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Oct. 10, 2008

Travels, Aug 2008, Part Three--Prague

Posted in Travels
We left NYC in the evening and had a pleasant overnight flight to Prague, Czech Republic.  British Airways is a great airline!  Very family friendly--they had children's movies and children's music to choose from, and children's meals, which they served before they served the adults.  Very nice!  The girls also enjoyed the goodie bags that the flight attendants gave them, full of crayons, a book, and an activity book.  They also liked the little toiletries bag that every passenger had--that eye mask thing, travel toothbrush with a tiny tube of toothpaste, socks, airline headphones, and a blankie.  I loved that they seated us all together.  You don't get that anymore on US airlines!  At least not for free!

Prague has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and it lives up to its reputation.  What a gorgeous, well preserved city!  It is apparently one of the benefits of surrendering quickly after being attacked--many original buildings are still standing today.  We met up with our Aunt J. there. 

Our first day, we visited the Old Town.  This first picture shows the Astronomical Clock in the background:

With Aunt J.:


We then walked over to Charles Bridge:

This is the arch at the entrance of the Bridge:



And some great views from the Bridge:


And a pic on the Bridge itself--there were many statues there:

Everything was so gorgeous--it was really hard to capture it with pictures. 

The next day we went to Prague Castle.  This complex is vast, so we could only take bits and pieces.  Also, in most of the buildings, we were prohibited from taking photos. 

St. Vitas Cathedral, in Prague Castle was the big highlight.  This cathedral was breathtaking.  There were numerous chapels on the side of the church, all with a different theme, all with different windows and paintings on the walls, and scultures or tombs.  K is standing in front of a particularly nice window:


There was a very cute little section in Prague Castle called the Golden Lane, which was a small street with little shops:

Down the hill from Prague Castle is a little area called Mala Strana, which was very quaint. Here is a pic of K in front of what we called a Pinnochio store:

And here we are just walking around there:

That evening, we attended a classical music concerto.  It was wonderful, as we expected, being in the midst of all this culture. 

Our last full day, we went to the Old Jewish Quarter.  This area of Prague is very upscale.  The Czech Jews have done very well here in Prague, in spite of their history of persecution. 


We visited numerous synagogues, including the Spanish Synagogue, Pinkas Synagogue, Klausen Synagogue, and Old New Synagogue.  Again, we were prohibited from taking photos, so we don't have a lot to show. 

Here is a pic of the New Jewish Synagogue (not the Old-New Synagogue).  This synagogue wasn't actually in the Jewish Quarter, but several streets from it, near our hotel.


Here are some pictures of the Old Jewish Cemetery (which is in Jewish Quarter):
Jews were buried one on top of each other here, as there was no real place for them to bury their dead.  The whole tour of the synagogues and especially the cemetery was very somber.  Jews in this area suffered as did all Jews from the Nazi occupation, and the weight of that horrible part of history fills the atmosphere everywhere you go. 

That evening, we went to see a marionette show--Mozart's Don Giovanni.  What a special treat!  Prague is known for its fantastic marionette shows, and we were super impressed.  The marionettes were beautiful--great costumes, lots of attention to detail.   But the most amazing thing was that after a while, you almost forgot that these were not humans performing this opera, but puppets!  The puppeteers had the marionettes shaking their heads, moving their arms around, and even making their chins bob, just as if they were humans performing opera.  I didn't understand a word of the opera, nor did I know what was going on in the story, but it didn't matter!  Merely watching this incredible skill and listening to the magic of Mozart's music was spellbinding enough.

Mozart, in marionette form:

Various characters:



That was it for our Prague trip.  We had a really nice time and Prague is truly a charm.  Foodwise, we tried local fare including fried cheese, wiener schnitzel, goulash, and lots of potatoes. 

Oh--to my surprise, I was informed that there is a large Vietnamese community in Prague.  In fact, the owner of the little corner grocery store where we bought our breakfast every day was Vietnamese.  Who would have thought?

So--anyway, I highly recommend Prague as a European destination.  Very kid and family friendly!

God bless,
A.H.
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Oct. 29, 2008 - Prague

Posted by Ben
Prague is one of my favorite world cities along with Athens, London, Hanoi, Sevilla, Quito, San Francisco, New York and Waco, Texas. Okay, maybe not so much Waco, Texas. Did you know that Prague's Golden Lane was named for all the alchemists who used to live trying to turn metals into gold? It's true.
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