Europe - Easter Scenes

I was browsing through my photos looking for a picture to post to send greetings for the weekend, and decided to show all of the ones that I had relating to Easter in Europe. I was fortunate to visit in Spring of 2011 to get some photos.

Church altar in Magdeburg, Germany

Store window in Berlin, Germany

Display in the Meissen China showroom, Meissen, Germany

Painting above the church entrance and the altar in Wittenburg, Germany

Center of a large plaza in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Church altar in Olomouc

Sculpture in the museum in Olomouc

Notre Dame altar, Paris, France

Large painted egg in Prague, Czech Republic

Large number of booths selling Easter eggs in Prague.

Michealangelo's La Pieta in Rome, Italy

Chocolate shop window in Vienna, Austria

Altar of a church in Vienna.

Many decorated eggs for sale in Vienna.

Olomouc - St. Vaclava Cathedral

I was very impressed with this cathedral. Either the original painted walls remain, or a lot of time has been invested to recreate the wall and ceiling effects. Most churches cleaned the painting off of the wall. This is a great example of painted walls.  I've added some close ups and details.

Olomouc - Czech Hockey Game

Shawna called Mike and we arranged to meet the group to watch the Czech hockey game against the Swedes.  The travelers all converged, the waitress discovered that we were better at English than Czech, and sent in the English waiter.  We had “Pepsi Light” (diet Pepsi), local brew, local wine, local food.  Fun time, we were disappointed that the Czech team lost, found the bathrooms marked “Toilety”, exchanaged stories and laughs, discussed how awesome the Pittsburgh teams were (GO STEELERS!!  STEELER NATION - ALIVE IN OLOMOUC!), and had a fun time. The evening ended too soon, but new friendships were formed and we will all need to have a reunion in Phoenix when the expats return.

Luckily, Mike helped us to figure out the train route to Vienna for the next day.  We took notes and then made sure that he was going with us to the train station in the morning. 

Many thanks to Shawna, Mike and Cameron for a lovely weekend.  I’m very happy to share in your life adventure and look forward to your return to our little Phoenix neighborhood.  We will need to set up tables and chairs in the front yard and make our own café.  I have several boxes of lights that we can string up for a café appearance.

Notes:

There are no self laundry businesses in the town.  They have the small washer, dryer combo machines which don’t completely dry. The entire wash and partially dry cycle takes about 2.5 hours, so plan accordingly.  I put a load in and hung shirts to fully dry.

Area is slightly hilly and streets are cobblestone.  The bigger stones are quite level and easy to walk on, but the narrow black ones were difficult for me.


The modernized apartment:

Olomouc - Favorite Cafe

This is a family favorite so we stopped for a snack.  Note that the water glass matches the product poured.  This must be a rule, as it was in effect throughout the trip.

Olomouc - City Park

There is a delightful wild park that runs through Olomouc, Czech Republic. Enjoyed a stroll through this area when visiting friends in 2011.

Olomouc - Tea time at the hookah bar

Sunday was a delightful sunny day spent walking through the town from one end to the other, visiting a church and a museum, and (per Cameron) stopping too many times for snacks and coffee. The church was of particular interest because it was in great condition inside and the painted walls were intact.  I learned that a lot of churches have cleaned the walls and no longer have the paint.  Some churches look dark and dingy because their painted walls are unkept.  This was beautiful and I took so many photos, both broad and detailed, that I will also post the details in a separate post.

Olomouc - Ceasars Cafe and Moritz Cafe

Mike met us at the train station and led the way, via the streetcar, to the apartment.  Shawna was still in Vienna with Cameron and the other visiting friends and was expected back later in the day.  Mike had come home that morning. We dropped off the luggage at the apartment (see a later post for a walk through the apartment) and went out for lunch. The “tour guide” showed us an adorable square and noted that the warm day, one of the first for the season, was prompting the café owners to bring the tables and chairs outside.  Olomouc café life was waking up after a long winter.  We found a nice place to sit and enjoyed some local beer and pasta. (The town was filled with bikers...that is the crowd.)