Wednesday, May 30, 2012 (continued)
After the museum, I got distracted by graffiti (more on that later) and lost the group - which was splitting up anyway - so I wandered around Malá Strana, the district across the river, by myself for a while.
The Kampa museum is actually on an island, which is bordered by the Vltava on one side and a small canal on the other. The canal has lots of small bridges and docks, many of which are the homes of tour barges.
On one of the bridges, it's a tradition for couples to write their names on a padlock, lock it to the railing, and throw the key into the canal.
There are quite a few padlocks there by now. I'd love to see what the canal bed looks like.
Further into the island is a long, narrow park.
I took this picture from one edge; you can see the other edge, which has a railing overlooking the river. At the end of the park is the biggest plane tree I've ever seen.
Beyond the park is a more urban area made of the familiar labyrinth of narrow little streets.
Below the eagle, these stones are mortared into the wall. This is one of those moments that makes me wish I could read Czech better.
Further on, near one of the squares, is a restaurant overgrown with grape vines.
Leaning casually against a wall behind the vines was this gentleman. I had to duck under the vines to get a better look at him, as only his feet were visible from the sidewalk.
There was a complex assembly of glass in his stomach that looked like it was meant to light up, but he was currently unplugged.
There are actually only a few blocks of streets in Malá Strana, on the edge bordering the river. Beyond that, the streets give way to the trees and winding paths that lead up to Petřín Hill.
You can see the top of the miniature Eiffel Tower here, from the street called Hellichova.
Walking down Hellichova toward the river, I passed a huge blue building - a gymnasium, if I interpreted the sign correctly - next door to the Finnish embassy. There was a choir rehearsing in a third-story room with the windows open.
This seemed like a good place to stop, so I went into the nearest potraviny to look for food.
Returning with a healthy, balanced lunch of bread, Orangina, and one of the little peach jam buns that show up everywhere in Prague, I sat down on the curb to listen to the singing. There was one section that the bases and tenors had to go over several times. I felt unreasonably proud of them when they finally got it. I couldn't make out any of the words, or even tell what language they were in, but the music was beautiful.
After that, I checked my map for the location of Hellichova - it was the only time I needed a map all day - and headed back down to the Charles Bridge (or Karlovo Most).
There was a flock of pigeons wandering around below one of the bridge's pilings...
And a jackdaw wandering around on top of it...
So I followed their example and wandered around under the bridge for a while. You can actually walk right down to the water and nearly get underneath the first arch.
It takes a long time for the bridge to reach ground level, so if you're near the river, the quickest way to get onto it is by this staircase.
The bridge is lined with sculptures, two on top of each piling. Some of them also end up covered with padlocks.
Like several other parts of Prague today, the view from the top of the bridge was too much to fit in a single photograph, so I put together a panorama:
As well as a few panoramas of the river from other viewpoints.
The Old Town end of the bridge has a series of long beams set up in the water. I'm not sure what they're for - possibly to keep debris away from the buildings that stick out into the river.
Whatever their purpose, the pigeons seem to like them.
The river actually flows underneath the protruding buildings, coming out in a series of small waterfalls from their foundations, but the area behind them is still quieter than the rest of the river.
Some of Prague's many famous buildings are on the banks of the river, but I was too tired by then to walk over and look at them - except for this one, which was near the bridge.
There was some interesting graffiti on this side of the river as well.
This sheep, for instance, has shown up in several places around Prague.
This one looks like it might be based on the Moebius ants picture by MC Escher.
On the way back, I stopped by the little booth with the spring rolls again and got a cone of cinnamon gelato. A delicious end to a lovely afternoon.
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