June 16, 2011 - Jewish Quarter and House Signs, Prague

Dobry den All,     

Today we headed off to the Jewish Quarter via tram as the Metro is closed because of a one day strike.  Our first stop is The Ceremonial Hall and mortuary of the Old Jewish Cemetery.  The cemetery was established in the first half of the 15th century and is one of the most important surviving monuments in Prague's Jewish Town.  The oldest tombstone dates from 1439 and marks the place of poet and scholar Avigdor Kara.  Burials took place in the cemetery up until 1787. There are almost 12,000 tombstones but the number buried in the cemetery far exceeds that.  The cemetery was expanded a number of times and when that was not enough, earth was brought in and several burial layers were superimposed one on top of another.  The groupings of stones are a result of the stones being lifted from the lower layers.  The picture in the right shows the stones rather haphazard design.  It is hard to imagine the numbers that must be buried in what is a relatively small site.

Our next stop was the exploration of the four Synagogues on our ticket.  While all were very impressive structures two of them made a huge impression on us. The Spanish Synagogue as pictured on the left was built in 1868 on the site of the oldest Prague Jewish house of prayer in a Moorish style.  It is very ornate as you can see and was completed in 1893.  The area pictured on the left of the organ was completed in the years 1836-1845.  The synagogue is also home to the History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from Emancipation to Present Day.  The other synagogue that made a impression was The Pinkas Synagogue, built in 1535 by Aaron M Horowitz between his house and the Old Jewish cemetery.  It is now a war memorial to those Jews of Bohemia and Moravia that were murdered by the Nazi's during the second world war.  Their personal data and names of the community they belonged to are are inscribed on the wall.  In 1968 the memorial was closed due to ground water seepage that penetrated the foundations and threaten the structure.  During repair work a ancient well, ritual bath and vaulted spaces were discovered.  The communist regime halted the renovations and removed the inscribed names.  It was not until 1990 that the building renovations were completed.  Finally in 1992-1996 the 80,000 names were rewritten on the walls.  While walking thru the hallways we see a father pointing out family members names that are written on the wall to his kids.   A very sad piece of family history for them but nice that they will not be forgotten and remembered along with the horrible atrocities that happened during WWII.  This site is also home to a permanent exhibition of "Children's drawings from Terezin 1942-1944".  Among the Terezin prisoners there were over 10,000 children under the age of 15, and of the 8,000 deported to the East only 242 survived the wartime suffering.  There are over 4,000 pictures of original drawings done by these children.  A moving testimony to the cruel fate that befell them and in most cases the only relic left of those that did not survive.

After our exploration of the Jewish Quarter we headed back across the Charles Bridge to find a place for a late lunch.  We found a nice outdoor cafe overlooking the canal.  I opted for a salad, red wine and Fred has food LOL we can't remember what and a beer, Budweiser.  Now I know you are thinking a Bud while you are in Prague but the town Ceske Budejovice was brewing the beer long before the Americans, however they did not copyright the name.  The beer, a lager is much darker in colour and flavour than its American counterpart.  While we were enjoying lunch an annoying American arrives on the scene and makes a big deal about the beer and how he did not travel all this way for an American beer.  The waiter picked up a coaster which has the history of the beer on it and tosses it to the American and says read this we been brewing this beer long before you Americans discovered it. Kudo's to the waiter we wanted to clap and cheer him on.  It was too bad jerks like this give all Americans a bad name.  After a nice lunch ignoring the jerk we headed off to find House Signs.

House numbers did not come into effect until 1770.  Homes were known and located by a charming but confusing system of allegorical symbols.  Nerudova Street has the highest concentration of these signs.

The golden key on left is a sign for a Castle Goldsmith who worked at this house in the 17th Century.  Because he paid a fee to the city he was entitled to advertise his wares unlike his counterparts that lived in Golden Lane up in Prague Castle.

The Red Lamb on the right is one of the streets more unlikely symbols.  Its significance is so arcane that not even the owner of the house knows what it means. As we walked along we saw violins, lobsters, parsnips, suns, lilies, swans and devils
adorning the homes.  We walked back to the hotel stopping for refreshment.  The cobblestones have been very hard on our feet even Fred said his feet hurt today.  We have seen all the sites and decided to relax around the hotel tomorrow before heading back to the UK.  In hindsight we should have booked a trip out of town midweek to see some of the Czech countryside, but that can be another trip. We hope you have enjoyed the blogs of this trip.

Na sheldanou for now,

Sandy & Fred

June 15, 2011 - St Vitus Cathedral and Prague Castle

Dobry den All,         

Today we headed out to the Cathedral and Prague Castle which as indicated in yesterdays blog a series of palaces, churches and gardens that make up the Castle.
 
We took the metro (subway) and then the tram to get close to the Castle grounds. After purchasing tickets that enabled us to enter four buildings of the Castle, we set for the cathedral.  St Vitus's is a spectacular Gothic Cathedral.  Construction was first started by Prince Wenceslas who built a rotunda on Hracany Hill on a pagan worship site and dedicated it to St Vitus a roman saint.  Work began on the grand cathedral in 1344, however, with the interruptions of wars the construction was only completed in 1929.  The inside of the cathedral is just as spectacular as the outside.

The artwork, chapels, towers within the church are beautiful. The Picture on the left is of St John of Nepomuk's Tomb. The silver of this 3700 lb coffin came from the Bohemian mining town of Kutna Hora and is symbolized by the statues of miners to the left of the tomb.

To see more of the amazing interior of the cathedral you need to visit our Flickr site.  After spending over a hour in the church taking in all the wonders we headed off to the Old Royal Palace. Prague Castle is the metaphorical and historical throne of the Czech lands.  Prince Borivoj built a wooden fortress here in the late 9th century establishing the hilltop overlooking the river as the Premyslids dynastic seat. The castle later became the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire. Much of the castle was rebuilt in the 16th century  and is what we see today.  It is now the home of the President of the Czech Republic.  The area that we are allowed to explore is amazingly bare compared to some of the mansions/homes we have seen in the UK. 

The next stop was the Basilica of St. George which was built by Prince Vratislav in 921. Chapels in the basilica are ornate, particularly the chapel of St. Wenceslas's grandmother, St. Ludmila.

Our final stop was Golden Lane.  Homes in Golden Lane were built into the castle walls by goldsmiths and other tradespeople so they could avoid paying guild that we due by the trades people in town.

They must have been very short people as even Fred and I had to stoop in order to get into some of the homes. The picture on the left was one of the small homes in Golden Lane.  We headed back to the hotel by way of the Old Castle Steps (Prague Castle's back entrance) which is relatively gentle slope.  The Steps house stalls for local artisans, restaurants and even a small winery.  Along the way we sampled a bread dough that is wrapped around a cylinder and cooked over charcoal coals, sprinkled with a cinnamon sugar and served warm.  It was to die for.

After a short rest and supper in the hotel, we headed back out in the evening to Charles Bridge to get some night shots of the Castle and bridge. We took the Metro out to Charles Bridge and it is much quieter than in the day time but there is still a lot happening.  While on the Charles Bridge we listened to a violinist who played classical music which was very calming while we waited for it to get dark enough to get our pictures of the Castle.  With photo opportunities completed we took the Metro back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar and clear our e-mails.

Na shledanou,

Sandy & Fred 

June 14, 2001 - Petrin Hill Prague

Dobry den All,

Today we headed off to Petrin Hill by subway and tram to save on a bit of footwear.  Petrin hill is an area covered with forests and orchards.  It rises more the 1000 ft above sea level and began life as a vineyard in the 15th century and is now a public park.  We walked up the hill to the summit of the park and in doing so missed the funicular that would have made the trip much easier.  One of the sites on the hill includes a replica of the Eiffel Tower.  The observation tower Eiffelovka is 210 ft high and has 299 stairs that lead to the observation deck.  It was created for the Jubilee Exposition of 1891.
We walked down through Petrin Hill to the Strahov Monastery and had the panoramic view of Prague above on the right.

The Monastery, pictured on the left was founded in 1140 and houses the Czech Republics oldest books in its library as well as still functioning as a monastery.  The picture on the right shows part of the library and really does not do it justice in such a small form.  After exploring the monastery we continued our walk downhill to an area know as Loreto.  Here we came across a replica of the original Santa Casa in Loreto, Italy.  The construction of the church coincided with the Counter Reformation and is one of Prague's first Baroque buildings intended to lure the Czechs back to the Catholic faith.

We continued our walk to Prague Castle, which is not a castle but a collection of palaces, churches, galleries and gardens.  We explored the grounds around the Palaces and St Vitus Cathedral, stopping at an outdoor cafe for lunch on the castle grounds.  Sandwiches were the order of the day with a lemonade for me and beer for Fred.  After lunch we went into the Cathedral for a quick look but find that we have limited access.  We continued our walk down from the castle toward the Charles Bridge. On our way
we came across a beggar, the second one we have seen on our walks. They are crouched down in a submissive position as seen in the photo on the left.  They do not ask for money or look at you but wait for someone to drop coins in their cup.  A very hard way of begging unlike what we are used to seeing in Canada or the UK.
Continuing our walk across the bridge we stopped for some refreshment in a outdoor cafe in the area where there are souvenir shops, restaurants and other tourist trap things.  We enjoyed 45 minutes of relaxing and watching the world go by.  We then headed to the Metro and back to our hotel, stopping at a fruit stand to pick up some cherries and then the grocery store to pick up cheese, ham, crackers and wine for our supper.

Na shledanou,

Sandy & Fred

June 12/13, 2011 - Prague

Dobry den All,

We are in Prague belatedly celebrating Fred's 60th birthday as this is were he wished to be and our visit to the Bulb Fields in Holland interfered with his day. We took a late flight out of Manchester, arriving at our hotel around 11:00 p.m. After settling in our room we headed to the bar for a nightcap at the bar and then to bed as we planned an early for the next day.  After a good breakfast we walked into town to start our exploring.  We had decided to walk the whole tourist area to get the lay of the land then return to individual sites on our remaining four days.  The walk was pleasant and easy as it was all downhill.  We walked through New Town to our first major stop Old Town Square.  The picture on the right is of the Astronomical Clock on Old Town Hall.  The clock was installed in 1410 but wasn't up and running until 1572.  The clock not only tells the current time, but relates the movement of the planets around the earth, sun and moon through the signs of the zodiac.  It is decorated with paintings by Josef Manes.  We were there on the hour but miss what all the fuss was about around the clock.  Its bells rang and we saw the dial move, however, we did not hear the cock crow or see the 15th century statues dance.  Either they are not now working or we missed them due to the details on the clock itself.

The square is home to many ornate buildings the picture on the left is Storch House with an art nouveau equestrian painting of St Wenceslas as a focal point of the house.

While in the square we also visited the Church of St Nicholas.  It was constructed by the Jesuits and it is a stunning example of early 18th century Baroque Architecture.  The picture on the right shows a part of the interior of the church that was adorned by various prominent artists of the time.  In the 1950's the clock tower of the church was used as a spying lookout by the communist police.

From the square we walked along to the Jewish Quarter, then headed off to the Charles Bridge.  The bridge has witnessed more then 600 years of processions, battles, executions and today, film shoots.

The bridge's most distinguishing feature is its gallery of 30 statues of religious figures and saints installed from 1683 and onwards to lead the masses back to mass. The statues that adorn the bridge today are reproductions with the originals having been placed in various museums around to city to preserve them.  We walked across the bridge which is very busy with tourists, buskers and various stalls for painting your portrait to selling trinkets.  We stopped at an outdoor cafe just off the bridge on the castle side of the river for a late lunch of sandwiches, beer for Fred and wine for me.

Once refreshed we headed back across the bridge into an area that is a tourist trap area full of small souvenir stores or shops, money grabbing attractions, restaurants and small hotels.  Our walk back to the hotel was not as pleasant, after eight hours of walking I was sporting massive blisters on the balls of my feet as well as the edges of my heels.  Plus it was all uphill.  We stopped in New Town at a street vendor for ice tea for me and a large beer for Fred which was cheaper than the tea.  Exhausted, we made it back to the hotel and caught the end of happy hour which we of course partook in, then headed up to the room to shower and deal with my blistered feet.  In hindsight we should have taken the Metro into Old Town Square and then walked the rest.  We have enjoyed our day and have planned out our attack for next three days.  We had supper tonight in the hotel as we have had enough walking for one day.

Na shledanou,

Sandy & Fred