Prague cont'd

Here are some more pictures of Prague and vicinity.

                                              Bob showing he still has a way with armour

The girls all dressed up looking very sophisticated just before going out to a Medieval Dinner to celebrate Sam's birthday

           The girls sophisticated manners didn't last long. And it turned into a normal sister tug of war

                                                     Steve and Emmie at the Medieval Dinner

Steve enjoying the entertainment at the dinner.  I am not sure if in Medieval times they actually had belly dancers but here in Prague they definitely had them.

Steve and Emmie having their future read by a gypsy at the dinner.  It looks like a happy and fulfilling life ahead.

The picture was taken in a town called Kutna Hora it is about an hour from Prague.  It is famous for it's bone church.  During the black plague in Bohemia (now known as Czech Republic) they sent all the bodies for burial.  They eventually dug up 40,000 skeletons and wanted to do something to honour them.  They hired a local artist to see what he could do and he came up with the idea for the bones being used in art.  Shown above is a chalice that is about 3 feet high and made of nothing but bones.

                                            More bones on display as a candle stick.

                These bones are put into the family coat of arms of the family that paid for the church

The Cathedral in Kutna Hora a beautiful Gothic church with three tent like structures for a roof

This is statue done by a current artist known for his unusual works.  It is in a shopping mall near our apartment and depicts the famous Czech Saint Wenceslas made famous in the Christmas carol

Prague Czech Republic

After spending some time in Ostuni we departed for Vienna on July 1st where we spent three nights.  We flew from Bari Italy through Munich Germany and then onto Vienna.  We choose to stop in Vienna as the last time we visited the city we really enjoyed it and had a great Austrian meal at a local restaurant.  We went to the same restaurant and was not disappointed as we had a marvelous typical Austrian meal.  We love Vienna even though it rained for the complete time we visited, however we took the tram around the city and sightsee'd from the tram.

We left Vienna by train on July 3rd and arrived in Prague mid afternoon.  We had rented two apartments in Prague a small one bedroom for the first two weeks followed by a two bedroom the last two weeks of our visit as Steven, Emmie and the girls were visiting in week three and then in week four Sam and I were keeping the girls as Emmie and Steve returned to Germany.

The first apartment was on the very top floor of a building just on the edge of the Old City.  It had a 180 degree wrap around window with a huge terrace that wrapped around the complete apartment giving us beautiful views of the city.

We spent the two weeks exploring as much as possible and planning for the family visit.  Prague is probably the most beautiful city we have visited.  The architecture is amazing and the area of the old city is hardly changed from the 15th and 16th century.  We would recommend anyone having the opportunity to visit Prague.  I will let the attached pictures do the speaking for me.

                         View from our first apartment, overlooking a beautiful small park

                                  View of the Prague Castle from the famous Charles Bridge

                               The restaurants lining the side of the river near the Charles Bridge

Gate to the town coming from the Charles Bridge, this was part of the old walls of the fortified Prague

                                         One of the many canals off the Charles Bridge

                                                   View from our first apartment

                      Small sidewalk cafe, there are hundreds of these small cafe all over the city. 

                            Astronomical clock in the town hall at the Old Town Square

                      Old Town Square, the center of the old city, one of Europe's largest squares.

Sam loves this picture, this is a guy that dresses up like a security guard and tries to direct traffic and organize parking.  We have seen him all over town but we don't think he is working in an official capacity as most of the time we see him asleep.

                                                    View from our first apartment

Girls in the window of our second apartment that looks out on a small square just off the Old Town Square.

Charles Bridge, it has towers on each end and a long series of religious statues that were suppose to lead the faithful to church.

                                       Organ in one of the churches at the Prague Castle

                                             Girls hamming it up in the Prague Castle

                             Grandad and the girls at the bell tower in the Prague Castle

                                                     The armour display in the Castle

                                        View from the Monastery near the Prague Castle.

Enroute Atrani to Ostuni June 25th & 26th

A few quick pictures of the spots we stopped at on our move from the West Coast of Italy to the East Coast.

We left Atrani on the 25th of June and stopped in Matera overnight.  The Hotel we stayed at in Matera was a cave hotel.  The rooms are virtually cut out of the hills.  It was a very interesting city with many homes in the caves and a modern section with tall buildings and modern restaurants.

                                                           Matera during the day

                                                                 Our hotel room

                                                              Matera at night

Street near our hotel, the roads were so narrow that when we entered the area we thought we may have driven into a pedestrian walk but were assured it was the road and then we met another car going in the opposite direction and I had to back up close to 300 meters before I could let him pass.

The day after we stopped in an area that is famous for its Trulli houses.  These are stone houses that were built in the 15th century.  And as part of their permission to build houses from the local Lords the homes had to be built without using mortar.  Hence the Lord allowed the houses as long as they could be dismantled and the ground returned to the exact way it was before the homes were built.  There were still a lot of these homes still being lived in, of course many had extensions built onto them.  A town we stopped in, Alberbello, is famous for it's Trulli houses.  Most of them are now tourist shops but a few have been converted into rental units where people can stay for short term visits.  Many are very well maintained and look quite nice, however they are extremely small and the normal rent for a Trulli was about $800.00 a week.

The streets in the Trulli village are very similiar and they wind back and forth, we got turned around and had a very difficult time finding our rental car after our visit.

                    Outside a typical Trulli, the roof is flat stones laid one on top of the other.

  A typical street, every place is white with a grey stone roof many of the homes have symbols painted on the roof

                                              A typical street with many tourist shops

                                       A resendential street people were living in these Trulli's

                                                          A wall within the Trulli area

              Inside a Trulli gift shop, very small and the whole interior is an open concept.  Not one bit of mortar or nails was used in the construction.

A Trulli that was available for rental on a tourist visit, they were fully furnished and appeared quite nice.

Ostuni, Italy June 25th – July 1st

Ostuni, Italy June 25^th – July 1^st

After a week in Atrani, on the Emalfi Coast, we departed for Ostuni, Italy.  Ostuni is on the opposite side of Italy (actually on the heel of Italy on the Adriatic Sea). We had rented a car for the week and had received another Lancia.

We travelled across from Naples and then turned inland and crossed the bottom of the boot.  We stayed one night along the way in a town called Matera.  It is a walled city high on a mountain top.  The streets going to our hotel were so narrow we thought at one time we were on a pedestrian walk, however it was a road, a two way road that when you met an opposite direction vehicle it required one or the other driver to back up to the closest widening.  We stayed in a hotel that was referred to as a cave hotel as all the rooms were dug out of the cliff face.  It was very interesting; however I found it way to dark as there were naturally no windows the only light came from the front door windows.  We visited the historic area of town and then had a very good traditional southern Italian meal. 

The next day we travelled on to Ostuni where we stayed at a Masseria.  A Masseria is a rural tourist Bed and Breakfast.  The one we stayed at was a former monastery that still had its beautiful chapel.  It was a young Italian couple who ran it.  The site was a work in progress but the room we were given was in an annex that they had built and it was only two years old. 

                                                          The gate to our Masseria
                                                     The building directly in front is the chapel

                                                          

                                             Gates to the Masseria

 We spent the week travelling around the area and one really nice day at a Beach resort that had a beautiful beach and facilities.  In fact it was the best pizza we had since arriving in Italy. While in Ostuni, I celebrated my 62nd birthday and had a lovely lunch at a Relais Hotel.

                                                               Hotel Dinning Room

       

                                                   Enjoying desert platter                                                          

On July 1^st we drove to Bari, Italy to catch a flight to Vienna where we are staying for three days before moving onto Prague.

A small artists shop in Ostuni, the artist worked in slate. 

His shop was in the lower door and he lived upstairs

                                                                          The artist at work

Some of his work in the gallery

                                                           Typical Ostuni Street

  A beach resort where Sam and I spent the day

Beach resort on the Adriatic Sea

                                                                      Ostuni, Italy