Living without being connected to the internet for a week

The Lahovice interchange south of Prague where the ring road crosses the main road south from Prague city centre. The top photo is how it should be; the bottom photo is how it was on Monday 3rd March 2013

Last Monday evening (3rd June), just as I was uploading photographs to illustrate a draft blog post about the serious flooding we were experiencing in Prague, our connection to the internet died. I soon discovered that the cause of the problem was that our landline phone was also dead – our broadband internet connection is via the landline.

Awaking on Tuesday morning, to find that we still did not have a functioning internet connection, I contacted Gordon the Church Treasurer using my mobile phone, to explain the problem. Although the contract with our service provider O2, is in my name, the monthly bill is . . . → Read More: Living without being connected to the internet for a week

Prague Zoo

A ring-tailed lemur in Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

Prague Zoo has always been one of our favourite places to visit on my ‘day-off’, ever since we moved to the Czech Republic nearly four years ago. It isn’t really feasible to see everything in one visit and, depending on the time of year, different animals and birds are more willing to show themselves each time we visit. And all the time, there are new developments at the zoo, some being the result of ongoing repairs to the damage caused by severe flooding in August 2002. Realising that we hadn’t visited Prague Zoo at all in 2012, we put it on our ‘staycation to visit list’ and we duly visited once more on Wednesday 18th July.

Prague Zoo is located directly across the Vltava River from where we live. Part of the fun . . . → Read More: Prague Zoo

Kaufland je tady! – Kaufland has arrived!

Kaufland – Open from 07.00 – 22.00 every day © Ricky Yates

Back in September 2011, I wrote an illustrated post about the building work going on to create a large new supermarket on the site of a former bus depot that lies adjacent to the Rezidence Podbaba estate where we live. It was entitled Kaufland prichází! – Kaufland arrives! Well now it is Kaufland je tady! – Kaufland has arrived! On Thursday 31st May 2012, our long awaited Kaufland supermarket finally opened.

As part of the development, as I illustrated in my earlier post, the main section of the former bus depot with its curved roof has been retained and renovated. Then alongside has been built a wholly new two-storey building. This new building houses the supermarket with the former bus depot building now providing a large undercover parking area.

At the . . . → Read More: Kaufland je tady! – Kaufland has arrived!

Winter weather & walks

Sunset over Podbaba © Ricky Yates

Where is winter? It is a question I’ve been asking for several weeks. This time last year, there had been snow lying on the ground for about seven weeks. Until yesterday, when we finally had a few heavy snow showers, there had been no snow at all in Prague this winter.

The temperature this evening has just dropped below freezing and the forecast is for temperatures of below 0 degrees Celsius for the next four nights at least. But there is still no sign of any serious snow.

There is a very good reason why I want some serious snow and for temperatures to remain below freezing for many days at a time. To ensure that the mosquitoes are kept at bay!

In the Autumn of 2008 when we first arrived in Prague and throughout the warmer months of . . . → Read More: Winter weather & walks

Kaufland prichází! – Kaufland arrives!

Kaufland arrives! © Ricky Yates

Today, 19th September 2011, is the third anniversary of our arrival in Prague. Ever since then, Sybille and I have almost constantly lived next to, or very adjacent to, major building and construction work. In many respects, this should not be surprising as the Czech Republic bounces back from over forty years of Communist era stagnation, to now being the most economically prosperous of all the former Warsaw Pact countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

For nearly two years from our arrival, we had the fourth and final stage of ‘Residence Podbaba’ being constructed in front and to the side of our Chaplaincy Flat. As I mentioned in a July 2010 post, the dust and noise that building work constantly generated, was at times quite irritating and frustrating. More recently, at the beginning of 2011, the work . . . → Read More: Kaufland prichází! – Kaufland arrives!