Nighttime in Prague

Gratuitous shots of a beautiful city, taken on our walk from the Cafe Savoy to our hotel:

Back to Prague

Back to Prague, and this time we get to leave the airport.

After spending the morning packing and eating an early lunch, we and a large and helpful entourage headed to the Tatran Hotel to retrace our steps and catch a Czech Airlines van to the Kosice airport. Already laden with luggage and souvenirs, we had to decline more gifts, but not before Tessie latched on to a stuffed mouse from Aunt Helenka that she held all the way to Prague.

Leg #6: The very same van as leg #5, but this time driven by an even more aggressive driver. This guy provided a powerful argument against ever driving in Slovakia, as he tailgated ruthlessly and passed on narrow two-lane highways, on more than one occasion forcing oncoming traffic to veer away. We were happy and relieved to arrive in one piece (three pieces?) at the Kosice airport.

Leg #7: Kosice to Prague. Back on the ATR puddle-jumper, this time seated one row behind the plane of the propellers. Nice. (It's an irrational fear of mine. The thought of being separated from whirling propeller blades by a mere 0.02" aluminum aircraft skin makes me a little, um, edgy. I blame Steven Spielberg.) (Airline: Czech. Freebie: a baby rattle.)

We landed without incident, however, claimed our bags and used a van service to get to our hotel, the Hotel Falkensteiner Maria Prag (no, I'm not making that up) which turned out to be both the best and least expensive hotel of the three in which we stayed on this trip. Other than some quibbles about the bathroom layout, it was quite a nice place, with a good location. Tessie was given a souvenir pillow and coloring book at check-in (Czech-in?), and a t-shirt at check-out.

We had a little time to freshen up before heading back out for dinner, where we would be guests of a certain international consulting firm that shall remain McNameless. Tessie's Mom was contacted while we were in Slovakia by a member of the Prague office of this firm with a request to interview her with regard to her current position. The consultant was expecting a phone interview, but when informed that all of us would be in Prague soon, well, we scored a lovely dinner at a cafe near the Vltava River with our new friends Martina and Ursula, and Tessie scored a stuffed Krtek, from which she became nearly inseperable for the remainder of our trip. (She had to: he wouldn't fit in our luggage, so she had to hand carry him everywhere!)

Churches 3, Castles 1

We spent our last full day in Slovakia in the ancient town of Kežmarok. A large contingent of us (let's see if I can get everyone from memory: Pet'o and his daughters Zuzka and Andrejka, Katka and her children Mat'o and Alica, Vlasta, Helenka and her grandson Marek, Tessie's Babi and Deda, and of course Tessie and her parents; 14 of us all together) caught a bus from Poprad.

Kežmarok is one of those rare Slovak towns with a pronouncable name. (See Štrbské Pleso.) This it owes to its founding in 1269 as a German frontier town with a charter to sell cheese. (FYI: in Slovak, a ž is pronounced like the last g in garage. In fact, the Slovak word for garage is garaž.) It seems Kežmarok is a Slovacization of Käsemarkt, German for "cheese market."

Kežmarok City Hall:

The 20-minute ride brought us to the edge of town; from there we made a short walk to see the sights. Kežmarok is one of those showplace historical towns that regional schoolchildren visit on field trips, so most of our contingent were quite familiar with it already.

Our first stop was the Wooden Articular Church, which was built entirely of wood in 1688. No, it's not as obvious a point as that: entirely of wood means that there aren't any nails in it. With the tour presentation conducted in Slovak, I had to wait until just now to learn from Wikipedia that an articular church is a Lutheran church built according to the articles of the 1681 Congress of Sopron. Now you know, too. The church is a simple Greek-cross plan, and while it is made of wood, many surfaces were painted to emulate more costly materials like marble and gold.

We next visited another church of slightly more recent vintage: the late 19th c. New Evangelical Church right next to the articular church. This one contrasts dramatically with the previous church in its design and by its incorporation of a variety of architectural motifs including Byzantine, Moorish and Romanesque. It is now the final resting place of native Kezmarokan Imre Thököly, who fought against the Hapsburgs for religious freedom. He died in 1705 in Turkey, and his remains were not repatriated until 1906. Another notable feature of this church was its touching memorial for the local casualties of World War I. Only on closer inspection did I realize that the mural's soldier dying in the arms of an angel was wearing a German uniform.

Church #3 was the Church of the Holy Cross, the oldest church we saw, dating to 1498. Originally a Catholic church, this one became Protestant in 1548, but reverted to Catholicism in 1673. Each of the changes meant updating the interiors, so what's left is a mix of Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance architecture.

Our last stop of the day was at the Thököly Chateau, a looming 15th c. castle near the edge of town, which is now a museum housing exhibits of town history. We saw rooms devoted to town guilds, town government, town defense, town education, town recreation and, curiously, Vojtech Alexander, the first radiologist in Slovakia. Tessie's favorite part: a crank to turn!

The end of the day brought us to the train station, itself something of an architectural statement:

Back in Poprad, we began packing for our upcoming journey to Prague.

And We're Back

Apologies for the sudden lapse in posts. Our trip continued, but computer access didn't after we left cousin Pet'o' s.

We're all safely back at home now, so more pictures and posts are coming soon.

Olga M., R.I.P.

Another reason for our visit here was to attend a memorial service for Tessie's great-grandmother Olga. Babička (Ba-beech-ka, grandmother) passed away last spring after a stroke, but the final disposition of her remains was left until now to coincide with last Saturday's wedding so that more family members could attend both by combining trips.

Her ashes were laid to rest in the family tomb in Poprad this afternoon, and the two dozen or so of us in attendance paid our respects and adjourned to a nearby restaurant to celebrate her life and legacy. It was sad and joyful at the same time, and all of us would do well to have touched as many lives and be remembered as fondly as the late matriarch of this clan.

Regrettably, Tessie never got to meet any of her great-grandparents. We can only hope her great-grandchildren will be more fortunate.