No A/C in this hostel either, but they have fans in the rooms – life is good! After a comfortable night, I headed out by scooter to find breakfast and the meeting site for my 10 am Walking Tour.
I enjoyed a great breakfast at the Adele Restaurant and Bar – with a spectacular buffet of an endless variety. Wow! Wish I had been more hungry.
Some Tidbits about Prague and the Czech Republic
- There are 10.5 million residents in the country.
- University is free in the Czech Republic.
- Polka, Pilsner, dollar, and a few other words all come from the Czech language.
- There are a lot of Opera Houses and Theaters in Prague!
- And if you don’t like cobblestone streets, don’t come to Prague!
My Three Hour Tour (for Gillian fans…)
I signed up for a walking tour around Prague like I’ve joined in other cities around the world. The “donation only” tours are generally very enjoyable, and this one did not disappoint either. I was in an international group of 22 English, Ukrainian, Israeli, American, Brazilian, and a couple other nationalities I didn’t catch. Our guide was born in Prague, but had also lived 15 years in the U.S., so he was easy to follow.
Along the tour, our guide said, “For you Americans in our group, if you see something here that looks old, it is old! It’s not like something in America that was built 50 years ago and designed to look like it was made in the 1300s.”
We toured the old Jewish Sector, New Town, Old Town, and walked across the Charles Bridge to the other side of the Vltava River.
It’s interesting that many of the shops, bars, homes, hotels, churches, etc., especially in Old Town Prague have 2-3 levels below street level. Due to flooding from the river, the roadways had all been elevated by adding dirt and rocks up to 30 feet deep. So in many cases you can walk down into buildings, or have to walk down a level or two to find the bathrooms in many establishments. The Old-New Synagogue mentioned below is an example of that – you actually walk down two flights of stairs from the street to get to the synagogue’s main floor.
New Town Photos
Old Town Photos
A building in Cubist style of Pablo Picasso. Lots of angled and squared lines and corners.
Our tour guide also informed us that Einstein served as a professor at the Jesuit University here in Prague in 1911-12. He said, “Einstein taught physics, thermodynamics, and a few other things that I don’t understand. That’s why I’m a tour guide!”
Jewish Quarter
Of note, Prague also had a large Jewish population of almost 100,000 before WWII…sadly, only 10,000 returned after the war. But even before the war, the Jews were isolated in the so called “ghetto” area (“Ghetto: The History of a Word”, an undesirable area outside the city walls. The link below has some interesting background of the Jewish experience in Prague.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Prague
“The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest site of Prague’s Jewish Town and the oldest extant synagogue in Europe. It has been the main synagogue of the Prague Jewish community for more than 700 years. Built in the last third of the thirteenth century by stone-masons from the royal workshop who were working on the nearby Convent of St. Agnes, it is a testimony to the important status of the then Jewish community of Prague.” (Source)
“Staronová synagoga” (or Old-New Synagogue) is the oldest active synagogue in Europe.
We also passed by a Jewish Cemetery that was 10 feet above our heads. Over time the residents had added layer after layer of dirt onto the cemetery to expand upwards! Our guide said there were up to ten levels or layers of bodies buried there.
Today, the old Jewish ghetto is a VERY upscale area with tree lined streets, many top tier shops, and high rents.
The Charles Bridge
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Charles IV started construction on the bridge in 1357. And guided by the King’s royal astronomers, construction of the bridge commenced at the suitable, lucky time of 5:31 am on July 9, 1357. In palindromic terms (same number forward and backward), this time can be numerated as a sequence of ascending and descending odd numbers (135797531); and these numbers are actually carved on the Old Town Bridge Tower!
1357 9th July (7) at 5:31
Not sure I buy the 5:31 am part, but the 9th of July in 1357 palindromic number is pretty cool. And the bridge is still standing almost 700 years later.
Post-Tour Touring
My lunch was fried cheese, tartar and french fries, a common Czech meal. The cheese is usually Brie, Camembert, or Gouda. Our guide said that, “these are BIG pieces of fried cheese, not like the tiny mozzarella sticks Americans get at Wendy’s or Jack in the Box!”
After lunch I e-scootered off to the National Museum for a visit. I only hit a couple of the buildings and wasn’t overly impressed with the exhibits, but there are many other buildings that can also be visited.
I enjoyed dinner at an outdoor cafe on a beautiful, warm, late summer evening. Ham with mustard and horse radish, salad, bread, and beer. And warm apple streusel with ice cream for dessert. It’s hard traveling…
And I’m off to Vienna in the morning!
Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?
What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter!
A Captain’s Adventures 