New Years Eve in Prague pt 2

Its New Years Eve, and it will be a long day.    We are off out to go for breakfast at our favourite place, Café Arcadi which is just below the castle.   A 15 minute walk along the cobbled streets

                                         The buildings really are beautiful in this city.

                              Time for Hot chocolate and caramel covered waffles .  Yay

                                                                     Yummy !!!!!!!!!!!

    Now to walk up to the castle and around  towards the monastery .  sharp right turn at the top here to climb steeply up to the castle square .  The granite stone setts look fabulous , wet or dry .

                                                       The view looking back down .

                           Looking across the city from near the castle entrance, a superb view.

Walking across the square heading up towards the monastery area, there is a miniatures museum that looks interesting near there.

We have arrived at the Monastery  , the miniatures museum is just around the corner tucked away out of the way.

We have found the entrance to the museum,  it costs 130 czk each to go in, that's about £4 each . inside there are microscopes all around the rooms , each with a description of what is viewable.   I managed a phone shot through the eyepiece,  two gold cars on the leg of a flea!!!!    wow!
  Inside another, a needle eye had about 5 camels in a row placed inside .  amazing!

Now we are walking up to Petrin Hill and the Tower.     This is the viewpoint through the trees to St Vitus Cathedral.   Just a phone picture as I have shot this view before .

Petrin Tower,  I have shot this in the snow, fog, blue skies and hoar frost before ,so it appears a bit dull today in comparison.

                      Looking down from the gardens on the hillside of  Petrin Hill across the city.

                                                                The Funicular railway

        Finally we are down at the bottom of the hill at the "Memorial for victims of Communism"

Now back to the apartment for a rest before going out for the New Years Eve celebrations.

Its now 8 pm, and walking along the river towards Charles bridge,  using the 100-400mm lens on the 5dsr I have shot the Castle/Cathedral

                                            3.2 seconds f8    what a stunning building!

                                                                    Petrin Tower

            A full panorama view.   we will be back in this area by about 11 pm to wait for midnight.

 A walk into Old Town square,  there are bands playing on the stage, but not to my taste!    its absolutely packed with people.  a really good atmosphere as usual.  we spend about an hour here before walking back to the river to get a good spot to set up the tripod for the fireworks.

10 oclock and the fireworks have started being set off,  everywhere!   huge rockets are being set of from a balcony a hundred yards behind us. and smaller ones just over the road from us.

It appears we are in the wrong position for  taking photographs , the main fireworks are being set off from the barge as normal, but it is moored against the bank behind the building in front of us, last time the barge was in the middle of the river near the bridge    Dam!  

               I have managed to get a few images, but not what I expected,  the main group of fireworks are only visible above the bridge tower unfortunately.      There are huge numbers of people all around lining the river bank and Charles bridge looks the same.

The fireworks are being randomly set of all over the city  now   ,  great to be here on what is now New Years Day .            It does appear to be busier than when we were last here 2 years ago .

Its manic now, rockets going off Everywhere all around us , people setting them off in empty beer bottles in the middle of the road, smashed glass all over the place .  its now about 1 am, and time to escape the madness as its getting a bit dangerous    lol


              Tonight there is an official New Years day firework display at Letna park at 6 pm.

Prague New Year 2019 pt1

Jan and I are going back to Prague for the New Year again, we last went two years ago when it was really foggy , but a fabulous atmosphere.  We have arrived at our apartment which is near the "Memorial to victims of communism" below Petrin hill  at 7.30 pm, so after a quick unpack we are going out for a walk and to find something to eat.
We are going over the Strelecky ostrov bridge and then along the river towards Charles bridge.

Having made our way along to Charles Bridge, we turn off and head through the streets to get to Old Town Square.  that is where the Christmas markets and Tree are situated.
Here is the world famous Astronomical clock, which has recently been restored. the colours looks fabulous now .

                                         Old Town Square, busy with all the market stalls.

The huge Christmas tree is different from previous years in that it hasn't got the dripping lights all over it .  But it turns out the lights are computer controlled in a pattern sequence to music .

Dinner time now, I remember a small place not far from here ,  I marked it in google maps for future reference.   having found the street there is another restaurant almost next door, so we are trying this one , since I hate food its difficult finding something I will eat!

                                                       Look at the size of this sausage!

                                    We are about 2 floors underground here, looks like a cave.

Back through to the square now and along to Charles bridge to cross the river to go back to our apartment.

                                    I remember these light globes from last time we where here.

                                        Onto Charles bridge, its always busy on here.

The castle and St Vitus Cathedral  looking splendid overlooking the river.  not great picture with the phone though.

The end tower of the bridge,  we turn off left just up the road from here to head along to Petrin park.

The end of our first evening in Prague, tomorrow is New Years Eve, which is going to be a very long day!