Blog from Prague, Day Two

Everything is better after a good night's sleep. We woke up this morning well rested from our jet lag and our adventures yesterday ready for a walking tour of the city. After breakfast we met our guide, Mischa, in the dining room of our hotel and took off at 9 AM. Four hours later we returned with lots of information about the city and some good tips from our guide, who happens to be a native of Prague.



We started by crossing the Charles Bridge, built in the 14th century, which was the only bridge to cross the Vltava river until the 19th century. Upon crossing the bridge we headed for the Little Town or "Lesser Town" which is an area primarily used by diplomats from foreign countries. There are a number of embassies in this area, including our own. From little town we walked up the coronation road (the road all Czech kings took from the town square to the royal palace for their coronations) to the Palace Quarter. The centerpiece of this area is St. Vitus Cathedral, which is an enormous gothic church started in the 14th century and finally completed in the 1920s. After checking out the cathedral and the castle area we continued on down the hill, across the river, and into the Jewish Quarter. This was an area that was home to Prague's Jewish ghetto and Jewish residents until World War II when the area's population was rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Now it is home to the Jewish Museum, a very moving collection six synagogues that are now living tribute to the history of the Jewish diaspora in the Czech Republic. The most moving portion was the Pinkas Synagogue that has the names of all 80,000 Jews from the Czech Republic that died in concentration camps during the war.



After our tour we had lunch and went back to the Jewish Quarter for a closer tour of all the buildings. We paid for the admission and got to see the synagogues and exhibits inside each one. After the tour we went for a beer and some Czech cheese and then to an Italian restaurant recommended by our guide for dinner. After dinner we bought some Czech crystal and then went to a local microbrewery for some beer. I had three different kinds of the beer including X-33 a beer made in the Trappist style that is 12.6 % alcohol. Luckily it only comes in .2 liter glasses so it wasn't too much of a feat!


We are now back at the hotel after a long day, happy with our travails. Tomorrow we will visit St. Wenceslas Square and the New Town which is located just to the east of our hotel. After that we'll see what happens. This is a marvelous town and we are having a blast. The only thing we could really wish for is COOLER temperatures. The high today was in the upper 30s (Celsius) which translates to the mid to upper 90s. Hopefully it will cool off soon!