Prague–2013 January 14

It would seem that weather forecasting is not an exact science. The forecast was for snow in the afternoon, but it started snowing in the morning. That made some pictures difficult, but after the snow stopped in the afternoon, it made some great photo opportunities.

Snowfall in front of statue and blue railing with gold highlights Shield-with-face relief on building Snow-covered abstract sculpture Snow-covered sculpture of man with sword Snow-covered statue of Neptune, with tree limbs at right

Given the snow, I decided to spend most of my time indoors at museums. The first one I went to was the Czech Museum of Music, which had a display of music machines. The first two pictures that follow are of the main hall.

Main stage of museum with rows of chairs and wooden artistic scaffolding around stairway Royal-looking coat of arms near ceiling of main hall Music box with clock on top Large music box with disc that has steel pins Interior of music box showing cylinder with pins Two humanoid automata in blackface, one with flute, the other with banjo. “Monkey band” playing drums, conducting, and playing violin musical automaton in carved young boy Automaton controlling marionettes Internals of a music machine; cylinder with pins

The rest of the museum has exhibits of instruments. First were some pianos and piano-type instruments. The last picture is an aptly-named “giraffe piano”

Sixth-tone harmonium (looks like an organ with three rows of keys) Clavichord Strings of a fretted clavichord Small piano with dark brown wood Old sheet music Pipe organs Large ornate reed organ with gold leaf Piano with strings mounted vertically in trapezoidal box Piano with string area mounted vertically instead of horizontally

Next up, the wind instruments. I have no idea how one would go about playing the large instrument at the left in the first picture; it’s about 7 feet tall.

Assortment of wind instruments, one about 2 m tall Wind instruments, some with right angles in their wind tubes Wind instruments with double bells (sediphones)

There were also string instruments, plus an exhibit of a violin maker’s workshop.

Various modern guitars mounted on wall Head of string instrument showing tuning knobs Keyed guitar Collection of harps from primitive to modern-looking Violin maker's workshop

Finally, miscellaneous instruments. The first is a glass harmonica, the second is the accordion from hell (over 200 buttons), and the last is a hurdy gurdy. I knew the word, but had never seen one before.

Horizontal cylinder of varying diameters of glass discs Very large red accordion with hundreds of buttons Hurdy gurdy (looks like a violin with a crank at the bottom and no neck).

The main historical museum is currently undergoing reconstruction, so I went to the new museum wing. It wasn’t that spectacular. I only got these two pictures that seemed worthwhile. The first one is a string-making machine.

String-making machine with multiple cylinders of thread Lady's fan with feathers around edge

The next stop was the train station. The station is quite modern, but they have preserved a section of the old station.

Statuary of old train station above an arch Relief work and statue in ceiling of old train station Stained glass with human figures

Finally, some miscellaneous pictures that didn’t fit in anywhere else.

Geometric pattern stained glass skylight with yellow highlights Rounded window with tower and spire Bronze sculpture of shoeless man in hat, seated on a wooden bench Half-erased detailed drawing of woman on wall

Today’s Signage

The Můstek subway station is the transfer point between the yellow and green lines, as you can see from this sign on the wall.

Můstek subway sign; at right are short green bars surrounding a longer green bar.

It took me a while to get this advertisement for the Veganský Svět (Vegan World) restaurant. The hacek (the ˇ symbol) is made of leaves.

Ad for restaurant Veganský Svět, with leaves for the hacek

The “clever anthropomorphizing” award goes to this advertisement. I don’t know what it is for, but it’s nicely done.

Backpacks wearing red hats, their straps posed like arms

Sign for a bar/restaurant U Tučňaků (“Chez Penguin”).

Sign at a tavern “U Tučňaků” (Chez Penguin)

Here is a political poster against Mr. Zeman (one of the presidential candidates). The bottom of the sign says something to the effect of “I’m an ultra-hawk: let’s bomb Teheran.”

Political poster with candidate in foreground and explosion in background

You see signs everywhere with the word “Dárky,” pronounced exactly as it would be in English, but the word means “gifts.” Nonetheless, it still startles me a bit. (You may now nominate me for the head of the diversity committee.)

Sign: Sparky's Dárky

Miscellanea

Here are the Czech coins. The denominations, from left to right, are 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 Czech koruna. The left picture is tails, the right picture is heads.

“tails” side of Czech coins “heads” side of Czech coins

Tonight’s dinner at the Tradice restaurant was chicken breast, skewered vegetables, and mashed potatoes (there was corn and onion mixed in with the potoes, by the way). Dessert, compiled from the chocolate shop and a bakery at Nový Smichov, consisted of a slice of cake, a smiley cookie, and an apricot pastry.

Chicken breast, skewered vegetables, and mashed potatoes. Chocolate cake, smiley face cookie, and square cookie with filled “X”.