Blogs from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe - page 188

I went because it is such an important part of Prague history, this place where more than a 100,000 jews lived before the war with its old cemetary and synagogues. And then there is teh fact that except for the small percentage which were able to escape 80,000 died. The whole jewish population of Prague was wiped out and the only reason the buildings of the ghetto were not torn down is because Hitler planned to put up a museum! of an 'extinguished race' there. I looked, I cried - the senselessness of it. Especially moving was an exhibition of children's drawings from a concentration camp Terezin which were produced under the tutolage of an art teacher as the adults tried hard to give these children a way to process what was happening to them and ... read more

UPDATED!!!!! Wandering through Prague reminds me of the time I spent in Stockholm, just walking through all the streets looking at the buildings completely amazed that they could be so beautiful. I got quite a lot done today: - Stare Mesto (this is teh old part of town) with its huge square surrounded by some of the abovementioned beautiful buildings. - 20th century art museum: small but confusing - all sorts of little streets got looked at by me - Tyn church - very impressive Gothic church with an unusually lightly painted ceiling and beautiful restored interior - Charles Bridge the best thing about which was the views After a very short, about 5 minute walk, thanks to the location of the ´Old Prague Hostel´ I found myself early in the morning in the Old Square ... read more

Walking tours are very popular in Prague. Guides for each company carry different colored umbrellas to lead their groups. Some of these groups get up to 50 people! We opted for a 2 hour tour of the Old Town Square and the Jewish Quarter and really lucked out with only 2 other people in our group. :) Our guide was a law student who had worked for a summer in Yellowstone and travelled the US by Greyhound bus. She had an excellent knowledge of the city and spoke English very well. We got a great sense of the history of the buildings and the people of Prague. After walking through the Jewish Quarter, we crossed the river and entered into the Wallenstein Garden at the base of Castle hill. What a beautiful garden! It's full of ... read more

As mentioned previously, we stayed right across from the Estates Theater. We noticed signs for a concert of Mozart opera arias and decided to check it out. The concert was in commemoration of the 218th anniversary of the first performance of Don Giovanni at this theater. We had seats in a box in the second balcony with a great view of the stage. The concert consisted of three musicians playing various woodwind instruments and one male and one female opera singer. It only lasted an hour, but it was well worth it! The music was great and whetted my apetite for opera (I've never seen a full length one before). ... read more

Just a quick post on food in Prague... It became kind of a joke this weekend that my meals included "hidden ingredients": - a wheat roll contained golden raisins - a cheese and vegetable sandwich harbored hard boiled eggs between the bread (not visible in the case) - a black forest cake contained cherries disguised in the cream layer - a major ingedient in my beef stroganoff was pickles (unexpected but oddly not bad) * I dislike raisins, hard boiled eggs, and candied cherries!!! In the Old Town Square, several of the outdoor cafes had stands selling delicious "wafers." They are heated on waffle irons, measure about 6 inches in diameter, and come in several flavors including chocolate and cinnamon. Nice afternoon snack! Also found a stand on the street that had inexpensive small pastries with ... read more