Kraków, Monuments, Wawel Castle and St Mary's Bascillica.

We travelled from Prague to Kraków on an overnight train, which took 8 hours. Checked into our hotel located in the old town. We are here for three days. Population of Kraków is 700,000 and they have 15,000,000 tourists a year. Everything is geared towards tourism, as this is their main income.

St Peter and Paul church, just across the road from our hotel

The main square, Kraków is quite charming

The town centre is surrounded by a fortified wall, in the early times, there was also a moat.

That surrounded the town.

When you leave Oldtown you walk through these arches in the wall., called Florian's gate.

Entry into the village, Barbican.

The battle of Grunwald in Matejko Square.

This sculpture is of Jam Matejko, a famous polish painter.

We visited Wawel Castle, no photos were allowed inside, what was inside was very impressive with tapestries, metres long, woven with gold and silver. Walls embossed with leather and ornate ceilings.

Beautifully hand carved furniture and very large paintings, so well preserved from the 14th century.

Wawel Castle

St Mary's Bascillica 

One of the most beautiful cathedral that I have seen.

The famous Veit Stuss alter, largest of it's kind and created in 1477 -1487, hand carved and gold leaf.

Awesome ceiling.

Very ornate 

Well worth the visit and had to buy ticket to photograph.

This metal fire breathing dragon is just below Wawel Castle and fire comes from his mouth, 15 after the hour.

I will leave you to ponder, and will return later with more of Kraków, the salt mines and Auswitch.

A photo moment with Jacek Majchrowski, mayor of Kraków and leader of the Jewish community.

Following more of Prague.

 My blog has to be done in broken parts, as the new IOS updates does not support blogger and the blog can only hold so many photos, so bear with me, whilst my trip will be shared in parts.

I would like to point out some monuments and places that were of an interest to me.

This place on Charles bridge where St John of Nepomuk was thrown in the river in the year 1393, is connected with a legend, touch the brassy cross here and whatever you wish will come true.

We walked across the bridge into Lessertown, called as such because traditionally it was the smaller

Half of Prague, where the King lived. Lessertown is a maze of cobblestone streets, winding their way between historical monuments.

Ornate buildings in Lessertown.

This building is just near the Charles Bridge, great etchings

In 1683 The Jesuits placed a statue of Nepomuk on Charles Bridge as part of a campaign to create a bohemian Catholic martyr. He was made a saint in 1729. Legend says that if you rub the bronze plaque, you will be sure to return to Prague one day. As you can see countless rubs are done everyday by tourists.

On our city tour we visited Schwarzenberg castle.

From a distance the facade appears to be clad in projecting pyramid shaped stonework, but it is an illusion, it is painted on a flat wall. This style is a mix of Czech and Italian Renaissance.

We also visited, the old Jewish quarter, known as Josefov, their are eight synagogues in this compact area, which can become quite packed in peak season. 

All the designer shops are located here.

You need to look up, when walking the streets.

Franz Kafka statue. Kafka was a Czech Jew, born in Prague, July 3rd 1883, he wrote novels, The trial, America and The Castle. He worked as an accident insurance clerk and died of tuberculosis at the age of 40. This statue is meant to represent, although weak in body, he was strong in spirit.

Our three days in Prague was very active with our tours and sightseeing, a city that I have loved to visit.

We visited St Vita cathedral, gorgeous stained glass windows.

Tulips in full bloom.

I even got in a fabric fix, whilst out and about sightseeing.

And of course some glass Czech buttons were purchased.

Oh well Prague that is a wrap, time to go and explore Poland. We are travelling to Kraków overnight by train.

The Baltic Countries in Eastern Europe.

Friday the 20th April, saw us depart for our 7week adventure O/S, we chose to fly Korean air for the stopover in Seoul, then fly onto Prague the next day mid morning. 

I must say it was a very civilised way to travel to Europe. The first leg was 10 hours, three movies, two meals and quite a bit of sewing. Korea is only 1 hour ahead of Australia, we arrived at 5.30pm in the evening. 

We got picked up from terminal 1 and transported to our hotel in Incheon for the night. This is our first visit to Korea.

Only an overnight stay in Incheon 

Our Oceanside Incheon hotel.

After a restful night and morning we flew to Prague mid morning and arrived 10hrs later, 45mins to clear customs and we were on our way.

Our Hotel Leonardo is in Old Town, close to the Charles Bridge and river.

This monument is on the Main Street along the river, I cannot explain the statues or monuments as they are not in English.

Walkway along the river in Prague.

Charles Bridge

St Vita, catheradal in Prague Castle.

Prague has the most amazing architecture ranging from the 13th century and over the years transcends from gothic, baroque and Renaissance.

In Cesky Krumlov where the Czech Republic second largest castle is, there is a good example of these three styles. The castle was originally owned by The Rosenberg family.

On our second day in Prague we took a 10 1/2 hr trip and 200ks south to go to this historic town, so charming.

The viewpoint overlooking Cesky Krumlov.

Renaissance style.

Very historical town, the tower in the centre 

The castle resident bear, there was three, but now only one left.

The Rosenbergs crest, entry into castle.

Good example of gothic and baroque style.

This Cross with Christ is on the butchers bridge, up above was the castle where Julius Caesar used to live.

The theatre room in the castle 

Christmas and end of year wrap up.

 This year I have been dedicating my time to finishing off some UFO’s. I am quite proud of my achievements and now only have four quilts to finish. So I will be also going into 2018 completing these quilts s as well.
Even though I have finished quite a few of my UFO’s, I have also made and completed a couple of quilts as well as doing some small projects in between.

As I have mentioned before, I make a journal cover for my diary every year, below is my diary cover for 2018.

Where has the time gone, it is now April and we are about to fly out for our big trip O/S, we will be away for 7 weeks, the countries we will vist are Seoul, South Korea, Prague,Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Lativas, Estonia, Finland and Russia.

A few finishes for this year.

My Tessalation quilt is all done, now in the process of hand quilting it.

I picked up an old grandmothers powder chair, that was pretty shoddy for $10 and covered it, I am pretty pleased with the result.

This year there are a few O birthdays dedicated to family and friends, so I have been quite busy making a few new quilts as well, the first being one made for my little sister who turned 50 in February. I purchased some orphan blocks from the Springwood quilt show, done by Oatchwork fun a few years ago and made them into a quilt, called "Web of Dreams"

My friend VIv also turned 70 in March so in collaboration with our sewing group, I made this quilt for her, I used Kaffe Fassat fabrics in the front and an Alexander Henry fabric for the back, design was from Modern quilt Studio. VIv has recently just completed chem and her cancer is in remission, so I called this quilt "Longevity"

The front.

The back.

Recently my DIL finished her PHD and was awarded the status of Dr and was successful in gaining  a position as senior lecturer at The Canterbury University in Christchurch NZ, this move has meant that my youngest son will also be relocating to NZ as well. THey have recently purchased a house, so with a new house, come a new quilt, as my DIL asked for greys, I called this quilt "Shades of Grey"

January, this year we travelled to NZ with our son to spend a week with them both, look at houses to be bought and familiarise ourselves with Christchurch again, as we will now be regular visitors across the ditch. We also caught up with friends made on our travels, spent some time in Rakai and Blenheim.

Whilst in Christchurch our DIL purchased tickets for the beer festival and the Comedy festival.

Fun was had by all and we got to meet these two amazing comedians from Biriminham, a great 2 hours of entertainment.

We also visited Akaroa and I was fortunate to spend a few enjoyable hours at The Giants house, never before have I seen so many mosaics in one place. All done by one lady who was a sculptor, after buying the house, found many broken china pieces when transforming the garden, so decided to use them, 20years later, a masterpiece and like no other that I have seen before.

The front page f the house

Even a grand piano has been covered.

These statues are all through the garden, too many photos to post, I recommend a visit.

I attended a quilt guild meeting in March,hosted by the Blue mountain quilters and had the opportunity to attend a talk by Jenny Kee, who I showed my La Pascaglia quilt too, very inspirational lady.

The next day, I ticked off one from my bucket list by doing a workshop with Marg Sampson George, dare I say that I have commenced another hand sewing EPP quilt, Mrs Peach.

Needless to say it is only April and I have already completed three quilts and in my spare time, I have been going to dressmaking classes and have completed a lightweight jacket, I am pleased with the result.

The front

The back, next is a dress!

My other exciting Nes is that we are going to be grandparents to identical twin girls, my DIL, is now 26weeks, although there has been a few challenges with the pregnancy we are costing along nicely and we are hoping for a good delivery and no more complications. Two little sisters for our little grandson, Logan, such a bundle of energy.

 

Our twin granddaughters, via U/S.

That's a wrap, will be posting from our trip away, take care.