Heard today from a reader in Prague.  Magnificent painter.  Here’s his website.  You never know where your book or blog will wind up. 

I went to Prague in the spring of 1991.  Forsythia and tulips were in bloom, the Iron Curtain had recently fallen, and I was over there looking into the idea of importing Bohemian Glass.  This was before Czech art glass had really taken off.

Nothing much came of the business, but I remember how beautiful the city was, since it was not bombed much in WWII.  The narrow streets, the baroque architecture, the optimism after Communism failed, the smell of coal smoke in the mornings, the cheap beer, the jazz clubs late at night, walking back to the hotel across the Charles Bridge (above), and all the restaurants serving ham and dumplings.  Also my driver getting lost in the countryside, and me having to take over; all the great castles, from Karlstein down on into Slovakia; the natives trying to get used to seeing a Yank about; a Russian military convey pulling out down a highway, heading back home.

I could go on, but that’s enough for now.