Elegant Elbe: Prague 6b (5/25/2018)

Friday, May 25, 2018 (continued)
Our next destination was Letná Park/Letenské sady.

Bílek Villa/Bílkova vila (1910-1911, by František Bílek),
symbolizing a wheat field

Kramář Villa/Kramářova vila (1911-1914, by Friedrich Ohmann)
has been the official residence of the prime minister since 1998

View of the Vltava River and the Straka Academy/Strakova akademie
(1891-1896, by Václav Roštlapil) that was built to house
impoverished children of Czech nobility, but now is the seat
of the Czech Republic Government

Hanavský pavilion/Hanavský pavilon was built as the
representative pavilion of the Komárov Ironworks
for the Prague Jubilee Exhibition in 1891
(designed by Otto Haiser and Josef Hercik in
Art Nouveau style), moved in 1898 to this park

Prague Metronome/Pražský metronom (1991, by Vratislav Novák)
symbolizes the long struggle against Soviet control and in fact sits on the
former site of a colossal statue of Joseph Stalin 

It seems it was Nikita Kruschev who ordered the destruction of the statue by dynamite in 1962.

Or is it a symbol of a new era?
It is not even technically a metronome

Strolling through Letná Park

Unidentified sculpture

Memorial to three Czech partisans who fell here
on May 6, 1945 for the liberation of Prague (KSS)

Shady beer garden

Did these guys really see that I was zooming in on them?
With the Church of Our Lady before Týn behind them

Gambrinus beer delivery truck (KSS)

Just hook up the hose to the correct spigot (KSS)

and fill up the restaurant's kegs (KSS)

Mosaic design on air vents for the road tunnels
beneath the park, and a beercycle/beer bike

A very large dog gets a drink (KSS)

Kent gets his drink (it is too leafy to see the city
of Prague spread out below

Not much was happening at the Czech Beer Festival/Český pivní festival

The newest Škoda 15T tram

Huh?! That's a Disney Snow White outfit!

Took a tram back to Lesser Town Square, where we first had to try a trdelník, those "barrels" of pastry we have seen baking on a spit over charcoal.

Instead of ice cream, ours had Nutella (and
they are sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon on the outside)

After dessert was lunch, which we had at the same restaurant I had dinner with the Ls in 1981, U Mecenáše.

Prague ham with arugula salad, toast, and apple chutney

Rustic sausage plate mustard and horseradish, and sauerkraut (with pickles)

U Mecenáše is no longer dark and dreary inside

These kit cars seemed to be a popular means of touring Prague

T6A5/III tram

NH Hotel, the one at the bottom of the funicular

Back at the hotel, we joined Peter & Beth and others waiting for the motor coaches to take us to the Viking ship Astrild. Although water levels are not deep enough at Děčín where the river-based itinerary usually begins, we will travel 30 minutes farther to Bad Schandau, the next scheduled stop, and will not miss anything. (Unless one wanted to see Děčín!)
The motor coaches backed down a long narrow drive to reach the upper hotel, and once our luggage and persons were on board, we took off.

Passed the Operation Anthropoid Memorial
(2009, by artists David Moješčík and Michal Šmeral,
and architects Miroslava Tůmová and Jiří Gulbis);
it is located at the site of the ambush

Canola field and a mesa

We left the Vltava River valley, and entered the Elbe valley.

Crossed a bridge over the Elbe at Děčín,
and yes, it looks a bit shallow!

The Děčín Castle

Schöna, Germany across the river

We followed the right bank of the Elbe River into Germany, and arrived in Bad Schandau about 17:30. There was time for a welcome cocktail, a welcome briefing, and then dinner was at 19:00.

Our stateroom

Our head

A rendering of Astrild, a Nordic goddess of love

Sunset over the Elbe

The Bad Schandau Elevator at night

The refreshments nook on the ship

The computer nook

And the library and gift shop across from the reception desk

The Viking ships for the Elbe are different from the rest of their fleet, being smaller due to the need to have less of a draft. They carry 98 passengers as compared to the 190 on the usual longships.
Today's high temperature was 75 degrees F.
Next: Bad Schandau.