…my husband asks me now and then. Now, really…

In a sense he has a point. Why my fascination with old and antique? The horse speed of coaches,  first cars? Slow flow of all times past? Appreciaton of architecture, arts, music and all things folk, tied up with thousands of years of national traditions of Europe?  Because I was lucky, in my opinion, to catch the last glimpse of the previous century: the gas lamps, the horse drawn cart, the rafts on the river, the steam trains, the empty chateaux , the steamer on the clean river, delapidated walled-in gardens in the ancient city…

It is not to say that I do not regard nowadays exciting. I do in many fields. Certainly science! I am accutely aware of the fact, that in my favorite early 19th century I would have been, many times over, dead by now.

But, since I recieved this chance, I feel it my duty to speak about the old times, the manners, the ways of life, as I remember them for real, or from my great grand mothers’ memories and stories.

How lucky to be born into one of the most historic cities of Europe, Prague, the Imperial court abandoned capital. By becoming provincial town, Prague has never lost much of her centuries in making treasures. No money= No drastic changes. How lucky!