Independence

My hero is busy in the recording studio today, so I’m out on my own.  Left to my own devices.

I had the makings of a cunning plan but had every intention of being flexible and going where the mood took me.  This morning, it took me to the tram stop, where I stood looking at the Rudolfinium concert hall, lamenting the fact that right now, there’s nothing more interesting going on than non-stop Vivaldi and other touristy programmes.  Come the weekend, the Spring season kicks off and the Vienna Philharmonic are here for a few days, but for now, nothing for us. 

Oh well, one of us is getting plenty of music anyway.

The number 17 tram took me over the river and along the other side, stopping right outside my first destination.  The National Gallery.  I had no idea what I wanted to see, or indeed, what there was to see…I simply thought it could prove interesting.

My intention was to focus on Czech art, then.  To see works that I might not see elsewhere.  I began on Floor 2.  A modern building, the galleries were set around a central atrium and were cold, grey characterless areas with strong overhead lights.

(two works by Jindfich Styrsky)

I had no map or floor plan but just a list of artists on each floor and needless to say, almost all of the names meant nothing to me.  So, I just went with the flow and meandered, taking a closer look at anything which caught my eye.

(Diver by Toyen, Aquarium by Jindfich Styrsky)

These first pieces I encountered looked interesting, mostly because of the pale, almost chalky palette of colours used.  Whether it was this palette, or the very strong aroma of boiled cabbage that filled the building, I don’t know, but there was a distinctly Eastern European feel to the whole place.

A little further in, still with no other person in sight, I came across more domestic scenes such as this one(At the shop window by Karel Soucek) though the overall atmosphere remained rather bleak.

I suppose I expected to come across political statements at some point.

I just wasn’t prepared for the lack of colour, or of natural forms really.

Though around the corner was a hint of fun in the form of this cute scooter and sidecar!

Here too was a corner of designs from the Brussels Worlds Fair in 1958, an occasion when Czech design came to the fore and “Brussels Style” captured the imagination.

But around the corner was more gloom, more grey walls and dark, dark artworks.

I continued to follow the “way of the visit” and hoped for something lighter in the next part!

I peered over the balcony of the atrium at this rather strange installation, which shuddered and shook and made me feel rather ill!  

I decided to find out more and look properly at it later!  On through the photography, then.

then to the next floor up.  Let’s hope for something to lift the spirits!

More like it, wouldn’t you say?

Though really, the gallery continued in much the same vein.  Apart from the occasional glimpse of a security guard, I saw no-one but another couple of women with whom I shared the lift.  They were starting on floor 5 and working their way down and I was working my way up.  Maybe we’d meet at some point?!

Here was the work of Czech cubists, not really a style I understand or admire.

But here were a few items inspired by cubism, such as this sofa.  What struck me most about this section, however, were the Germolene-pink walls!

My original intention was to visit the museum of applied arts today, but it appears to be closed indefinitely so I was disappointed.  I was especially pleased to see these pieces of glassware, then.

Around the corner, pink turned into peach and at last I spotted a bit of colour (Bouquet by Vaclav Spala)

Rather exuberant colour too!  But on the wall, high above it was written:

Perhaps that explains it all?

I smiled at the arrangement of this pair of ladies in front of a few naked figures, though.

Nearby was a self portrait of the artist (Otto Gutfreund) who had created them alongside the figure of his wife.  Such a relief to come across life!

But tragedy was never far away, with figures from a monument to dead miners by Pokorny amongst other figures set against a dark grey wall.

Just as I was feeling ready to give up on the gloom and return to the sunshine, I found myself in the French art collection.  Never have a few impressionists been so eagerly spotted!

The same empty galleries with the same peachy walls, though, even if the pictures hanging there contained more light and sunshine.

All the “big names” were represented here too: The Lovers by Renoir above

Pissarro’s garden

Orchard in Bloom by Monet and more.  No matter that none of these were the best these artists created, it was simply a relief to look at rather more uplifting subjects.  After a while absorbing the French spirit, I moved on up to the fourth floor and hoped for something inspiring on which to end my visit.

As soon as I got out of the lift, I smiled.  How’s this for a turn of the century masterpiece?

Entitled Prague and the Vltava River by Stanislav Sucharda, it was created in 1902 and purchased by the museum in 1904.  It’s really rather three dimensional and is made of bronze, red marble and onyx.

So very much of its time, I think he’s the strong, silent type, don’t you?  I love it!

Once inside the galleries of this floor, I found a few paintings which suggested a more comfortable family life.  I rather liked the composition of this family portrait with man and wife side by side with their children. (The family of the woodcarver by Karel Purkyne)

I liked this picture too, of Thursday afternoon at the Stromovkapark by Viktor Barvitius.

and at last, a little pre-raphaelite, a touch of art nouveau was beginning to creep in, with these two enormous pictures by Pirner.  The earlier of the two, on the right hand side is labelled “Frenzy, Hatred and Death – unfinished” and the other, lighter one “Love, thought and life – unfinished”.  A metaphor, perhaps?!

Here too were a couple of works by Alfons Mucha; “Charity” above

and a rather more familiar style of portrait alongside it.  Sweet.

But around the corner was this large painting which instantly caught my eye.  The marks had been quickly made, there was energy and sheer fun in every one of them.

I mean, look at the baby’s face!  Maybe it’s his mother alongside looking sultry, but she’s looking rather pleased with herself, for sure.

Even the cow looks to be having a good time. 

As I stood and smiled at this little corner of fresh air and fun, I took a closer look at the label: it was a poster design for the Nestle company, no grand master or great work.  How potent cheap art can be!

As i turned to return to the atrium, I smiled.  I thought that today I had found the key to avoiding the groups.  Not only had I avoided groups, I appeared to have avoided everyone, so far!  But just as I was feeling smug, there they were with their guide.  I continued past them, happy to have ended my visit on a sunny note!

Though actually, there were one or two more treasures to enjoy, including these beautiful glassworks by Gabriel Argy-Rousseau and a couple of small piece by Tiffany too

There was a series of windows by Mucha depicting the four seasons

and some beautiful architectural drawings, including one for the bridge I had travelled over by tram this morning.

I must say, it looked rather more splendid in the drawing than in reality!  Though actually, the detail had caught my eye as we crossed it earlier, but not enough for me to get my camera out

Finally, totally overcome by reflections, a drawing of my next destination: The Municipal House.  Far too much to include in this post, I’ll continue later.

For now, the brutal lettering of a wall design

and another, calmer view of the installation Touch of Time, by Magdalena Jetelova, taken from the rather amazing bookstore on the ground floor of the museum.

As I waited for my tram, I took a picture of the view.  What an amazing city this is!  What a wealth of architectural treasures are here to be explored.  

And it’s only lunchtime!  (well, 12:10 to be precise, as you can see )

Beating them–or joining them?

Today was the day we’d set aside to explore the city together.  Tomorrow, my Hero will be in the recording studio with Tra and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and I will be making my own entertainment.  But following our experience yesterday afternoon, we decided to head for a lesser known area in the hope of avoiding the large groups which annoy us both.

The first challenge was to buy tram/bus/metro tickets.  The machines took only coins and we knew we didn’t have enough for that.  But neither could we find the “3 day pass” on the list of options.

The office at the station was closed and the newspaper stand couldn’t have made their position clearer.  So, we returned to the hotel, found the answer to our question (buy the tickets in a Tabac, which I might have guessed had I not seen the notice above) and returned to the small store adjacent to the station to make our purchases.

Negotiating our way through the tourists yet again (!) we finally made it to the tram stop.

At last, we were on our way, heading for the Little Quarter.

Had we achieved our ambition to find a quieter part of the city?  Well, generally speaking, yes.

Though they were never far away

So, what will I find to irritate me today, then?   Well, as we strolled along this quiet street, a young couple were posing for pictures as their friend snapped away on the pavement opposite.  This needed two or three takes…  (oh, for heaven’s sake!)

They repeated the exercise, posing by a signpost for their camera-toting friend.  So I’ll add irritation #4 to my little list as “people who pose for photographs in public places”

Mary Valentine, you know me too well      I stepped around the couple, doing my best not to photobomb their shot (however tempting) to stand by another bridge encrusted with rubbish (!) to take my own photograph of the water wheel down there.

A little further on was a pleasant, leafy boulevard, where a series of boards had been placed, telling the story of Prague (in Czech and in English too)

They were based upon interesting themes and offered a wealth of information.

We continued browsing the neighbourhood, broadly following the route in our guidebook and thankfully, finding ourselves untroubled by anyone else. 

Our guidebook was  correct, this was an attractive and historic part of the city and all the better for being overshadowed by the big “must see” attractions.  Though several smart hotels are on this side of the river, including a couple we considered, I’m pleased we didn’t allow ourselves to be tempted and consider our location to be perfect!

Pottering about is a good way to spend the morning and both pairs of feet (and knees) were suggesting a break.

But around each corner was another pleasing view,

an attractive street sign,

or a particularly cute doorway.  Good to know that the Three Kings stopped at this house on their way through.

We passed another Koh i Noor shop, this time one selling the full range of goodies  and well worth ten minutes (or more).  Here I encountered #5: two women who, wherever I stood, whichever pencil I wanted to try, they wanted to be right there too:  In my pocket if they could.  Just when I was beginning to think it was just me, whilst paying for my purchases  they stood in between the sales assistant and me, meaning he had to say “excuse me” to hand me my change.

What is it about these people!?   (or is it just me?)

We continued down the street, keeping an eye out for a likely coffee stop and admiring interesting shop fronts as we went.

Being the main walking route to the castle, several groups passed us by.  I couldn’t resist taking a slightly sneaky snap of this young woman though – I mean, who can’t love someone who carries a panda with her?

Soon, we found ourselves in the main square of the area, where surely we could find somewhere a little more authentic than Starbucks?

Making our way over to a small but busy cafe, I spotted this chap leaving a few books on top of the postbox.

Later, after our break and whilst waiting for our tram, we noticed these two women – were they looking at the books or posting a letter?

It was definitely time to catch the tram, though!

We’ve found them to be frequent, reliable and very convenient and didn’t hesitate to save ourselves the bother of walking uphill to the castle.

Once there, it looked like we’d beaten the crowds at last.

But they weren’t far behind!

So I took a quick snap of the guardsman, just before every man and his dog stood beside him for their photograph!

The castle yards were spacious enough to allow for everyone.  Even the large groups dispersed somewhat and we enjoyed following the suggested route around the site at our own pace.

Of course, some places were exceptionally crowded, like inside St Vitus’ cathedral, where we had no choice but to join the throng and peer over everyone’s head.

Thankfully, the most spectacular sights were above head level: the stained glass windows are so colourful and photogenic, it really didn’t matter how many people were standing beneath them.

Back out in the yard, then, where someone needed confirmation that his sunglasses look ok.

Another incidence of #5 too (at least three takes whilst we stood, waiting to pass by and make our way over to the doorway known as the Golden Gate)

The exterior of the cathedral was equally interesting and a couple of large information boards pointed out features we might otherwise have missed.

Such as the exterior staircase to the side of the Golden Gate.  Fascinating.

One thing on our list to do whilst here was to find “the view”, so having seen what there was to see inside the castle, we made our way out through the gateway, encountering the changing of the guard as we went.

I managed to get the flag shot from this side, too.

And no, this isn’t another version of #5 either, because posing for a photograph in pubic whilst dressed in silly clothes gives us all amusement, wouldn’t you say?

Mind you, dressing up especially to pose for photographs in public places?  Definitely irritating!

Anyway, here’s the spot for the view… or rather, on the terrace just to the right of here, without that tree in the way.  It’s part of Starbucks, where a sign invites everyone to “share our view”.

Yes, that’s the spot – just where Madame is posing for her photograph.  Aaaagh.

I’ll move along a little further.  We can still see our hotel and the Charles Bridge is just visible to the side of the dome of St Nicholas’ church.  I take a photo or two…or twenty…and we move on.

Have i mentioned how annoying it is when people park brightly coloured vans alongside the beautiful lamp I want to photograph?   # 6 then.

Of course, however many irritations there are throughout the day, none of them is enough to spoil our fun!   As we return to the hotel on the tram, two inspectors board and do a random check of tickets.  The young man in the blue hoodie in front of us struggles to find his ticket and the persistent inspector is not allowing any leeway, standing over him as he produces yesterday’s ticket, one from the day before…and phew, one with today’s date validated.  I made a mental note to leave today’s ticket behind before validating one for tomorrow!

Back at the hotel, I headed for a relaxing hour at the spa pool. 

As I did, I had a lovely view of where we’d spent the day.  I wonder who was posing on the Starbucks wall right now?

Here we are

My red shoes and I are in Prague for a few days, tagging along with my hero, who is involved in an interesting project.  We took a (very) early flight this morning and were here well before lunch, ready to rediscover a city we last explored 17 years ago, in 2000.  We weren’t really planning on sightseeing as such, but thought we’d simply get our bearings and orient ourselves until our room was ready this afternoon.

Well, from the minute we turned the corner from the hotel entrance, there was one aspect of the city that we did not anticipate.

Tourists!

Hundreds, no, thousands of them!  Young and old, in large groups and small groups and speaking every language imaginable.

Since we were last here, the river cruise business has soared and many of these groups were following guides bearing the names of companies we recognised.

Had we imagined Prague to be as busy as this?  Not at all!  Though we travel quite a lot, we tend to avoid honeypots in high season and simply had not considered a Monday in early May to fall into that category.  We felt pleased that we had not come here with a list of things we wanted to see and do, because after a while, it would surely become irritating!

I know, you’d be surprised how irritated I can be by the simplest of things

I mean, in that one moment above, there are three of my bêtes noires: selfie sticks, ipad photography and those blooming locks on a bridge!  Oh dear, Prague, is this how things will be?

We stood there on the Charles Bridge and watched people for a while.  Busier that Skegness on a summer weekend, we were just going to have to go with the flow.  Take it how it is and deal with it!

So we made our way into the old town square, where we had thoughts of sitting with a cold beer and maybe a bite to eat.  After all, we’d been up since 4.15am this morning.

A rather lovely distraction presented itself in the form of Manufaktura, a sweet-smelling shop with a charming range of toiletries and hand made items such as these Easter eggs.

We browsed a while, noting that although there were crowded streets, the sightseeing groups passed right on by.  We enjoyed this little haven of peace, then!

As we left and continued walking, we tried to recall the name of another, similar shop we remembered from here – or was it Budapest?  Was it called Botanicus?

There was also the distraction of someone’s shoes.  Worn by a Chinese girl, for some reason the style and proportions of this pair made me think of bound feet.   I must say, they didn’t look at all comfortable!

 

On the way to our planned lunchtime stop, we passed the Astronomical clock and, thinking there was an even larger than expected crowd standing, looking up at it, we noted it was 12 noon.

So we joined the crowd, ever aware that this must be prime pickpocket territory.

We watched as the little men popped out and popped back in again, as hundreds of pictures were taken on a variety of devices – my own included – and shuffled off in the direction of the square itself.

Don’t you love it?   (No, we don’t, either)

Our reward came in a cafe in the square; another place the groups just walk on by.  Not only was the beer good but the people watching was pretty entertaining too!

Until the heavens opened…

Thankfully, it didn’t last long, but two or three really heavy downpours sent everyone running for shelter, including the gold-painted men, the various buskers, postcard sellers and yes, even Death himself.

 

Because one of the “living statues”  (irritant #4 !) had been dressed as Death, in black and holding a scythe.  When the rain began, he packed up sharpish and carrying his scythe across the square, off he went.

We sat and watched for an hour or so, as the rain cleared and people came back out.  Three gold men returned and stood on their boxes (Grrrrr) , one blue man did the same and

the bubble man came back!  Who doesn’t love a bubble?!

We carried on a little further too, giving ourselves a pat on the back for timing that cafe stop so well (neither of us had a coat nor an umbrella to hand) and thought we’d just go a little further before turning back towards the hotel, by which time our room would be ready.

So, that’s what we did.  Walk and admire.

Coming back, we chose to use the smaller streets which were quieter and less touristy.

We walked through a small square and the name painted on the building seemed familiar: Botanicus.  Well, how strange was that?

Turning the corner, there was the sign of another Czech favourite brand: Koh i Noor pencils.  I’ll explore Botanicus first, I said.

Oooh.  a huge group of Chinese tourists (I think) were inside, creating a real racket and filling the shop, making it difficult to look around.

They were buying huge numbers of goods too.

Those who were not in Botanicus were in  Koh i Noor…

Or in the shop next door to that, a glass workshop

with some very interesting pieces

There was some serious shopping going on all around here and if these groups are typical, then these shopkeepers are onto a winner, that’s for sure.

For us though, enough.  The cool, calm serenity of our hotel beckoned and a text alerted us to the fact that our room was ready.

I can vouch for the comfort of this little chair!

I love my machines

With one exception, perhaps, because printers are the devil’s work!

Do you remember this?  I’d made a knock-off of a Moleskine Message following a few days in Stockholm and yesterday, whilst mulling over how to capture a few memories from St Petersburg, I decided to do something similar.

Except I’d forgotten how I’d done it and my blog post was a little sketchy on the detail.

I looked closely at those cut edges and knew they hadn’t been cut by hand but using my Silhouette, for sure.  If that was the case, that cut file must be on my computer somewhere then, but it was proving elusive.  Where might I have saved that file?  Not in my ‘Silhouette Cut Files” folder, sadly.

I resorted to the search programs and files facility, but was unsure what to search for.  After a few no files of that name were found reports, I hit gold!  There it was, <moleskine envelope book.studio> in my photo folder for May 2013.  In no time at all, I’d cut out the cover and six pages.  Love my Silhouette!

My next step was to create a few photo collages in Picasa.  At this stage, I didn’t know how many, but simply found a few themes to work on and ended up with nine.  I opened them in Photoshop and resized them all so they’d fit in the book.

It was about now I realised that printing them wasn’t going to be easy.  I took another close look at the Stockholm book and knew I’d printed directly onto the pages and not simply glued in photo collage pages.  Hmm.  Now, how did I do that?

I created a file in Photoshop with the size of the double-page spread and placed a piece of double sided tape at one end.  I set up a print file with the collage sheet in the right place, lightly adhered the cut page on the sheet of paper and fed the whole thing through the printer.

The first one worked fine.  The second one didn’t.  Never mind.  Try again.

I managed to print three or four pages, doing my best to work out where each collage page would fit in the finished book (not easy!) sometimes needing to turn a page to get it in the right orientation.

And then I tried to print on the reverse of an already-printed sheet.  The double sided tape pulled away part of the print.  Better do that one again.

And then the printer began to add a stripe all on its own.  It does things like that from time to time, just to annoy me, I think.

I decided it was time for tea and switched everything off and thought I’d had enough for one day.

I’m not quite sure how I achieved the next step and can only think it was the inspiration fairy who visited me in my sleep!  When I went downstairs to my studio the following morning, the obvious answer to my challenge was staring me in the face.

Print and cut using my Silhouette!

In no time at all, I’d imported each page of photographs into the cut file I’d already designed and sent it to our pesky printer which purred and printed the pages perfectly.  After printing, I fed the sheet of card through the Silhouette for cutting and, amazing machine that it is, achieved a perfectly accurate result.

I love it when everything comes together like that, when the seamless process works perfectly and I can get a great workflow going.

But it was time for the intermediate technology.  A sharp pencil and ruler was the best way to measure and mark the centre fold of the little book.  I clipped all the pages together and, before folding, I switched on my sewing machine and took a deep breath.

I threaded my machine with heavy thread, fitted a jeans needle and lowered the speed.  Slowly, carefully, my lovely machine stitched a beautifully sewn spine.  I wanted the needle to pierce the paper from the right side in, which meant I was working “blind”.

I hardly dare turn it over and look at where the line of stitching had worked out on the other side.  (At this stage, I hadn’t quite noticed that I’d sewn the pages into the book cover the wrong way round!)

Look!   (I couldn’t quite believe it how neat that sewing turned out)

I carefully scored the foldlines to complete the assembly of the book but as I did, I realised my mistake.  Would it matter?  I opened and closed it, flicked through and showed it to my hero, who agreed with me.

It mattered.  It just didn’t “work” with the flap going the wrong way.

So I treated that one as a practice effort and started over again.  I’d saved all the files and it took no time at all to print and cut them all out once more.

I stitched the spine more confidently, for after all, I’d had practice!  When it came to that part though, I double checked it was the right way up, needless to say.

The book was soon finished and ready to have all the bits of ephemera stuck inside.

Yes, of course the Turkish Map Fold features!

Second time around went so much more quickly.  Not only had I worked out the process, I’d managed to avoid the pitfalls too. 

I thought I’d better write a few more details down in my blog this time as well, just so that when I next want to make a little book, I have something to refer to!  After all, I’ve got to keep all those machines working.  I even feel a little warmer about the printer, which worked perfectly with the Silhouette software, leaving me to wonder if it’s the Adobe Photoshop software which presents the problem.

But I’ll leave that one to my Hero.  I know my limits

A night at the opera

When we knew we were to be in St Petersburg for a few days, I consulted the Mariinsky Theatre website.  What might we go to see?  Amy had expressed an interest in seeing a ballet and I wasn’t too worried what I saw – I simply fancied going to the theatre to see a “real” show rather than some tourist compilation.  It seemed that we were in the city during the last few days of a ballet festival, but sadly none of the classics were to be performed and our choice was limited.

Prince Igor seemed a good choice though, for a real flavour of Russia!  I found a great website with seat advice – a kind of seatguru for the Mariinsky and booked the last four tickets together, which amazingly were on the front row and highly recommended.  I had a series of email confirmations in Russian, a phone call from my credit card company to check that I’d just made a transaction in Roubles and printed out the ticket pdf at home.

Though the theatre wasn’t so far from our hotel, we booked a car with Denis the concierge and so arrived in style in a black BMW 7 with Dmitry, our driver. 

“I’ll give you my card in case you want to leave early”, he said.  “You’ve chosen the long one”.

Well, yes, we had.  But our seats were fantastic and we settled in for the long haul, thanks to Amy’s little tin of fruit sweets purchased earlier in the day.  We’d hoped there would be a bar or at least some refreshment on offer, but sadly that was not the case.

The chairs were generally comfy enough, until the last hour or so!

The audience were mainly Russian, there were quite a few children in the audience and people were smartly dressed.  We felt we were part of an occasion.

The opera itself was grand – a little dated perhaps, but the spirit was there and the sentiment absolutely spot on for the moment.  Ah Russia!

Being able to see everything was key – I loved to watch the conductor (with his waist-length pony tail!) and the orchestra as well as the performers on stage.  That website was spot on advice, by the way.

But when the curtain came down after the last chorus, it was good to stand up and move!

Sure enough, Dmitry was there, right outside waiting for us and in no time at all we were back in the hotel for a nightcap in the bar named after the Tsar. 

The perfect way to spend our last night in St Petersburg, I think.