Monday, January 12, 2009

Pond skating in Prague

ice skating in Prague on a fish pond 
A few years ago I vowed to start enjoying the winter and learn a winter sport. I bought a pair of skates and took up ice skating. Caroline joined me the next year, and this year Will decided he'd watched long enough and he bought skates too.

We used to stick to indoor rinks, but January's unusually snowy weather turned Prague into a wintery wonderland and tempted us into trying something new. Last Saturday we met up with friends to skate on a fish pond in the Liboc neighborhood of Prague. Even the baby enjoyed getting into the act, as you can see from his picture!

12 comments:

Zhoen said...

Oh, this makes me smile. I had double blade skates when I was small. Wonderful.

countrypeapie said...

It's going down to 13 degrees F in Alabama tonight! Too bad we can't skate on the pasture. Looks lovely!

BabelBabe said...

so jealous. i skated on the pond down the street when i was a kid on the east Coast. Now...I am waiting for the makeshift rink in my backyard to freeze tonight : )

Eleanor said...

Oh my.....I watched the film "Ice Castles" a gazillion times and cried each and every time. You know....she's an ice-skating champion, but the fame gets to her, and she attempts a foolish jump, and she's blinded, but her boyfriend (Robby Benson) doesn't give up on her, and he teaches her how to skate again on the local lake, and she enters the competition, and nobody knows she's blind, and she wins, and in fact she's so so good that all of the spectators throw roses onto the rink, but she can't see them, because she's blind, and so she trips over them, again and again, and as the spectators quieten down in shock....Robby Benson carefully walks along the ice and helps her up and shrugs and says "We forgot about the flowers." Cue music, and brink me another box of Kleenex.

That's about all I have to say.

Oh wait...Caroline has GROWN, plus she looks very steady on that ice. Baby has also GROWN, and he's even cuter than ever.

Sigh.

Roderick Robinson said...

Double-blade skates - they must be like trainer wheels on a bicycle. And 13 deg F in Alabama - how could stars fall on it? They'd smash. Prague looks very Praguish, very mittel-europäische; must play the symphony and see if Wolfie baby hints at snow. Up til now I've always thought of him as Spring-like.

countrypeapie said...

Oh my gosh, I LOVED Ice Castles. I even learned to play the theme song on the piano back in the day. The front of the sheet music had a picture of Robbie Benson lifting up ice-skating-star-girl in the middle of a frozen pond.

No smashed stars here -- I believe they froze to the sky instead. I come to this conclusion after having discovered the clothes I left in the washing machine frozen to the sides of the interior. Also after having put my 5'9" body into the driver's seat of my VW Golf via the back seat because the front door locks were frozen. Nothing like displaying your contortionist abilities in front of your kid's school to gear you up for the years when your kid will be embarrassed by everything you do.

Julia said...

Zhoen, lots of kids start with double blades here too. The ones we find in Prague strap on to the bottom of your shoe.

Meg, frozen wash?!! In 'Bama!! Did ya'll see snow yet?

BBabe, I do love the pond, though having never skated in one, I had no idea that you actually had to scramble down a bank to reach the ice. (Changing into skates on the ice then.)

Eleanor, I just found Ice Castles on YouTube and watched the whole thing. C joined me for the end and we watched the last bit three times through. Very Friday night movie worthy as C said.

BB, And now to find Mozart's Prague symphony and listen to it again too. See the things one does thanks to a commentsbox?

Lucy said...

These last two posts just magic! How lovely to skate on real ice...

Roderick Robinson said...

Prague symphony. It tends to be backed by the Linz - a leftover from LP days. I played it this PM and found it darker (esp the first movement) than the Linz with which I'm more familiar. Winter music? Yes, probably. But we need your educated judgement. We need you to go skating listening to the Prague on your MP3 player. Does it put you in tune with the snow and the ice? A whole new range of blog posts opens up.

Anonymous said...

There's something very old-timey about pond-skating. Add to it that you're living in the Czech Republic, your gorgeous, snowy photos and...wow. Magical.

The kiddies have really grown!

Adorable photos...loved reading your comments, too.

deedee said...

This reminds me of my childhood in Northern Iowa, ice skating on a frozen pond with my Dad, brother and sister.

jscat said...

We went pond skating for the first time here too, quite a rush! Felt like we'd entered an old Dutch painting. You captured the mood - and you take such gorgeous pictures...