Prague

After our train arrived in Prague, we walked to our hotel which was only about 1/2 mile away. It take all four of us to orient the map, but we made it. We got there in time to get our rooms (that we hadn't been able to claim the night before) and have a shower before meeting the rest of the group for a morning tour of the Strahov Monastery and a visit to the Church of Our Lady. The monastery was founded in 1140 by Prince Vladislav II and thanks to the royal favour the monastery became a center of learning and is is still famous for its libraries. The Church is home to the Loretto (a little house in the center of the compound said to be a copy of the Virgin Mary's house). It also has a lovely carillon that rings every hour.

We then went to Bertramka (the Mozart Museum) for appetizers and champagne. We were treated to a private sampling of some of Mozart's most famous works including arias from Don Giovanni and a sing-a-long of the chorus from The Marriage of Figaro. I hummed.

The afternoon we went off on our own to walk around the sreets of the Old City of Prague. The architecture is fabulous - lovely facades and ornamentations on buildings of every color and style. I've included a few pictures in the album, but there were so many more.

For dinner the first night in Prague, we ate at La Perle de Prague, a fabulous restaraunt in the "Dancing House" - a F.O. Gehry building that has a lovely view of the castle area and the river. We enjoyed a great meal with our new friends Rosie and Rip, two great Connecticut ladies who wanted to help us solve the world's problems.

The following morning we were off to a tour of the Jewish Quarter of Prague. This included a visit to the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest synagogue to preserved in central Europe. It dates from the 13th century and was built in early Gothic style. The interior of the synagogue is very stark - the walls (which were whitewashed by the communists) have been repainted with the names and dates of Czech Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. Every wall is covered with small handpainted names of villages and people, including the dates of birth and last date known to be alive - usually the date of deportation. Madeline Albright's parents are listed here. Approximately 390,000 people including 83,000 Jews were killed during WWII - and Czechoslovakia was part of a "protectorate" of HItler!

Also in the Jewish quarter we viewed the Jewish Cemetery. It was founded at the beginning of the 15th century, but its limited space was soon too small. Because this was the only place it was permitted to bury Jews, earth had to be brought in to the graveyard, so now there are as many as 12 burial layers and at least 12,000 gravestones dating from 1439-1787. It is estimated that 100,000 Jews have been buried here.

After that sobering tour, we had a walk back to the Old Town Square with the Old Town Hall and the Tyn Church. The town was granted a town hall in 1338, and it is a mess of building styles. One of its features the Horologe, a type of clock that not only tells time, but also shows the years, months, days, and hours; the rising and setting of the sun and moon and the signs of the Zodiac. It also has the figures of the Apostles who appear every hour in the windows, but also skeletons and other figures who move around. It goes off every hour, and just like in ENgland, at the "Ride of Lady Godiva" everybody stops and waits at the top of every hour to see the show.

After our tour we went had a coffee with Carl and Wendy (who raise Alpacas in Australia) and then we climbed the steps up to the top of the Horologe. We had lovely views all over the city. We then had a walk across the famous Charles Bridge. The stone bridge was built from 1357- the beginning of the 15th century. . The entrance tower is the Old Town Bank, built in 1380. There are 30 statues lining the bridge dating from 1657 onward. This is a large pedestrian area, filled with musicians and local artists.

Dinner this evening was at a local brew-pub where we had our first taste of goulash - which was quite good and our first taste of Czech beer of which they are rightly proud. Then we found a jazz club! PRague not only has great classical music, but a lively jazz scene and we ended up in a basement at the Ungelt Jazz and Blues Club - non smoking!- listening to a group of college kids sing the blues and play some jazz. It was a really fun locals place, and as we left, there was a line of people waiting for our free seats.

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