About eight minutes from our apartment is Prague's largest park, Stromovka. Its proximity was a big draw when we were weighing the pros and cons of various flats.
Like everything in Prague, Stromovka is loaded with its own history. It was first noted in 1268 as the Royal Hunting Grounds for Czech king Přemysl Otakar II who had a hunting chateau built overlooking the park. The lodge has been reconstructed several times over the years, the last time in 1836 in a neo-Gothic style. Since then it has been called the Governor's Summer House.
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| Karl recalls reading a sign at the park that states the building retains some of the original structure from the early 1500s. |
In the late 1500s, under Emperor Rudolf II, Stromovka flourished. Exotic animals roamed the game reserve. Existing ponds expanded and became fish farms after a tunnel was dug under Letna plain to divert water from the Vltava River.
We love Stromovka, which means "place of trees." We found
our first and best zip line in Prague on about our fourth day. The whole family went on a
Forest Day walk with Class Acts in the fall. The boys enjoy various playgrounds throughout. In the winter I'd head to the park to get in some vigorous walks, and now that the weather is so nice, I run here several times a week.
And spring has come to Stromovka!
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| Crocuses! (croci?) |
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| Cherry blossoms! |
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| Bulb action! Flowers next week? |
Somehow neglected to get the daffodil shot. Alas.
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| March 23, looking across the open grass toward the Summer House on a day I thought was pretty gorgeous at the time. Little did I know what those trees had in store ... |
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| April 7, hellooooo, cherry blossoms! Plus the weeping willow fluffed up and all the green popped out. I'm sure there's more fluffing and popping to come. |
My regular walking/running route takes me up a hill toward the hunting chateau. I wish I'd thought to shoot this in the fall, but in the winter I started capturing the view.
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| February 25 |
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| March 23 |
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| April 7 |
Still a lot of budding and blooming to be done, but I'm amazed at the greening of the place. As for the duck ponds ...
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| March 2, pond still frozen despite the fact that we'd been having warmish days well above freezing. |
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| March 23, on the cusp of spring. |
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| April 7, similar angle as above, but this one includes the duck deck, often used for tossing bread crumbs to the waterfowl. |
A couple of late summer pics for comparison ~
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| September 16 |
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| September 16 |
The appeal of Stromovka is obvious. There are always people here, but it never feels crowded. At around 220 acres, it accommodates everyone -- joggers, rollerbladers, dog walkers (lots of off-leash pooches), baby strolling parents, bicyclists, scooterists, ... everyone.
Parting shots, both from this week ~
Your spring is just a week or so ahead of ours. Thanks for the tease. Love the series photos -- single locations over time.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see that spring has come to Prague!
ReplyDelete@ Joe ~ I'll take more of those series photos and post the updates later. I like those, too. And I'm glad I shot the cherry blossoms the morning I did. That day and the next we had some wild wind. When I was in the park yesterday morning, the blossoms were mostly a memory.
ReplyDeleteWe love Stromovka too! We're there just about every weekend once spring arrives, as it is so perfect for kid biking and parent roller blading.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think we met at Dems Abroad the other day - and I just realized today that a friend of mine mentioned me in an older post of yours!
@ Julia ~ Is Kelly your friend? I do remember her mentioning you! I hadn't heard of Dems Abroad (but I wish I had!), so I didn't meet you there.
ReplyDeleteWe live in Prague 6 (Bubeneč, near Puškinovo náměstí), and much of our life is up this way -- kids go to Riverside, my husband works in Suchdol. Not that I don't get out into other parts of the city, too. :)
Seven active caches in that park, and almost as many inactive ones...
ReplyDeleteI WANT to visit the Duck Deck!
ReplyDelete