Danube Extravaganza: No Really, I Swear I'm Not Taking a Picture Because I'm Out of Breath - Day 12 & 13

 With two days down in Prague, I had two days left and then my trip would be over.  It felt like it had been longer than 2 weeks.  Probably because I fit so much in during that time.

Sunday the 26th started out snowy, though it wasn’t a lot of snow.  For the most part, city streets and sidewalks were clear as the snow had melted on contact.  The sidewalks across the bridge I crossed was the only place I actually saw snow on the sidewalks.  But the snow did litter the plant-life making it beautiful.  

The Prague Metronome

As it was Sunday, that meant the Jewish Museum of Prague would be open (they were closed for the Sabbath on Saturday).  The Jewish Museum of Prague is spread across 5 synagogues and 1 cemetery in the Jewish Quarter of the city.  None of them are more than 2 or so blocks from each other.  The history of the Jewish Museum of Prague is rather ironic.  We have the Nazis to partly thank for creating a museum that was full of Jewish artifacts.  While the Jewish population of Prague had been collecting artifacts for years, when the Nazis invaded, they decided to take Jewish artifacts from across Europe and bring them to Prague, where they would eventually create a “Museum of an Extinct Species.”  This meant that a lot of artifacts from Prague, the Czech Republic, and other places were preserved, instead of dismantled and destroyed.  Also, for the most part, Prague avoided any sort of major bombing during the war, so the artifacts collected there were safe.  What wasn’t safe was the Jewish population of Prague.  

One of the things I learned while in Prague was that in 1938, an agreement was signed between Germany, Italy, the UK, and France that ceded parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany (without permission from Czechoslovakia).  The land that was ceded was home to many ethnic Germans.  The thought was that it would satiate the Germans and they wouldn’t try to expand anymore.  Obviously that proved incorrect as around 6 months later, Germany found their way into power in Czechoslovakia through a puppet government (all of this seems to be somewhat familiar sounding with Russia-Ukraine).  

Many of the Jews of what is now the Czech Republic were sent to Terezin (Theresienstadt) Ghetto located about halfway between Prague and Dresden, Germany.  Tens of thousands were held there before eventually being sent to concentration camps.  Inside one of the synagogues, Pinkas Synagogue, the walls are covered with the names of the Czech Jews who perished during the war.  They are sorted by the city they resided in, then by surname, then by first name.  Where known, dates of birth and death are detailed.  The synagogue has over 78,000 names on the walls.  Upstairs is an exhibit of artwork done by children housed at the Terezin Ghetto.  Then under each piece of art was the child’s name, the date it was done, and their approximate date of death (or in a few cases a note that they survived).  4,000 Drawings were found in the suitcase of an artist who worked with the kids in Terezin.

Out back of the Pinkas Synagogue is the Old Jewish Cemetery, which was used as a burial ground for Jews in the 15th-18th century.  Because they had run out of space and it goes against Jewish beliefs to move old graves, over time they would add more soil and another layer to the grave, which means that in some areas of the cemetery there are many layers of graves, which explains why there are so many gravestones in there.  There are some places in the cemetery where trees have started to grow over the gravestones.  A guide said that because it is part of a UNESCO Heritage Site, they can’t do anything to prevent this from happening because even the trees within the grounds are protected.  

The Maisel Synagogue shares the history of Jews in the Czech Republic, but during the earlier time period of the 9th to 17th century.  The Spanish Synagogue was the only one of the synagogues that still had worship space inside.  Around the edges of the space were displays about the history of Jews in the Czech Republic during the 18th through 20th centuries.  For a long period of time, laws allowed only the oldest Jewish son to marry.  Younger brothers were unable to marry.  It also wasn’t until the 1870s that Jews were allowed to work in certain professions.

Spanish Synagogue

The Klausen Synagogue and the Ceremonial Hall next door detailed Jewish customers from birth to death, an explanation of the Jewish calendar and the main holidays in Judaism, and the texts that are vital to the Jewish faith.  Overall, I think the museum covered a whole range of topics and was well worth the visit.  I spent something like 3 hours there.

I wandered some more through the Jewish Quarter and Old Town.  I found another place that was known for good hot chocolate and got myself a hot chocolate and a croissant that came with chocolate to pour over it.  It was indeed a good hot chocolate. 

Choco Cafe

As I slowly wandered back to my hostel, I came across a group of men singing and playing instruments on the main thoroughfare.  I stood there and listened to them play through 3 songs.  It was snowing, probably around 30, and they were all there playing their instruments with no gloves on.  At one point there were 3 little kids dancing to the traditional sounding songs they were playing.  

That evening, after having had no roommates the night before, I ended up with a group of 3 friends from Switzerland and 2 friends from Germany as roommates.  There were some interesting conversations regarding university studies, music, and work in the room that evening. 

On my last day in Prague, I slept in because the only thing really left on my list of things to see was Prague Castle.  After packing my stuff up, checking out, and putting my luggage in storage, I headed out.  Prague Castle, like any good castle, is up on a hill.  There were a load of steps up to the castle and as I haven’t exactly been doing stairs as exercise recently, I had to take a picture break halfway up so I could catch my breath.  I had been walking 25,000 steps a day, but stairs…man, they’ll kill you.  The castle was rather unique because it had gone through some renovations over the years.  Part of it looked rather new from the outside, but upon visiting the inside, it really still looked like an old castle inside.  

My "hold on I need to catch my breath" picture.

My ticket got me into St. Vitus Cathedral, the old royal quarters, an older smaller church, and a place called Golden Lane.  The Cathedral was the first place you ran into.  An old gothic church, it had high ceilings, nice stained glass, and a very elaborate tomb.  The cathedral also had some nice artwork on the outside as well.  

From there, I went into the old royal quarters.  You first walked into a large hall that was used as a meeting space.  Off to one side of the room was the entrance back into the private royal quarters.  If I was writing this a few days ago, I would have had some more to say about the space, but I’ve forgotten some of the details and will just move on.

Back side of St. Vitus Cathedral

The next place was the old church.  It was unusual in the sense that it was very narrow and long.  The church was built way back in the 10th century.  Ludmila, the patron saint of Bohemia, is buried in the church.

The last place I visited at Prague Castle was a place called Golden Lane.  This place has a curious history.  Once upon a time there was a set of fortifications around the castle.  Then they expanded the castle a bit, leaving some space between the old fortifications and the new ones.  For the most part, this area was out of the way and some of the palace guards asked the king if they could build small housing units in the walls in this area and the king said yes.  They built up walls and eventually ended up with tiny houses that were not more than about 10 feet deep and 10 feet across.  These houses eventually got rented out to people like seamstresses, healers, goldsmiths (for which it got its name…though the text said they were rather poor goldsmiths), and there was even a pub there.  People were still living there until the mid-1900s.  At one point even Franz Kafka lived in one of the tiny homes.  

Golden Lane

Out the end of Golden Lane was a tower that housed a dungeon and torture chamber.  All your necessary devices for torture were housed there.  Definitely not the sort of place you would want to find yourself.  

After leaving the castle, I took the long way down the hill through some gardens, which led me into a park.  I followed the river back around and crossed Charles Bridge one last time.  Then I wandered through the streets of Old Town and Old Town Square one last time.  I made my way back by way of one of the hot chocolate shops I had stopped at previously.  Then I ate at Bageterie Boulevard again and picked up my stuff to head to the train station where I would catch a bus to the airport.  While I wasn’t flying out that night, I did have a room at the Holiday Inn across from the airport so I didn’t have to find a way to the airport at 3am in the morning.

And with that, my trip was done.  I flew back home with no issues.  Overall, I really enjoyed my trip.  Salzburg was probably my favorite place, followed by Budapest, Prague, and Vienna.  I loved how much varied history I was able to take in.  It was a good time and a good trip!