seem to be sharper in the spring sun light, and the scaffolding has come off some buildings.  Back in the office, the welcome is as warm as ever.


All along the main routes in Bratislava, there are billboards featuring smiling politicians, remnants of the election just gone.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that a lot of voters are worried about an impending increase in taxation. The cartoon below has prompted me to want to understand a little bit about the political parties and the political process in this country.

The ethereal magnolia

The magnolia is here, with its astonishing goblet- shaped flowers that are admired icons of spring. It's here one day and gone the next....

It's been warm in the UK, with hose pipe ban from 1st April. When I come home in May, it will be high summer. But for now, early spring will be spent in central Europe.

Spring is here

The first camellia in the garden 

Daffodils at the Mandarin Oriental, Prague

The brilliant Lang Lang

Tuesday 20th March at Royal Albert Hall, London - One of the hottest tickets in classical music - Lang Lang, thanking members of the Philharmonic Orchestra after his performances of Beethoven's Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 4.  Lang Lang was uncharacteristically restrained, but still highly expressive in parts.  Despite his brilliance, I still prefer Alfred Brendel, Simon Rattle and the Wiener Philharmoniker's renditions.

Prague

Something to remember Prague by.  



Love's pure silver flame 
gives each innermost spirit
invisible warmth

Prague

We went back to Prague because we love the city when we were there in 2002.  This time, we like it even more, our stay made all the more pleasant by the ubiquitous Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which distinguishes itself by the flawless and attentive service it lavishes on the guests.


There must be millions of images of Prague on the internet, so here are a few personal ones,  perhaps from a less familiar angle.

There are literally hundreds of glassware shops in Prague, from the high end Moser to the low end tourist tack, where hideous objects lie cheek by jowl.  The visitors can choose from traditional tableware to modern sculptures, and the choice is bewildering.  In a city that celebrates music and culture, this small orchestra is all charm and fun.  

A jazz band playing at the Old Town square.  This five-some was there everyday, in the same place, playing the kind of jazz that we both can identify with.  It attracted a diverse audience; there were two teenagers rocking away on one occasion, as if they were dancing to some modern disco music.  The old chap playing the skiffle board reminded one that such type of music is from a different era.

Yet another jazz band playing on the Charles Bridge.  However, the tourists on the Charles Bridge were too busy posing for  and taking photographs, so much so that the musicians were practically ignored.  In the evening, in the Old Town, one can find young musicians playing Mozart (always Mozart), and their music wonderfully serenaded the passers-by.  Prague after all, is a romantic city.

The rather splendid auditorium of the Dvorak Hall at the Rudofinum.  The concierge had no difficulty booking the tickets on the telephone, and had even offered to have the tickets couriered to the hotel, but we preferred to stroll across the Vltava to fetch the tickets.  Then we discovered that there were different windows for different types of tickets.  And at one of them, the female attendant was busy on the telephone for some good ten minutes.  Same case with the Municipal Hall, where we bought the tickets for a small chamber orchestra.  The Czechs take their music seriously - on the night at the Rudofinum, most of the patrons were in their Sunday best. Not a pair of jeans or trainers in sight.  And they were effusive with their applause.  On the night, we were treated to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, a lumbering piece of immense sadness.

Just off the Charles Bridge, a display of modern sculpture.  Four guns pointing at the same direction, why?  It is only when I searched the internet that I found out that firearms in the Czech Republic are available to anyone without a criminal record and aged above 18   After the Velvet Revolution, apparently many businessmen felt the need to obtain firearm because of the rise in organised crime often related to the economic transformation in the early 1990s.   In a population of just over 10 million, the estimated number of Czech citizens holding firearms is 1.6 million!

An unusually quiet lane in the Old Town. Elsewhere, Prague was heaving with tourists, and often well into the evening, when the young ones went clubbing and drinking. On a Sunday afternoon, this lane was deserted - no shops, no restaurants, no ice cream parlour, no shady money changers. All over Prague, it was not unusual to be approached by a stranger offering to change money. Apparently the scam is either to offer the unsuspecting tourists fake notes or some other worthless denominations. Some of these money changers could be quite aggressive, witness a Chinese tailing me and demanding to know "Where are you from!?" No quiet whisper of "Do you want to change money?"

The unmistakable Charles Bridge. In the background gathered the rain clouds, but the trading on the bridge remained buoyant. There were the usual suspects: portrait painters, crafts stalls and jewellers, and an army of stallholders selling similar photographs and paintings of Prague. The paintings were particularly abysmal, as if they were churned out by amateur artists without much talent. Such a beautiful and cultural city, such a pity.

A romantic view of the Old Town from a quiet corner off the Charles Bridge. Away from the maddening crowd, from the young lovers that kiss and cuddle on the Charles Bridge, Prague remains dreamy and romantic. In this photo, you can see the river boats plying the Vtlava. Curiously, the tickets to these boat trips were sold by black men dressed as sailors. Elsewhere, there were hardly any black men or women in sight.

Suddenly, a man with a fur helmet sporting two Viking horns, started his motor bike and roared away into the traffic. In a city that boasts a large number of BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Porchses, motorbikes and cycles are a rare sight. It must be a bone shaking experience riding a bike on the uneven cobbled stones, but a motorbike? According to the Laboureconomic's web log, the average monthly wage was 1053 Euros, suggesting that there are a lot of well off citizens in Prague, enjoying a standard of living that is beyond the dreams of the average worker.

Český Krumlov

It's been ten years since we last visited Prague, and the city is as beautiful and charming as ever.  On a bright spring day, when the sun is just warm enough to call for light winter clothing, it sparkles and glitters like a precious gem.  

We ventured south to Český Krumlov, where we discovered an unbelievably beautiful town, now a UNESCO Heritage site, attracting tourists from all over the world.  The core of the old town is within a horseshoe bend of the river, with the castle on one side of the River Vltava.  Most of the architecture of the old town and castle dates from the 14th through 17th centuries, and it is easy to get lost ambling among the town's crooked ulices.  The uneven cobblestones are testing on the feet, but the sights and view were well worth the trouble.

The Vltava, rushing through the town

View of Český Krumlov from the Castle

The Castle, majestically perched above the old town

The Castle and the Tower

The bridge linking the castle courtyard to the Castle

Castle walls, painted, with perspective

Almost every square metre of the Old Town
is given to pensions, restaurants and gift shops