Life in the Old World: Prague July 4-7

We took another night train from Krakow to Prague and arrived at 7:30am. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed to the Old Town Square. We saw the Astronomical clock which was pretty cool. At the top of the hour the statues move around. After sticking around to see the clock we headed to the Charles IV bridge. After we crossed the bridge we walked up stairs upon stairs to get to the castle quarter, the largest castle in Europe. Once inside, the place was a muck with large slow moving tour groups which, was sometimes nice because the tour would be in English and we'd tag along for a bit listening in. In the Castle quarter we saw the Old Royal Palace; the Great Hall is big enough for jousting matches, the Basilica of St. George, St. Vitus' cathedral and Golden Lane, an old market lane. We slowly wandered back to the hotel waiting for when we could check in. By the time we got some drinks and snacks we could check in. A three hour nap later we were ready to head back out for dinner.

Our second day in Prague we headed a little out of the city to Karlštejn Castle. There wasn't much to see at the castle so we went on a walk through the woods to Srbsko and caught the train back. By this point in our trip we were feeling a little tired from running around seeing everything so we hung out in the hotel for the afternoon and relaxed. For dinner we headed to a Czech style cafeteria. Yum yum yum. My favorite part of all the traveling we do is getting to try different foods from different countries. After dinner we hung out in the main square for a while listening to a street musician.

Our third day we headed to the Jewish quarter. This quarter is filled with 6 museums, used to show the history and traditions of the Jews in the Czech Republic. The Pinkas Synagogue's walls are covered with names, last known residence and birth and death dates of 77,000 Jews, all of whom died in the Holocaust. The Jewish cemetery is like no cemetery I have ever seen. Headstones are packed in at all different angles. For the longest time this small area was the only space the Jews were allowed to bury their dead. In some places, people are buried 10 deep in order to save on space. The Klausen Synagogue has a Torah on display with the various tools used to read it. The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Europe. The Nazis had preserved it planning to use it as a museum for the extinct Jewish race. The ceremonial hall houses Jewish artifacts. The Spanish Synagogue is beautifully decorated. It was interesting going from museum to museum learning about the life of the Jews before, during and after the Holocaust.

The train guy poked his head in and mumble jumboed something about what we are supposed to do on the train or when we wake up, who knows!