Last Update from Prague

Last Update from Prague

In just a few short hours we will be setting out on a marathon of trains! We will be on six different trains in the course of the day! We are all going to eat our Wheaties so that hopping from train to train (please refer back to earlier stories that involving hopping!), may be a little bit easier. We have all thoroughly enjoyed Prague and I will happily add it to my “Must See” list. Our next destination is Salzburg where we hope to find the hills alive with music!

I, we, are finally feeling comfortable with this city, we have walked the same streets many a times and the confusion we felt on the first day is much better. The city is still a little hard to navigate, but because of its very manageable size, it is fine! Now that we are comfortable here of course, that means it is time to move again!

I went for a walk again Wednesday morning as the city was waking up. I set out this time to the hill next to the hill with the castle on it. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would find, but I thought it looked like a fun challenge. A challenge it certainly was. I kept walking, finding basically no people and no signs. I knew that there were things to do at the top, but I never knew how high the top was. I got to a point where it was up or back down the same path, and since I am my father’s daughter and do not believe in taking the same route twice, I kept going up. Until, not only was I out of breath, but another path met up with mine, so I was able to go back down a different way and enjoy the scenery.

Our first adventure together on Wednesday was the Tyn Church which is in the Old Town Square. It was a beautiful cathedral, as all are that we have encountered, but again, I felt like it was very gaudy and not necessarily all coordinated. No matter what though, it is incredible to stand in amongst all of the grandeur of such cathedrals. We went to the Church of Saint James next, which while it is similar to the other cathedrals in the area, it has an interesting tale to it. Supposedly, several hundred years ago, a robber was trying to steal some of the churches jewels, but when his hand came across the statue of the Virgin Mary, it froze. I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but I do know that the man’s decrepit arm hangs at the back of the church as a reminder, I suppose of the miracle and a reminder to other thieves.

The Jewish Quarter was next on our list, as it is not far from the Old Town Square either. The Jewish Quarter is one of the original four small towns in Prague. This area, as most in this part of Europe, was highly affected by Hitler’s cruelty and while there are not many Jewish families here anymore, many Jews were brought here during Hitler’s reign. There are about 5 synagogues in this small area; we only went in one, but it was truly moving. It was called the Pinkas Synagogue, and covering the walls were names of Jews who had lost their lives during the Holocaust in this area. While seeing the thousands upon thousands of names over the walls, you hear the names read over a speaker to make the experience even more meaningful. Upstairs is an exhibit of children’s artwork from the early 1940’s. An art teacher for the Jewish children had taught them about letting their feelings out through art, so much of art shows what life was like, or just what the children felt.

Just outside of the synagogue is an old Jewish cemetery. The cemetery itself is probably about 2-3 acres, not very large in size, but it is seems to be almost on a hill, in the middle of the city. This cemetery has been used for hundreds of years and when one level was full, they just brought in dirt and added it to the top so that they could prepare for another level. That’s why it seems so high up. Whenever they added a level, they moved the tombstones up as well, so the cemetery is completely filled with tombstones, so much so that you could barely move in between them. I cannot remember how many thousands of people were said to have been buried here, but it was a lot!

After a delicious lunch in the Old Town Square, we enjoyed some street and market shopping. There are all of these little vendors set up with produce as well as traditional Czech toys, postcards, jewelry and candies! I love shopping like that!

We walked across Charles Bridge, which we have now done several times as it is a centerpiece of town and quite the attraction! Along the bridge are artists lined up selling their paintings, jewelry, photographs and even portraits that they can draw for you on the spot. We stopped at the famous statue of St. John of Nepomuk. Apparently the queen confessed all of her sins to John and the king demanded he share the secrets with him. The priest however did the right thing and kept all of the queen’s secrets. The king was so mad that he threw John off the bridge where he died. But when he landed in the water, five stars appeared. So, the statue is said to bring good luck. We all rubbed it in hopes of that being true, but I believe we all feel pretty lucky to be visiting this beautiful place anyway!

We walked up past St. Nicholas and visited a place where the lucky Samantha Brown had visited, a road that is marked with interesting designs above the doors. These were used as postage symbols, instead of numbers on the doors.
Black Light Theater is very popular here, so we decided we should take part in a show while we were here. We went to Image Theater where we saw a combination of mimes and modern dance. It was very strange, but also quite enjoyable. The mimes were great and performed great skits without any talking, then in between their acts, the lights would go out, and incredible costumes and effects helped the dancer perform mesmerizing dances. I would recommend it, but do know that it is quite strange!

We ended the evening, like most others that we had in Prague, by joining the locals in the Old Town Square to watch one of the Euro Cup games on the big screen. What a setting! A beautiful old square, thousands of people, a grand cathedral and a giant big screen, it is really quite amazing!

Yesterday morning on my walk I went down to see a building that my tour book had said you must see, even if you don’t go in it. It is called the Dance House, or something similar and is a place where many famous people go to eat when they come to Prague. The building itself looks like it has difficulty standing, as it twists and turns up, and larger at the top than at the bottom – yes, it was a site to see! I also went and enjoyed some people watching as I wrote some postcards in the Old Town Square.

My suitcase has been on several big adventures with me before and has done very well. It is doing well so far despite the giant hole that appeared when we drug our suitcases down a mile of cobblestone streets in Prague. So, even though this suitcase will probably call the dumpster home when I return to the states, it must make it through the rest of the trip. Instead of asking people for “duct” tape, I saw that going well (“Duck tape?”), I asked for thick tape and was led to a giant supermarket/department store. Here I found, well everything you could ever need, but also some packing tape, no duct tape. My suitcase looks rather pitiful with bandaids and lots of tape, but I hope it holds up through the trip, if not, I guess I will get to purchase a fun, European suitcase! J

We set out yesterday morning and first went across Charles’ Bridge, again, to enjoy the artists, the statues and the people. When we came to the end of the bridge this time though, we found a portrait of the Virgin Mary with a light in front of it. Legend says that if you stare at the picture and the light flickers, it is a sign of emanate death. I did glance at her, but not for too long and the light did not flicker! I thought about taking a picture, but I didn’t want to look at her any longer, just to be safe!

The hill, that I had made it part way up the day before was next on our list. We rode the “Funicular,” a sort of tram thing that took us to the top, which was much quicker than my climb would have been! At the top we were greeted by beautiful rose gardens, the smell of them just carried through the air. I realized then, that in a strange way, I actually miss my roses at home. I enjoyed the bright colors and the fragrance though as we went to the tower on top of the hill. This tower, although much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, was modeled after it. We climbed the steps, just shy of 300 to reach the top and get a glorious view of the entire city. We looked down on the castle and its cathedral, we could see the Old Town Square and Charles Bridge.

In the bottom of the tower is a small, quite ridiculous museum. I can’t really explain it well, because I don’t really understand it. The museum is about Prague’s genius who never lived and his great inventions, makes sense, right? Well, there were all of these crazy inventions that perhaps had not been claimed, or many of which there is really no need for in the world. There was a picture of a sea-turtle which this man had trained to tango, photos that he supposedly took, stories of other inventors whom he helped and even a dress that he wore in his girlhood. Yes, you read that correctly. It was perfect for a good laugh, though none of it really made sense.

The Labyrinth of Mirrors was right next door, where we joined about a hundred children as they entered. There was a very small maze that was even more confusing because of all the mirrors, and then a mirror room with all sorts of distorted mirrors that changed our appearances. We had a lot of fun making weird faces or stretching our bodies into disproportionate ways.

Since we had crossed the river many a times, we had seen the paddle boats out in the river and decided that looked like a fun outing. We rented a pedal-boat for an hour and cruised on the river. It was so relaxing and peaceful. The pedaling was never very hard, especially since we sat in reclining, beach-like chairs enjoying our cruise. We saw lots of ducks, swans and my favorite – some baby ducks who were exciting about diving into the river and popping back up again!

The marionettes are everywhere here, so we decided that we should go see a marionette show while we were here. We went to see Don Giovanni, an opera written by Mozart, specifically for and about Prague. The opera itself I’m sure was not funny, but the marionette show of the opera was hilarious. The puppets were dressed in beautiful costumes and we could just see the hands of the puppeteers who directed them. “Mozart” would come out every now and then and direct a number, but the funniest part was when two of the puppets were performing part of the opera, Mozart fell asleep and began snoring loudly, so the puppets on the stage began to jump around and make noise in the middle of their singing to wake him up. It was quite a hit and another recommendation on my list of things to do in Prague!

Again, we joined the crowd and watch Germany beat Portugal last night. It really is fun to have a place to go outside, in a beautiful city and be with a ton of people to enjoy the sporting event of the summer. I am sad to leave Prague, because I have thoroughly enjoyed it here, but I am excited to prance about where Maria and the Von Trapp’s pranced about and eager to explore the next city!