Day 2 - June 28: Christians and Jews in Prague

Julia woke up at 8 to go on a run and when she returned we went to check out the breakfast buffet in the restaurant in our hostel.  It was amazing!  For about $8 each we enjoyed a spread of yogurts, eggs, grilled vegetables, breads, etc.   From there we walked to the tram stop and took the tram up to the castle on the other side of the river.  We had a really topsy-turvy day in which Julia was the one who was right on questions of directions and mental math currency exchange, which told me two things: Julia will survive on her own and something must be wrong with Rachel.  Sure enough as the day progressed it became clear that Rachel was coming down with a cold.  We plied her full of vitamin C and she was a real trooper.

We got to the castle and bought the A ticket with access to everything.  The castle is on the hill overlooking the city and the views were magnificent.  We arrived close to the top of the hour changing of the guards so hung around in Castle Square by the main gates checking out the view and listening to performers while waiting for the ceremony.

  Once inside, the main focus of the castle is the huge St. Vitus Cathedral (the Czech national church) with two huge gothic towers visible from all over the city.  The church was closed until 1 pm so we took the tour a little out of order, starting first with the Old Royal Palace which, among other things, is the place where angry Czech Protestant nobles threw two Catholic governors out a window, a legal act called defenestration.  They landed in horse manure and survived.  This is apparently one of Rachel’s past year history teacher’s favorite stories and one he told often in class…she was excited to see where it actually happened.  As we were heading back to St. Vitus we happened upon what we understood to be the police orchestra performing in honor of Armed Forces Day….we could be wrong about who they are but regardless they were set up in a small southern gardens overlooking the city.  What a place to perform! 

 We then went into the gorgeous St. Vitus.  Photos can’t do it justice, not for lack of trying.  When I finally downloaded the photos off the camera later today Rachel had taken 2000 pictures in 2 days!

We hurried through the rest of the castle so that, after spending much of the day with the Christians, we we could spend some time with the Jews.  On our way down from the castle, I smelled before I saw trdelnik and had no choice,  especially given the added health factor of this place offering it with fruit.  We stopped in our tracks to eat this delicacy and I exclaimed over every bite.  There was a man sitting near us on a wall watching our passionate eating who must have heard me lamenting when we ran out of ice cream.  Next thing we knew the young girl working the stand walked up and gave us an extra cup of ice cream “for free”. The man must have been the owner and our joy must have been good for business or it was just a true act of kindness.  Either way, I was happy to be the recipient! 

From there we crossed the bridge over to the Jewish Quarter.  The area that has long been reserved for the Jews is the least habitable marshy area near the bend in the river prone to flooding that no one else wanted. Again we bought the full access pass. Though the museums were only open for another hour, the tickets were good for the whole week.  We started at the Old New Synagogue, the oldest still working synagogue in all of Europe.  Jews were not allowed to be in the stonemason’s guild so the Christian builders of this temple added a fifth rib to the vaulting so it wouldn’t appear to be crosses on the ceiling.  

From there we went to the ornate Spanish Synagogue that houses displays of Jewish history through the centuries and has a statue of Franz Kafka outside that looks like it might have been designed by Georgia O’keefe to me. 

Once the Jewish museum sites closed for the day, we went to find a place that Rachel had found on line called Sisters. They basically serve tea sandwiches that didn’t look like enough of a dinner.  So, we ordered one to try (it was super tasty) and continued on in search of dinner.  We are doing this blog from Julia’s new laptop (thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Allyson!) but it doesn’t have a way of reading the camera card, so we found an electronics store in a big Czech mall and bought a cheap USB card reader. 

Julia was pretty set on seeing the Charles bridge at night so we headed back into the Old City and found a pasta place for our real dinner.  While we were inside it started raining but we were ready this time with our umbrellas.  By then end of dinner (9 pm) it was still light outside but starting to get dark so we walked to the bridge with our umbrellas.  We walked all the way across the bridge into the Little Quarter  to give time for the bridge lights to come on before walking back across.  Truth be told I was a little underwhelmed by the view and ready to go back to our hostel (as was sick Rachel) but when we crossed back over the bridge and were walking along the water towards our hostel I realized what all the hype was about.  I had been looking for the city of Prague to look amazing from the bridge (I thought it looked better during the day) but the view of the castle at night with the bridge in the foreground at night was magnificent!

We made it back to our hostel and watched an episode of Grantchester (yes, my 15-year-old loves Masterpiece Theater) before bed.  Another long day of walking: 12 hours, 21,000 steps!

Day 1 - June 27: Arriving in Prague

There were definite times on our overnight flight from JFK to Prague that I thought Dramamine and a deaf ear were no match for the boy screaming from night terrors in the row behind…but I prevailed!  We knew we had no choice but to stay awake all day once we landed to adjust to the 9-hour time change and were expecting it would be a huge challenge.  Somehow we all landed at 10:30 am Prague time feeling rested and ready for the day ahead!

Sculptures outside Mosaic House

I had arranged for a shuttle to take us to our hostel – Mosaic Hostel in the New City part of Prague (new in that it is only 600 years old).  The hostel is the first eco hotel in Prague (which I would come to discover means that the shower only runs for 15 seconds at a time).  It is a very artsy  and hip place full of young travelers and offering nightly activities.  We actually had a two-bunk, four-person room in their place across the street, Hostel Mingle, but it was too early to check in.

The girls immediately felt at home

So, we left our luggage at the hostel and headed out to explore on foot. First stop – lunch.  Wanting to immerse ourselves in the culture, we asked for an authentic Czech food recommendation at the hostel but quickly realized that vegetarian tea-totallers aren’t a great match for Czech cuisine.   I did my part by ordering some sort of “steak” covered in brown gravy. 

As we meandered our way from lunch to the Old City square, we passed a big Tesco supermarket. One of our favorite things to do when traveling is to walk the aisles of the local grocery stores as an insight into local culture. Lo and behold I found a white chocolate Magnum bar which are impossible to find in the US (I’ve looked often) and couldn’t resist.  Very soon after I learned that a Bohemian speciailty is something they call trdelnik – dough that is rolled and wrapped around a stick and then grilled and top with sugar and filled with ice cream.  I could absolutely be a part of this Czech cuisine!  Sadly, it would have to wait.

We knew we were getting close to Old City square as the number of tourists and people selling to tourists increased.  We were delighted that those people repeatedly approached us in Spanish rather than English! We've decided to talk Spanish to each other as much as possible, especially in public. It is somehow less intimidating to do it in Eastern Europe.

From Old City square we followed Rick Steve’s walking tour of Old City through the curvy narrow streets where each building is unique and cool.
Highlights included:

 the Astronomical Clock (seriously how did they know all that 700 years ago??)

the Powder Tower (marking the old entrance to the walled city

 and the Charles Bridge

We ended the tour crossing Charles Bridge.  At near the end of the bridge we went down to Kampa Island and over to the Little Quarter and the Lennon Wall – once a place of defiancelocals craving freedom and now a place where people still come to "imagine." 

Just after we got our pictures of the wall and were starting the longish walk back to our hostel, we got caught in a sudden surprising torrential downpour.  We had very conscientiously packed both raincoats and umbrellas but left all of that with our bags in the hostel.  Luckily there was a cab nearby and we were able to hop in.

We checked in at the hostel and were invited to join tonight’s activity – a rooftop party.  We decided to check it out on our way to dinner but, as Rachel so aptly noted, she and Julia were too young for it and, sadly, I was too old. 

Our due diligence paid to eating Czech food, we went to a vegetarian Indian buffet for dinner where you pay by the weight.  We hadn’t realized that we were there within an hour of closing so it was 40% off!  We all ate for a total of about $8! 

Rachel finally succumbed to her jet lag around 8 pm while Julia and I are still going pretty strong.  I think Rachel’s downfall though is less related to the how much sleep she got in transit but to the fact that she only got 2 hours of sleep the night before we left – last minute, late night packing after the Galaxy Earthquakes tie game at Stanford. Julia was talking about being wide awake but as I finish up this first day’s blog, both girls have fallen asleep in their bunks. A great first day!