Prague, Part 2

This was an alternate shot. All of my photos were blurred, which is normal for my cameraphone when I take it to a punk club at night.

I first saw this plane a number of years ago, but didn't get around to photographing it until 2012, when I was thinking of doing a CSA repaint for the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 DC-3. I never got around to the repaint project, but I decided to post these research shots as they stand reasonably well on their own. At least...I think they're decent for cameraphone shots from a day when the weather wasn't ideal.

Here's a frontal shot. Getting all of the wings was difficult with the cameraphone.

Here's the nose, with a very early CSA logo on it.

On September 17th, there as an electric and LPG vehicle show on Vaclavske Namesti. Electric cars aren't normally my thing, but a number of the models on display looked very refined. This is an Opel Ampera, presumably a 2013 model, which is based on the Chevy Volt. It is slightly sleeker than the Volt, however (unless that's an optical illusion). I didn't get the sense that it was a concept car, as there were several on hand in different colors, and Wikipedia claims that thousands had already been produced since the 2011 model year.

The Smart Eon is the electric version of the Smart ForTwo, and is already in wide service in Prague, although primarily as a fleet vehicle. One user is this ambulance service, one of several in Prague (I don't know the background on them, but there are several EMS providers in Prague). Another fleet are operated by a hotel, presumably in livery or rental service.

Even if cars are eventually abolished, there will probably always be trucks (or at least they'll outlive cars). This was an LPG-powered garbage truck, already painted for Prazske Sluzby, who handle trash collection in Prague.

This was an odd find. Every now and then I spot an unusual ticket on the floor of a Metro station. This one may not even be from a real train, as it has an LGB logo on it. LGB make model trains only, mostly in G Scale. The ticket is an obsolete ticket style called an "Edmundson" ticket, and used extensively in Britain until the advent of computerized ticket printing machines in the 1980's. Today they're used mostly be heritage railways and tour operators.

I've taken a number of photos of the new Skoda 15t trams already, but this was one of the newest units at the time that I took this, and it was the first one that I caught substituting for a metro line, in this case Metro line A, hence the service number XA.

This was my latest shot of Prazky Hrad, and although I think it came out well I have no recollection of why I took it.

This arcade, or "pasaz" is also the entrance to Kino Svetozor, the cinema that gives its name to this pasaz, plus the ice cream shot here. The stain glass advertises Tesla, not the scientist but the later electronics company that now is becoming increasingly marginalized. It is, nevertheless, a classic Czech brand.

"Start" has been a brand name recently added to MAV, or Hungarian State Railways, trains, with the associated addition of logos, at least to Eurocity trains. This one was on a Eurocity that I was taking to Brno, but which would continue on to Budapest.

This is the Golden Angel, or Zlaty Andel, mural that lends its name to the Andel neighborhood of Prague, which in turn is part of Smichov. The story of this mural is complicated, but it was preserved when the neighborhood was being rebuilt, and placed back in its place on a new building that now houses several book stores, restaurants, other shops, and offices. A more complete history, in Czech, is in my next post.

This is the historical marker for the Zlaty Andel.

This photo is very blurred, but I figured it conveyed the hardcore punk scene quite well, if only in the emotional sense. I took this at Cafe na pul Cesty, and although you can't recognize them, the band were Caroline.

This was my first photo of Ruzyne Airport after its name change to Vaclav Havel soon after the former president's death in 2011. You can just barely see the changed lettering on Terminal 2. Correct me if I'm wrong on the Terminal, but I could not have been in Terminal 1 as my first flight wouldn't be out of the Schengen area.

One of Prague's many parks is Stromovka, where you can find ducks even in the wintertime.

This band were called "New Hate Rising," but they were actually anti-fascist, or at least had all the usual GNWP stickers and so on.