Petersontravels

We hired  super-guide Michal to guide us again to the city of Terezin, where there are the remnants of a Jewish Ghetto/Concentration Camp, as well as a small fortress turned into a prison by the Nazi’s.  Michal is so good I need to repost his website, Real Prague Tours, so that you can book him directly when you come here.  He is the best, trust me!

Our first stop was the Ghetto Museum.

This Ghetto is a little different than the rest we have visited or read about.  Hitler led these Jews, mostly seniors and children, to believe that he had built them a city to protect them from the stresses of the war.  They were given freedoms that made them think things were somewhat normal and they might actually have a life to go back to.

The building that houses the Ghetto Museum was set up as a school for Jewish boys aged 10-15 years old.  Just after entering the museum there are displays along the walls, depicting all of the Jewish children who were ultimately murdered after passing through this Ghetto and onto the death camps, mostly Auschwitz.  While many Jews and other dissidents died in the Ghetto and adjacent Terezin prison, it was not due to gas chambers.  Most of the deaths here were from starvation, freezing or disease.

One of the Jewish boys, 14 year old Petr Ginz, was allowed to publish a weekly magazine that told the news of the what was going on in the Ghetto, which was pretty much unheard of under Nazi leadership.

Fortunately, when he was about to be sent to Auschwitz to be murdered, he secretly gave a copy of every magazine he created to his sister, who survived the war, so much of what happened here was saved for future generations to learn from.  Below is an example of some of the magazine covers he created.

This was a poem one of the Jewish boys wrote for the magazine.  It speaks for itself.

He even wrote up a story about how the crematorium in the Ghetto worked, as there were people dying daily from various ailments or mistreatment.

The Ghetto Museum had several displays that showed how the Jews were dehumanized not just by the Nazi’s, but the complicit local population as well.  This cartoon is actually from school textbook with a caption reading “Poisonous Mushroom”.  I’d find it hard to believe just a few years ago, but with all of the bullshit going on with our ignorant youth today, I’m no longer surprised by anything!

You can’t visit a WWII Jewish Museum without your fair share of Yellow Badges they were forced to wear.  I thought this display was excellent.

Our guide explained that the red lines on the floor in this display are supposed to represent train tracks.  If would have been far more effective if the lights had all been working.

This is a sample of what an advertisement board looked like within the Ghetto, with dates and times of various events, trying to make the Jews believe that all was normal.

The grand staircase as you enter and depart has all of this artwork created by the children of the Ghetto, which surprisingly weren’t destroyed by the Nazis.

Michal then took us to the prison portion of Terezin, the star shaped small fortress built during the 18th century to protect the Bohemian lands from invasion by Prussia.  Prussia never invaded, but the Nazis did, and the fortress met their needs as a prison.  On the approach to the entrance is the Jewish cemetery just outside the prison.

This is the formidable entrance to the prison.

Upon entering, this is the first section that the prisoners would see.  This is the area where all of the administrative functions would take place, and they were given their striped prison clothes.  This was a far different area than the Ghetto, which was still trying to show the inhabitants that the Nazis weren’t out to kill them.  The prison was for the forced labor and torture of political prisoners and others the Nazis deemed unworthy of living in the Ghetto.

This text is famous from Auschwitz, but was repeated elsewhere in the concentration camps and prisons….a lie stating “work sets you free”.  This was the entry to their new homes.

We ventured into Block A to see what the conditions looked like.

This was what the actual beds looked like in the prison.  They would be given a small amount of hay to place on the boards of the bunk beds, and that was it.

This room was one of the worst of all to be in.  As a punishment they would put dozens of men in this small room so they couldn’t even lay down, and they only had the one hole in the wall (middle of the photo) for fresh air.  That’s our guide Michal looking up at a spider on the wall…or a reflection…not sure.

This plaque is set in the wall of Block A.

This fortress served as a prison well before WWII.  This is the former cell of 19 year old Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, in Austrian-occupied Sarajevo in June 1914.  This act was the catalyst that started WWI.

Six of the participants in the assassination plot were brought to Terezin to serve their jail sentence, and four of them died here, including Princip, who died of tuberculosis 4 years into his 20 year prison sentence.

Back to WWII, despite the ominous looks of this contraption, this was a large washing machine which used steam to delouse the prisoners clothing once a month or so.  Despite ridding the clothing of lice and other bugs, they never cleaned out the barracks, so it didn’t make a difference.

This is a shower room where the prisoners were allowed to clean themselves once a week.  They showered in shifts, and 3 men had to gather around each shower nozzle.  Each shift had 3 minutes to shower, so they were often left still covered in soap.  The most hated of the prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to shower last, when all of the hot water was gone.

Due to constant political pressure about how the prisoners were being treated, the Nazi’s finally relented and invited the Red Cross to visit Terezin in June 1944.  In a carefully planned and elaborate hoax, the Nazi’s spruced the place up, and even installed the below bathroom facilities to show how well the Jews were being treated, facilities that never ended up actually being used.

We saw a video that showed that gardens were planted within the prison, cultivated by the prisoners.  They painted houses in the Ghetto and fixed up the barracks to make it look like things were nice.  The Nazis even staged social and cultural events in the Ghetto, including a soccer game, for the visiting dignitaries.  The Jews were told that if they went along with the ruse they would be safe, but in the end they were all deported to be murdered.

Michal pointed out this spot on the wall, where three prisoners were able to secretly build a small ladder and escape over the wall on December 6th, 1944.  These prisoners, Josef Mattas, Milos Esner and Frantisek Marsik all ended up making it to freedom!

We then walked through a tunnel built through the fortress.  While Michal said it was 500 meters long, it felt like at least double that!

The tunnel comes out at this spot where prisoners were executed for the most minor of offenses, with no trial and no judge.  The structure on the ground is for placing a machine gun so a Nazi could ruthlessly kill the prisoners assembled in the background.  The worst atrocity here happened on May 2, 1945, six days before Terezin was liberated by the Soviets.  Knowing the end was near, the Nazis executed 51 mostly young members of resistance groups at this very spot.

This nearby memorial is for all the prisoners who died or were murdered here.

During WWII, the number of prisoners kept growing, so the Nazi’s actually had to build additional barracks.  These are the new ones they built.  They shoved hundreds of people inside rooms like this, and together with their body heat, the skylights apparently made the temperatures unbearable.

We passed a swimming pool that was built by the prisoners for the Nazi families who resided here with the commanding officers of the prison.  This completely reminded us of “Zone of Interest”, the 2023 movie that just won the Oscar for Best Foreign Movie (and was nominated for Best Picture as well).  If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so.

This building, called the “Lords House”,  is where the Senior Officers of the prison lived…another reminder of the “Zone of Interest” movie.

Our last stop was another museum, which had a reproduction of what the women’s barracks looked like in the Ghetto.  Michal advised us that some of these items of luggage are actual pieces from WWII!

The clothes and scene almost look normal.  It’s just terribly sad that these people didn’t know what awaited them after this false existence!

This piece of artwork, created by a Jew in the Ghetto, reminds me so much of music videos by my favorite musical artist, Steven Wilson!

This is my current favorite Steven Wilson video…for comparison.  I can’t wait to get back home and crank this to 11!

The last part of our tour was this train depot, the last stop for the Jews headed to the Ghetto/Concentration Camp/Prison.  The rails are missing leading up to this site, but the depot remains, a sad reminder of a past that will never fade from memory.

This was a very somber stop, as are any with links to the Holocaust, but I appreciate visiting these places, upon the guise of “never forgetting” what happened here in Europe!

Up next, I’m going to post a few remaining photos of Prague, as they didn’t fit into any other category, or the posts I was writing were just too long in the first place.  As always, thanks for reading!

We took a day trip to Kuntna Hora, about an hour from Prague, again with Tours By Locals.  This time our guide was Michal Stanislav, and he is without a doubt the best tour guide we have had in our travels.  He runs his own tour company (as well as working for Tours By Locals) called Real Prague Tours.  If you want to tour Prague or any of the surrounding areas, this is your guide!  He is engaging, well educated on the local subject matter, and just a great guy to be around!

Michal first took us into the “Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist”.  That’s a pretty fricking long name for a church!!  Why can’t we just called it “Church of Mary and the Baptist Dude” and be done with it?? We all know who they’re talking about!

This is officially the oldest cathedral in Central Europe.  The former monastery was founded in 1142, and then built between 1280 and 1320.  It was burned and abandoned in 1421 during the Hussite Wars (too many wars to keep track of if you ask me), and then rebuilt at the end of the 17th century.  They like to take their time with the rebuilds around these parts.  The interior is spartan but beautiful, despite how long it took.

There are glass panels in the floor where you can see the original foundations from the 13th century.  Why people feel the need to throw money in these vaults is beyond me.

In a sign of our upcoming “bone church” visit, there are some skulls in the walls of the church.  To be honest with you,  I can’t remember if Michal told us why they are here…except maybe to scare the children?  A lot of religion seems intent on scaring the little buggars.

They definitely love their dead bodies in the church here.  This is the body (with a wax mask) of Saint Felicis.  Again with the scaring of the children!  It must be horrifying to grow up attending a church filled with dead bodies and various body parts!

This is the cathedral’s most valuable relic, a solid gold monstrance.  This is the device that holds the supposed “body of Christ” before you eat it.  Again with scaring the kids!

These figures were outside of the church until fairly recently.  They are made of sandstone, so they didn’t weather well.  They didn’t want the originals to deteriorate any further, so they brought them inside the church.

Here is an exterior view of the cathedral.  For being so old, it looks exceptionally well taken care of, particularly when you bring all the sandstone stuff inside.

We then visited the biggest tourist attraction in Kuntna Hora, the Sedlec Ossuary “Church of Bones”.  This is the entrance to the rather small church.

The ossuary is estimated to consist of the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people.  I don’t know about you, but those are two very different numbers!  The church was built around 1400 in the middle of a very large and very populated cemetery, where thousands upon thousands were buried after dying from the Black Death.  They had nowhere to put all of the bones that were dug up during the construction, so they decided to put them inside the church.  Hey, why not…we can scare some kids!

We were told not to take photos inside, even though there are thousands of photos online, so I’m going to post some that were taken by others.

The church currently looks slightly different as they are undergoing renovations to the various piles of bones.  According to legend, in 1511 a half-blind monk was tasked with stacking up recently exhumed bones (sounds like a fun job!).  Apparently the place was a mess until 1870, when Frantisek Rint, a wood carver, was hired to put the bone heaps into some sort of order, which is how we ended up with so many odd configurations.  I’d hate to see what his wood carvings looked like!?  Each corner of the church has an enormous pile of bones.  Here is one of those huge stacks!

This chandelier of bones is said to have one of each bone in the human body.  I’ll bet they didn’t include the really tiny bones in the ears.  Hell, even our feet have 26 bones each!

There is even a coat of arms made of bones for the House of Schwarzenberg, a German and Czech aristocratic family who was instrumental in funding the church.

After exiting the church I saw this marker on the ground at the front gate, and thought it was pretty cool.

One last shot of Sedlec Ossuary as we departed.  It’s really quite small, but well worth the visit.

There was a Lego store near the church that had Tom’s “Simpson’s Doppelganger” sitting on a bench, so I had to get a photo!

On our way to our last stop we saw these markers on the ground, which we have become quite accustomed to based on our time in Amsterdam.  These markers indicate Jews who originally lived in the building we were passing who were murdered during the Holocaust, a somber reminder that the history of WWII is never very far away.

We also ran across this peculiar statue of a bird/car combo.  First the bird…

…then the car.  WTF??  They have some weird art in the Czech Republic!

We then visited our last stop in Kuntna Hora, Saint Barbara’s Cathedral.  This is one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I love the flying buttresses on the cathedral’s exterior!

Saint Barbara is the patron saint of miners, which is quite fitting, as Kuntna Hora’s wealth was based entirely on it’s silver mines.  This cathedral was built for the local mining community, by the local mining community. This fresco in the cathedral is a nod towards their profession.

They also had a fresco depicting the minting process in the city.  This was a cathedral for the laborers, not the nobles.

Construction on the cathedral began in 1388, but with numerous delays, it wasn’t completed until 1905!  Holy crap, that’s like a CalTrans schedule!!  It has a beautiful organ, capped with all manners of gold!

The Last Supper is displayed prominently in the cathedral, along with the 12 Apple-Sauces!

On the back of the altar is my favorite reason for plants to exist…wine grapes!  Could those be Pinot Noir??  Inquiring minds.

The cathedral is adorned with this statue of a miner, letting everybody know who this cathedral is for!

This is the Soch Gallery of statues as you walk north from Saint Barbara’s Cathedral.

Another excellent view of Saint Barbara’s Cathedral!!

Which meant it was time for a group photo!

Up next, we take another trip with our awesome guide Michal about an hour northeast of Prague to visit the Terezin Concentration Camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our guide, Dagmar, on our first day so we hired her as our guide again, where we actually went inside Prague Castle and Saint Vitus Cathedral.  Once again, she snagged tram passes and we made our way to the Castle.  To be honest, don’t skip the tours, as the interiors are what makes this place really stand out.

Inside the cathedral, our guide pointed out this stained glass window, only it’s not stained glass, it’s paint.  This window was created in 1930 by a Czech artist named Alphonse Mucha, and depicts the young Saint Wenceslaus with his grandmother Saint Ludmila, as well as small vignettes of the lives of Saints Cyril and Methodius who spread Christianity among the Slavs.  We just liked the use of blues and greens!

Our guide then pointed out this room, the Chapel of Saint Wenceslaus, which houses the relics of the saint (that’s his tomb on the right).  The chapel was built in 1356, and has 1300 semi-precious stones and paintings depicting the Passion of the Christ, all original, from 1372-1373.

The Chapel has this door that leads to the Crown Chamber which contains the Czech crown jewels (no, not the body parts, these are actual jewels).  There are 7 locks on this door which are held by 7 different people, namely; President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Prague Archbishop, the Chairman of the House of Deputies, the Chairman of the Senate, the Dean of the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Vitus Cathedral and the Lord Mayor of Prague.  They must all convene to facilitate opening of the impenetrable door and coffer.

Impenetrable??  Has anybody asked the Mission Impossible people about this?  The jewels are only displayed to the public once every 5 years (some websites say 8, so your mileage may vary).  I’d at least bring them out once a year, just so everybody knows Ocean’s 11, part 3, hasn’t happened!

Adjacent to the altar is this luxury sky-box for the Royals.  They could sit up here and avoid the commoners, which was likely a good thing, since deodorant didn’t exist back then.  They even had their own entrance from the castle!

There are numerous tombs in the cathedral, but the most impressive one is that of Saint John of Nepomuk, the guy who King Wenceslaus killed for not divulging his wife’s confessions to him.  Two tons of pure silver were used to create this tomb!

The cathedral has this wooden panel that depicts Prague back in 1630.  Our guide pointed out that was before any of the statues ended up on the Charles Bridge.

I love the shaft of light coming through the window right above the altar.

Here is a shot from further back in the cathedral.  We were lucky to have a sunny day, as it really makes for a dramatic effect!

Towards the exit of the Cathedral I saw these glowing lights on the walls.  Are they playing Pink Floyd over there?

The sun was creating a light show for us!  Sadly no Pink Floyd.  😞

This window depicts Saint Ludmila (King Wenceslaus’ grandmother) as well as the Twelve Apostles.  I just liked the resulting lighting spectacle!  Quick hint, if you ever hear a European guide mention the “twelve apple-sauces”, they mean Apostles.  They seem to say “apple-sauces” every single time!  I kept thinking “do we even have any cinnamon?”

We then crossed the castle courtyard and entered the “Old Royal Palace” which dates back to the 9th and 10th centuries!  The area below is called Vladislav Hall, and was originally used for horses and jousting ceremonies.  The area where the wooden boards are was depressed and filled with dirt for the horses.  That had to be quite the spectacle inside the palace!

Our guide than dragged us through a very crowded corridor, and I was curious what could be so important to run that gauntlet, when she showed us these windows, known as the “Defenestration Windows”.

Back in 1618, after the Holy Roman Emperor King Ferdinand II ordered the cessation of Protestant church construction on royal lands, a group of Protestants demanded answers from two Catholic regents.  After accusations flew around, the two Catholic hard-liners and their secretary admitted they were the reason for the Emperor’s decision.  The Protestants ended up throwing them from these 3rd story windows, presumably to their death.  The Catholics survived after falling into a dung heap…which is where we get the saying “Shit Happens”.  This act sparked what is known today as the “30 Years War”.

We entered a room that had a replica of the Crown of Saint Wenceslaus, the Royal Crown of the Czech Republic.  At least we didn’t have to wait 5 (or 8) years to see it!

This area is known as the “New” Office of Land Rolls.  This office held a record of who owned what for the entire country, and it actually burned down in 1541, hence the name “New Office”.  On the walls and ceilings are the coats of arms for each position in the court structure.

This is a representation of what the land records looked like dating back to post 1541.

Here we are exiting the Royal area.  The path we are walking down is called the “Rider’s Staircase”, and is specifically designed for horses to get into the castle to gain access to Vladislav Hall.

Our next stop was Saint George’s Basilica, the oldest surviving church building in Prague Castle.  It was founded in 920, and reconstructed over the years, particularly after a fire in 1142.  It’s a mere blip in size compared to Saint Vitus Cathedral!  The walls are very thick and the windows very small, simply because they didn’t have the technology to build a church differently back in 920.

Our last stop within Prague Castle was a region known as the “Golden Lane”.  This is the most famous street in Prague, and lies completely within the walls of the castle.  Here is a look down the very narrow street.

It was also called Alchemist’s Lane or Goldmaker’s Lane, as this 16th century street was inhabited by alchemists supported by Emperor Rudolf II, as they were trying to unravel the mystery of making artificial gold.  Below is the home of an alchemist, with pieces supposedly dating back to the time of his living here.

I guess back in those days you slept where you worked!  The houses in this street were very small, basically like today’s tiny houses.

Down in the basement of this house is where the real work took place, but I’m guessing they never found the key to making fake gold.  I think the Czech Republic would be a far different place today had they figured it out!

This is the interior of a very small pub.  An inventory of houses and taverns in Prague in 1653 indicated that one in every seven homes included a tavern!  That’s my kind of city!

The quote on the pub wall reads “better to put the axe in the block than kneel under the axe of executioner”. In a 17th Century pub this would be seen as a warning of the fate that awaited anybody who took up arms against the Catholic king.

One last stop on the Golden Lane was the torture chamber.  It was so crowded I didn’t bother going down and inside.  What a zoo!  I can’t imagine coming here in the summer!

This is where our guide left us.  We took one last shot from the edge of the castle walls, as they views are so nice up here, and the weather was perfect!

Kim and I needed some food and more importantly a pint of beer, and right across the street from our hotel is an Irish pub, so we had to stop for a Guinness!

I know, another long post…hang in there, almost done!

We relaxed for awhile and then decided to head up to Petrin Tower for an overlook of the city.  We waited awhile for the funicular and then made the short walk to the tower.  Built in 1891, it’s supposed to resemble the Eiffel Tower.  Maybe the one in Vegas??

Regardless of the alleged comparison, there are excellent views from the top of the tower!  This is looking towards Prague Castle.

This shot is looking just to the right of the castle, towards our hotel and the northern reaches of the Vltava River.

While this is the view towards the Charles Bridge.  Look at how crowded that bridge is!  It’s crazy!

Here is a shot from the funicular on the way back down.

Ok, two more photos then you are done!  We ate at an excellent restaurant, one of the best of the trip, called Mylnec.  The view of the Old Town Bridge Tower from the restaurant is excellent!  The food was just as good…book this place!

We met musician and all-around nice guy John Fresk the night prior at the Italian restaurant next door to our hotel.  He was so nice that we invited him to dinner the next night.  John is an ex-pat from Oregon married to a Czech woman, and he is a professional jazz pianist.  It was very cool to meet him and chat him up over dinner.  I only wish we could have seen him perform before we had to depart.

Up next, we take a day trip to Kuntna Hora, a nearby city with a remarkable bone church.  Until then, thanks for reading!

 

 

I’m going to apologize in advance for this long post.  I prefer to post a full day over breaking days up, so this post will cover a little of our first night, as well as all of the next day.  If you experience reading fatigue, go for a walk and yell sweet nothings at the sky…that always works for me!  If you stop reading right here, I don’t blame you, but come on man, it’s mostly photos!

Our driver pulled into Prague, pointing out a few sights along the way.  I’ve gotta say, our first impression is “wow, this place is impressive”.  Our impression has only gotten better since then!  It’s hard to believe it used to be run by the Soviets?!

We spent 5 days in Prague, so I’m going to try to hit the highlights over several posts.  Just like Budapest, we again stayed at the Aria Hotel, although the two hotels are not affiliated, at least not anymore.  Both hotels are run by childhood friends of our friend Paul Fridrich.  The Aria in Prague isn’t nearly as impressive as the one in Budapest, but it is still pretty nice, and has some excellent UNESCO World Heritage gardens included on the property.

The owner even has some impressive artwork in the bar area.  This one is by Salvador Dali!

For our first night we had dinner at a restaurant with an incredible view, Terasa U Zlate Studne.  This is a “must book” restaurant, as the food is excellent, and the views are even better!

The entire skyline of Prague is quite beautiful…

…particularly as it gets dark.  These views were from our table, so make sure you book this place!

Unfortunately at the end of the night we had to say goodbye to Casey and Terri, as they had an early morning tour before heading home the next day.  Great traveling with you guys!  Let’s do it again soon!

We had our own private city tour, again with “Tours By Locals”.  Our guide was Dagmar, who was a wealth of information for everything Prague!

She arranged for tram tickets and got us on the right tram to take us to the #1 tourist attraction, Prague Castle.  Built in the 9th century, this is the largest ancient castle complex in the world!

The gardens are trying to be Keukenhof….nice try buddy!

The main entrance is guarded by these two human statues.  There is no way I could stand still for any length of time like these guys.  I was half tempted to ask one of them “doesn’t your neck itch?”, just to plant the seed.  Yes, I’m a tad evil.

There was a soldier with a machine gun standing near this guard, both in the above and below photos…and I thought it detracted from the photos, so I used Google’s “Magic Eraser”.  It doesn’t always work well, but when it does it’s great!

Here is Saint Vitus Cathedral, the central point of Prague Castle.  This is the third cathedral to be built on this site.  Construction on the current cathedral started in 1344, with the right side in the below photo being the oldest.  The Cathedral took hundreds of years to build, with only the right side and the central tower being completed before war stopped construction in the early 15th century.

The left hand side of the cathedral finally started construction in 1870 and was finally completed in 1929, so it only took 600 years to complete the thing…but who’s counting!

On our way out of the castle our guide pointed out this gate.  This is where dignitaries were led inside to meet the King.  The castle is now used by the President of the Czech Republic, so the gate serves the same purpose today.

This is the entrance of the castle used for dignitaries.  Are these statues meant to threaten people who are about to enter?  I tried “Magic Eraser” on the people in the foreground…no dice.

We then made our way down the hill and walked across the Charles Bridge, the #2 tourist attraction in Prague.  A photo of the entire bridge, from the bridge, would not have done it justice, as it was like rush hour in Grand Central Station, and this is supposed to be the shoulder season!

There are 30 statues on the bridge, and this was the first one, Saint John of Nepomuk, installed in 1683, .  He was a 14th century Saint of Bohemia, who was drowned after being thrown from the bridge into the Vltava River on the order of King Wenceslaus IV.  According to legend his wife, Queen Sophia, made confessions to Saint John which he would not reveal to the King.

If you look below the statue, there is a dog on the bronze plaque that is very clean.  It is said if you rub this spot it will bring good fortune as well as a prompt return to Prague.  I didn’t bother, as I know we aren’t coming back to Prague anytime soon, and I didn’t want to tempt fate!

Our guide then got us onto a boat tour to see the area from the water.  It looked like the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  Did Walt visit this spot??

Here is a better shot of the Charles Bridge, with all of the statues.

You can see Saint John Nepomuk on top of the bridge.  The angled logs below the bridge pier were originally put there to break up ice floes before they reached the bridge supports.  An upstream dam now prevents the ice floes, but the logs remain for historical purposes.

Below, on the right, is the Old Town Bridge Tower, one of the original gates to the “Old Town” of Prague.  It was built in 1357, during the rule of Emperor Charles, hence the name of the bridge!

This is a shot of the bank of the Vltana, with a statue of the famous Czech composer Smetana.  Click on the photo if you need a better view.

Our boat ride took us around Kampa Island, where we saw this working water wheel.

After getting off the boat there was a small museum that showed that the Charles Bridge was not the original bridge across the Vltava.  The below diagram shows the original bridge in white, called the Judith Bridge.  This bridge collapsed in 1342 during a massive flood.

The museum has some stairs that led underground so you can see some supports of the original Judith Bridge.

Our next stop was the Prague Astronomical Clock.  We were there just before 2:00 PM, and you’d be amazed how many people gather around to watch this less than stellar spectacle.  The clock is cool though.  It took about 10 minutes for our guide to teach us how it works.  I won’t bore you with the details…you have to come and experience it for yourself.  It is pretty incredible that it was built in 1410, and is the oldest operational clock in the world!

Here is a video…the clock at “It’s a Small World” is more impressive, but that’s just me.

Adjacent to the clock is the “Church of Our Lady before Tyn”.  Why do they give these churches such strange names??  In any case, it looks like Walt Disney spent time in Prague, as there are definitely parts of this church in the main castle at Disneyland!

Across from the church are these white crosses on the ground, 27 in total.  These crosses represent 27 Protestant men who were beheaded on this spot in 1621 for working against the Catholic Habsburgs.  Outside of having a guide to explain this to us, I doubt that anybody walking by has any idea what these represent.

We then ventured into the Jewish Quarter (aka Ghetto), and everything was closed since it was a Jewish holiday.  Our guide told us that this ladder on the back of the Old-New Synagogue (not sure about that name, but it’s the oldest in Prague) led up to the attic, where a mythological nasty creature called Golem lives (not to be confused with Lord of the Rings “Gollum”).  A renovation in 1883, and an exploration of the attic in 2014 revealed no signs of the Golem….but do you dare to enter??

Just across the street is another Synagogue, with an old cemetery in front of it.  The bodies are supposedly buried up to 6 or 7 deep here, hence the elevated position from the street.

Our last stop of the tour was this look down Wenceslas Square, the main city square of Prague.  This square has the busiest pedestrian traffic in the entire country!  Looks just like Charles Bridge, just wider.

If you made it to here, congrats….you win a box of Cracker Jacks!  Just send me your address and I’ll ship it your way!  Up next, we visit more of Prague Castle and Saint Vitus Cathedral, and take a funicular up to Petrin Tower, for an awesome view over the city!