Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 65-78 (of 78 found)

Prague Day 2 (continued...)

Return to main page

After the bridge, we headed back towards the Old Town Square.  Everyone who visits Prague has to see the Astronomical Clock. This dates from the 15th century, and is pretty cool to look at. At the top of every hour, little doors around the clock open up and little animated figures move around. Watch your stuff though, since this is another pickpocket hot spot.







After the square, the group disbanded and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. After realizing my dislike for Bavarian food, I decided on some nice fusion cuisine for lunch at Marco Polo.   Since I only really had half of a day, I decided to check out the Old Jewish Quarter.  Prague has been home to a large Jewish community for hundreds of years, and there is an incredible amount of history here. I don't really have any pictures from this part of the trip, since nearly everywhere on the tour had 'no camera' signs up. Of course, I was the only person who was obeying the signs (it was the principle of the thing...) .  Each of the buildings on the museum tour included several displays talking about the history of the Jewish community in the city.  They have been pretty mercilessly persecuted throughout most of the history of the city, and they lost most of their population during the horrific Nazi occupation.  This part of Prague is definitely worth a visit.

The places I stopped on the tour were:

• The Old Jewish Cemetary : This was perhaps the most startling cemetary I have ever seen. Since the Jews were not allowed to bury their dead with the rest of the city, they were restricted to using this small plot of land for all burials. Their religion did not allow them to exhume the older bodies to make room for new, so they pretty much just stacked the tombs on top of each other.
  
• Klausen Synagogue : interesting historial displays
  
• Old Town Hall: and more displays
  
• Pinkas Synagogue: This building had a very sobering memorial to victims of the Holocaust. The names of all of the victims from the Prague area were written on the walls in very small print, and they covered every surface. Knowing the numbers is one thing, but seeing all of the names written out...
  
• Maisel Synagogue: More historial displayhs
  
• Spanish Synagogue: more displays, and some incredible architecture as well. This building was inspired by the Alhambra in Spain, and has some amazing moorish architecture. This was really the only one of the synagogues that still felt like a religious building (the others were definitely museums).  In my opinion, this was the most beautiful building on the tour, and also contained some of the most sobering exhibits, since they covered the Holocaust time period.  The contrast gave the message even more impact.
  

These are the only pictures I ended up with from this area. The building is the exterior of the Old-New Synagogue, and the statue is dedicated to Franz Kafka, who was from Prague.



After the tour, I still had some time before dinner, so I stopped by a gallery in the Old Town Square and saw an exhibition by the Czech painter Alfons Mucha and the Czech photographer Jan Saudek.  Both were very cool.

Finished up the evening with dinner at Mama Lucy  (yes, you can get decent Mexican food and Margueritas in Prague!) .

And finally,

Here is a compilation clip of the movies I took on this day. Sorry about the supreme crappiness, but I had only been using the camera for a couple of days, and have no experience with movies. :)   It's about 15MB....