First Day in Praha (Prague)

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Well, it's 11:30 pm on Saturday and we are toured, fed and I'm guessing all asleep except me! The flight from Atlanta to Prague was uneventful. Hurray! We arrived only a 1/2 hour late (though got off the ground an hour and a half late because plane arrived late to Atlanta). Met our guide, Janusz as we came out from baggage/customs. Wow -- was Czech passport control nice, quick and easy.. Got right on our bus and into the city to the President's Hotel. HIGHLY recommend this hotel. Clean, nice rooms, updated. (Great shower.....) And GREAT location.

Met up with our last group member (#11) - Wendy, who was already here in Europe on business. Then at 2 pm we were driven up to top of the hill across the river to tour the Castle area. Will try to write more when I'm not falling asleep -- but we walked through the whole complex; saw the amazing architecture from different centuries; went through St. Vitus Cathedral (the carved wood map of Prague in some early century was amazing -- still showed all the small houses of the Jewish area and 1/2 of the AltNeu Synagogue. Also saw cool modern entrance to President's offices. It started raining when we left the Cathedral and then pouring. We toughed it out (most had umbrellas and some bought some more or shared). The bonus -- we got down to the amazing gardens at the bottom of the hill and then walked across the Charles Bridge. It stopped raining mid-garden. The Bridge was not as beautiful as last time I was there (10 years ago) because they are renovating 1/2 of it at a time, but we were still able to stop and see the statue of Jesus with the Hebrew Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh added to it in the 17th century. Why? A false accusation was brought against a rich Jew accusing him of spitting on a crucifix, and the fine was a big payment which was used to add the Hebrew as a way to humiliate the Jewish community by having the Jewish holy words attached to a statue that is labeled "Christ, King of the Jews". Not a good time in the 1600's for Jews....

We were back at the hotel area by 5:30 pm, and had free time until we met for dinner at 7:10 pm. Peter and I took advantage of this break to go to the place Helene (former temple president who just returned a week ago from same tour): Cremeria Milano. Italian gelato and cafe place. Yummy..... Hit the spot after having skipped lunch. The dinner was also great, at Kolkovna Restaurant. The soup was potato/leek/carrot served in a fantastic bread bowl. Fresh bread --crunchy on outside. And dinner was a fantastic deboned half chicken that had crisp skin and amazing moist meat. Then the dessert was a galette (like a pancake) with berries in one half and a little chocolate drizzle on the other. Too much food! So a few of us walked a bit afterwards in the cool night air. Great Day.....

Tomorrow: Morning tour of Jewish area and the synagogue/museum/cemetery. Then afternoon to Terezin. Will be a sad afternoon.

Good night.

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