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Published: August 19th 2016
Today after breakfast in the hotel, we met our local tour guide, Renata, promptly at 8:30 to begin our morning tour of the City of Prague. First stop was at the Prague Castle, which is said to be the largest ancient castle in the world. It dates from the 9th century and is the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic. St. Vitus Cathedral is one of the buildings of this complex which dominates the skyline. The inside of the cathedral was beautiful. This was more of an orientation tour giving us information should we want to go into the castle at a later time and a more in depth visit to the cathedral. We boarded the bus again and marveled at the long, long lines waiting to get in. Renata said they instituted a new security system 2 weeks ago where they were checking everyone's bags. However, they only had 2 policemen for what looked like hundreds of people. It pays to get up a little earlier to beat the crowds.
We continued on to the Jewish Quarter where again we were told where to get tickets if we wanted to visit some of the synagogue's and
spend more time there. We visited the Old Town Square to view the world-famous Astronomical Clock and the Town Hall. Every hour on the hour crowds gather in the square to watch as the clock chimes and comes to life with doors opening and the apostles rotating inside along with other moving parts. John and I found a table nearby and ordered a pizza and when the time came we got our cameras ready because judging by the crowds this was going to be great. We were a bit underwhelmed. The whole thing lasted 30 seconds. However, the clock is a masterpiece as it keeps pace with the motions of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and stars along with many other astronomical features.
We had scheduled an optional tour for the afternoon and not daring to be late, we hustled back to our hotel to board the bus for a Terezin tour. We were told that this was an interesting tour although not a fun tour. Terezin was originally to be used for military fortresses but then World War II broke out and it was converted into a concentration camp and Jewish ghetto. Actually on our tour, we were told
that it wasn't a concentration cam per se, but a place where prisoners and Jews could be held until arrangements were made to send them to other concentration camps, i.e. Auschwitz. The prisoners lived in inhumane conditions, not enough food, hard work, disease, filth and living in quarters that were meant for a fraction of the number of people that actually were housed there. It was cold and so crowded that there was no place to lie down and they had to sleep standing up, with no enough heat and in filthy conditions. We visited the museum and read poems written by some of the children. It was a sobering reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust.
There was a cemetery there that had many graves with a cross in one section and the Jewish Star of David in another.
It was time to travel an hour by bus back to our hotel.
We got a recommendation from Soma for dinner at Kolkouna Celine, a Czech restaurant which had a nice outdoor patio. We also took his recommendation and ordered pork knee with roasted vegetables and red cabbage.
This was an exhausting day both physically and
emotionally.
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