This and That

A few days ago now, as we were re-entering the main outside door, who should arrive behind us but our new friend Pam and her two kids, Alexandria and Logan! We hadn’t made the acquaintance of her kids so this was a welcome surprise. Alex is 4-1/2 years old and Logan is 18 months old. After simple greetings, she told us that she had gotten locked out of their apartment. Worse, her key was in the lock inside the doorway and might block the set she just picked up from her husband, after taking the children and herself on a tram to Wenceslas Square to his office.

Needless to say, the lock was jammed and a locksmith was required. In the meantime, Pam, Alex and Logan joined us in our room. When Gayle gave little Alex a wire angel ornament, she politely asked if we had anything for her brother Logan. Gayle said, “no we don’t have anything for someone as young as Logan”. Alex’s precocious response was, “Someday Logan will grow up and I can keep it for him”. Then she asked about a possible gift for daddy.

Being Bob, I was teasing Alex about using her long pony tails to get the lock open. She looked right at me and said, “You are crazy man. I think you make a joke of me!” We all laughed. What cute, fun kids.

Yesterday evening we all attended the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in the Rudolfinum concert hall on the banks of the Vltava River. The first piece was Schumann’s 3^rd symphony also called the “Rhenish”. The second movement sounded western, I commented that I felt the music encircle us like smoke, tiny tendrils of delight. The last movement sounded to me like waves crashing in their mad rush to expend themselves upon the sand. Occasionally, a smaller secondary wave slips and slides between or on top of the rollers adding further complexity.

The concert ended with Schumann’s 4^th symphony. I’ve always loved the swashbuckling and rauckus tempo of this piece. When it ended I felt that I hadn’t breathed for the last two minutes. It takes your breath away. Every note was perfectly prepared and delivered, no wonder: this concert was being recorded for a new compendium of Schumann’s pieces. The setting is fairly indescribable, marble columns, cherubs, our seats a mere 17 rows back and a conductor that was a tiny ball of fire. I’ve included pictures in the video. All this for $38 per seat.

While we were waiting outside, near the front steps, a young couple 20 meters away were kissing and groping, letting us know that spring was in the air. We were watching a taped version of the production on an outside monitor, and heard the distinct sounds of young lust. Discreetly Linda turned around and the young couple had moved closer to us until they were an arms length away. We gave them the “elderly stare” and they moved off about 10 meters. We decided to really scare them off by handing the camera to Linda, and Gayle and I started making out with Linda shooting the action. Within minutes we had the long granite stairs to the symphony all to ourselves. There is power in Love!

This morning to Linda and Gayle’s surprise, I told them they could plan our touring route, as they had come up with lots of ideas the night before as they scanned our tour books. During the day, I continued to photograph them, pouring over books and soggy maps (it’s rainy today), trying to determine our next steps. Eventually we blundered into a Czech style restaurant, out of the tourist zone, (we were moderately lost looking for a cubist column) and had a delicious, heart clogging meal. Gayle had what amounted to potato pancakes made with beer, lightly fried, with a flavor popping salty sauce. Linda had Goulash with even more potato pancakes and I had a huge hunk of roasted pork knuckle a special favorite in the region. My knuckle was so large I was charged an assessment, kind of like a property tax for pigs. As I read this pre-blog to Linda and Gayle, Linda said, “your knuckle was so big it was a fist”. We all ordered dark beer (pivo) and discovered it was according to one tour book the best beer in the world. It must have gone down well as we wobbled out of the restaurant an hour later.

By the way, check out the cool tufted red squirrels we saw chasing each other and drinking out of a puddle in the old Vysehrad castle.