Prague May 19 to May 25

We are trying to catch up with the time we missed when we had no computer.  

Monday, May 19. 

Despite our trepidation, our Aeroflot flight to Prague through Moscow was successful.  The plane into Moscow was late, leaving only 40 minutes to get to the international terminal.  We and our luggage made it.  Aeroflot crew uniforms still sport the hammer and sickle.

Aeroflot airplane meals for lunch and sausage quiche from pastry shop for dinner.   

Tues,  May 20

Our rented apartment is OK.  Near the sites, very clean, all new IKEA, defective shower door (small flood), located on  a dreary street with construction and graffiti.

The nearby Tesco Department Store sold us a computer to replace the chromebook that died on us.  The $400 replacement is pretty slow and uses Windows 8.  It is hard to describe how idiotic and unusable that operating system is.  We will get a refund of the VAT, about $80.

Tesco's basement has a  nice supermarket.  Our first try with a Czech wine, a svatovavrinecke, was not a great success, but Bruce was able to finish it over the next few days/. 

We worked to get the travel blog up to date.  Completed May 10.



Wed, May 21

We were up early and found two tickets to tonight's Prague Music festival concert online.  Only four left.  We had the usual difficulties working with a strange website in a foreign country and with a new computer.  Eventually, we loaded the etickets on a thumb drive, but we could not get the coin operated printer machine at the Tesco to read it. 

We spent a few hours at the Prague Castle (Hrad), mostly at the St Vitus Cathedral.  It is a late Gothic one, designed by Peter Parler, one of the very few medieval architects we know by name.  His tomb is here:

We can not figure put where we know his name from, but we both immediately recognized it.  Wikipedia places him in Prague and not in the other cathedral towns we have previously visited.

The legend is that St Vitus was an early Christian that stuck to his faith and survived torture unscathed, i.e, not a martyr.  The fact is that his cult is very early and nothing is known of him as an historical figure.

As with almost every gothic cathedral, building started with the apse.  Construction of the apse began in 1344.  But construction of the nave was delayed and the consecration of the  church did not take place until 1929.   This is one of the longest cathedral construction projects.  

By the late gothic, windows were very large.  Here, very high windows of the (expanded) triforium and clerestory merged and covered virtually the entire wall above the aisles.  Note how the windows above the railing come out to meet the columns, a nice device we do not recall seeing elsewhere.

The guide book says that this is two tons of silver. 

Curious to know who deserved so much silver, Leslie turned to catholic.com.    It appears that there may have been two Johns of Nepomuk  conflated into one saint. The important myth is that he was confessor to the wife of the king.  The king wanted information from her confession, specifically the name of the lover he  thought she had.  John refused and was tortured and drowned in the Moldau. Thus, he was sainted for refusing to break the secrecy of the confessional, an important precedent.

Parler designed two very elaborate rooms.  Here's one:

The exterior would be very imposing, had there not been the unfortunate construction of various buildings quite close to the cathedral and spoiling the exterior perspective.

 The flying buttresses are especially fine.

We admired the gargoyles.

Lunch at an outdoor café.  There was a very nice,  but weird, Scottish lady at our table.  Crappy food.

The Cathedral Museum was rich in artifacts extracted from tombs that had accumulated, including many items of great historic importance to the Czechs.  But, frankly, it was much more than we could be interested in.

We ended the castle visit at the Romanesque Basilica of St. George, over 1000 years old.

After a stop at the concert hall to have our tickets printed, we took a short rest.

The concert was at the Dvorak Theater in the Rudolfinum. 

 

Stravinsky "Dumbarton Oaks"; Messaien "O sacrum convivium"; Beethoven Fantasie in C Minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra and Emperor Concerto.  The encore was a Beethoven Bagatelle.  Leif Ove Andsnes conducted and played the piano for the Beethovens.  Andsnes turns out to be a terrific performer.  He almost made the Fantasie  piece sound good.  He leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.  They are members of the Mahler Youth Orchestra who wanted to stay together as a group (encouraged by Claudio Abbado).  They were very engaged and energetic. 

Thursday May 22

Our brains are too weary to take in another alien history with difficult names.  So we are just enjoying the architecture and the music.

Bruce returned the computer as it refused to boot up.  This was quite a long procedure as electronics are not returnable here. He had to demonstrate that it really did not work.

We went back to the castle.  We saw the picture gallery, a real miss.  The concert was at the St George's basilica.  The music was trite and some 20 - 30 small bits in an hour.  But the acoustics were amazing and it was worth it to hear the big sound produced by five strings.

Dinner mixed meat, stewed duck, ham, sausage, and dreadful dumplings.

Friday, May 23.

We spent most of the day at the Jewish Quarter.  The Jewish community was confined to a ghetto until the 1790s.  It was crowded.  The cemetery was filled 10 graves deep -- 100,000 in a pretty small area. 

There were five synagogues, four open. One serves as the holocaust museum, with names and dates written on the walls.  Two serve as Judaica museums.  The Old New Synagogue (I did not name it) is the oldest functioning synagogue Europe.

The most impressive sight, to us, was the Spanish Synagogue.  This name apparently comes from the decor, as it is a German reform congregation founded in 1868.  The interior is very elaborately embellished.  However it serves as a Judaica museum and music venue (no interestingly concerts during our stay).   With the exception of the Old New, one does not get the sense of a place of worship.

 

We enjoyed a free choral concert given by the Mastersingers from Cookeville, Tenn. They sang for an hour.  Wonderful Haydn Te Deum, parts from Mozart's Requiem, some Schubert and Medelssohn.  The American pieces were new to us (gospel and spirituals) except for So Long, Farewell from the Sound of Music.  The venue was St. Nicolas in the Old town Square.  

It was pretty warm and we made it back to our apartment just before the weather broke.
Dinner:  Meinl gourmet store - lovely 24 month Comte, raspberry pie.

Saturday, May 24
 

Prague created a cubist architecture.  Our out-of-date guidebook steered us to the Cubist Museum which was housed in one of the two remaining cubist buildings.  The Cubist Museum does not exist today. 

Why is this "cubist"?

We went to a cafe with a good view of the famous astronomical clock.  We ordered beer and mixed sausage.  Best meal we have had in Prague so far.  The clock struck 11. The skeleton rang a bell.  The apostles paraded.  People stand waiting for this show for 30 even, 50 minutes.  Disappointing, as one should expect from such hype.  

We walked across the Charles Bridge and in The old town. 

 We window shopped particularly glass.  We restrained ourselves from purchasing.   We walked to the Monument to the Victims of Communism.  Very effective.

From 1948 until the collapse, a communist regime was kept in power by the Soviet Army. The bronze strip going up the center recites grim statistics:  200,000 people arrested for political crimes, 170,000 exiles, 4500 died in prison, etc. 

Went to a cafe on the Devil Stream for a coffee ice cream frappe and hot wine.

Then we took the river cruise.  The narrative was annoying and not helpful.

We continued this time by taxi to the Mineralum, a store with a museum.  The minerals were amazing.

The admission included a film in 4D.  It was a ride on a mine train, which was most like a roller coaster, with rain, wind and heat lamp effects.  It was surprisingly well done as we both enjoyed it.

 It was a 10 hour day out and we are tired.

We caught the subway back to the apartment for a bread, cheese, and salami meal.  Our food and wine is almost gone; we will eat out tomorrow.


Sunday, May 25

Chron context|:  Wendy's sale closed.   Camera broken.

We took the subway to Veletrzni Palace, the Art gallery run by the City of Prague.  The 5th and 4th floors were devoted to Czech arts, applied arts, architecture, etc.  There seemed to be an unusual bias toward dreariness.  Bruce liked the later abstract works of Frantizek Kupka.  

The 3rd floor contained the international collection.  Picasso, Signac, Pissarro, Courbet, and other 19th and 20th century European items.  They have a Van Gogh, Green Wheat, 1889, and a few exceptional Utrillos.

After a light lunch at the museum cafe (hummus and tabouli), we spent a long time with Alfonso Mucha's Slavic Epic.  Mucha was already a successful artist when he offered to paint an epic series for the City in return for a promise to house and display the work.  The result is a sort of glorification of the Slavs, Wagnerian in scale and a bit like Max Parrish in tone.  The 20 giant paintings took 18 years.

 

Café Colore:  goose breast

 

 

 

May 15, Armenia

Thursday May 15

We began with this array of stones at Zorats Karer of unknown date and purpose.

Our guide says it is an observatory, a henge older than Stonehenge.  She tried to explain how the astronomical observations were made, but she was a bit incoherent.  Online we find that it is also a site a of many graves.
 
We travel to Tatev monastery using the cable car ("Wings of Tatev").

The magnificence of the monastery was in the views, not the buildings. See earlier comments on Armenian churches.

From the cable car:

We nudged our way through a large flock of fat tail Armenian sheep.

Khndzoresk was a cave village inhabited until 1958.  The journey down the gorge and over the footbridge was a bit difficult.  At the suggestion of Gocha,  Leslie skipped this one.

 

 

 

"Home visit":  There was an attempt to show us how the Armenians live.  We went to visit a home. The family ran a B&B which we saw, but not their house.  Our host was an OB/gyn and the only surgeon in town.  We met children and a particularly adorable two year old grandchild who had everyone playing with her.  After touring the gardens and greenhouse (they must produce most of their produce), we were treated to a glass of brandy made by a friend.  We toured the B&B and admired the rugs hanging on the walls.  On the way out we were given herbal tea (thyme, excellent) and spoon fruits.  The fruits were walnuts in honey and cherry conserve.  These are eaten with a spoon off a plate.  Excellent, but way too sweet to eat in any quantity.  Some of us then tried his home made walnut vodka.  We were sitting under the walnut tree source.

A carpet with a portrait of Lenin was a gift from a patient with no money.

 The family still.

 

May 14, Armenia,

Wed May 14

We are on our way to Noravank Gorge and Monastery.

Russian influence:  Russian troops are in Armenia to patrol the border; Armenia is a member in the Russian sponsored trade zone; a substantial number of Armenians are guest workers in Russia; all Armenians seem to speak Russian.  When you fly from Armenia to Moscow, you arrive at the domestic terminal.

Storks: 

Iranians:  Armenia caters to Iranians who visit from the southern border.  They often come to indulge vices banned at home.  They patronize the casinos on the edges of Yerevan and drink alcohol.  Some, apparently, bring booze back.  We saw stands selling wine in Coca Cola bottle along the road for the Iranian trade..

Noravank gorge:

 

At the end, Monastery church.  

Lions were carved onto these tombs as a symbol of strength.  But these lions seemed exceptionally unfierce.

The Areni cave was possibly the highlight of the trip.  It is a chalcolithic site (5000-4000BCE).  The oldest shoe found to date was found there.  It is in the Archaeological Museum in Yerevan. Also the first wine making.  What made the site so exciting is that the excavations are complete, and all the jars are still in situ.

We previously talked about fermentation in terra cotta pots in a Georgia post.  This is the same method used here.  Scads of pots of different sizes are dug into the cave (different social classes?). The wine press is next to the pots.  

We remember Boris's dinner lecture suggesting cannabalism.  Part of his evidence is butchered bones of teen age girls (which we do not see).  DNA shows that they were all of the same family.   More interesting is that the residue in the wine pots show DNA for microbes that only grow on humans.  Thus, blood and wine were mixed, possibly pressed in the same wine press.  It is stressed to us that this wine was clearly only for ritual purposes and not general drinking.  Boris also found pieces of a skull that had been burnished. He is wondering whether this was a ritual skull cup.

We look forward to his publication.

Only half the group could visit the cave at one time.  So, while we waited, we had a honey tasting. The man cut up a comb and gave us (quite large) pieces on a plate with a spoon.  It was wildflower honey and very good.  He also had a large Metaxa bottle with a spigot. He assured us it was filed with his own brandy which was very good.  

We arrived at our guest house in Sisian, a decrepit town of 16,000 very close to the Iranian Border.   It is fairly high up and a bit cool.  Bruce managed to get a terrible haircut for about $1.50.

Our guesthouse is a bit bizarre, with a lot of colored neon lighting and furniture from the 70s that looks brand new.  The food was not memorable.

May 13 Armenia Zvartnots, Manuscripts

Tue May 13

Today's first site is  Zvartnots, a glorious cathedral church erected between 641 and 661, but ruined in the 10th century.

Next, the Church of Saint Hripsime.  She was very beautiful and caught the eye of Diocletian, but she would not marry a pagan.  She fled Rome for Armenia.  There the Armenian king wanted to marry her, but he was rejected for the same reason.  She was tortured and martyred.  In the early 4th Century, St. Gregory the Illuminator (of people, not manuscripts) had a vision of the place of her martyrdom and was told to erect a memorial at that place.  The current church was built in the 7th century.  The belfry tower was added later here and to several other Armenian churches.

Etchmiadzin is the location of the mother cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church.  It is sort of like a college campus (as it includes a seminary), with dorms, eating halls, guest quarters, libraries, and classrooms spread out over a large area.  One enters through a gate which includes an outdoor altar.  The altar allows very large services.

Pope John Paul II was there for the consecration in 2001.

Foundation myth:  St. Gregory the Illuminator had a vision indicating the site of the Cathedral, known as the Catholicate of All Armenians.    The treasury houses several of the most holy relics.  Pictured below is the spear that a Roman soldier used to prod Jesus during the crucifixion and a piece of Noah's ark. 

Remember that the ark landed on Mt Ararat which is sacred to the Armenians although it is now in Turkey.  Armenians claim to be descendants of Noah's son Japheth.

We do not have a picture of the right hand of St. Gregory the Illuminator, but can offer this:

 Heading back for lunch, we got caught in a traffic jam.  The French President was visiting and his motorcade stopped everything.  Lunch was terribly rushed.  Fish and huge potatoes.

Erebuni (from which Yerevan is derived) Fortress was founded in 782 BCE.  It was excavated by archaeologists in the 1950s. 

The is an on-site museum containing the artifacts of the dig:

The Manuscript Museum was next.  Armenians have a long and strong scribal heritage, including manuscript illumination.  Some 10,000 items have been assembled in an imposing structure overlooking Yerevan:

The statue in front is Mashtots, the designer of the alphabet.  The Museum includes manuscripts of ancient authors known only in Armenian translation.  This is not just a museum but a major conservation and teaching institution.

We enjoyed many splendid items:

The visit with our group was too short, so we returned Saturday and took three pictures before the guard stopped us.