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!