Another Just Back From the Danube-Passion-8/24-9/5

[acwmom]

Definitely a must-do for us too!

 

Robin

[mimmy52]

Prague is on my list and your photos make me want to go there now!

[stonepebble]

I'm glad you're being enticed. I keep saying doing this is making me want to do this entire trip over again...so many other places to see!

 

Now to finish day one and our venture afar! It really wasn’t far, but a sight most people don't get to and one that I wasn’t sure we would have time or the weather to see. We took the C metro to the Vysehrad stop. It’s a short walk to the park with fabulous views of the city, river, and Prague Castle. Vyšehrad, sometimes referred to as ‘Prague’s second castle’, was built in the 10th century on a hill over the Vltava river. Situated within the castle is the Church of St. Paul and St. Peter (which answered only to the Pope), as well as Vyšehrad Cemetery, containing the remains of many famous people from Czech history.

The history of the place is veiled by the oldest Czech myths. According to legend, it was there where the city of Prague was founded. Queen Libuse ruled the fortress and knew how to predict the future. One day, she stood on the edge of the cliffs and had a vision of a "great city whose glory will touch the stars”.

 

We entered through the Leopold Gate. Notice the Habsburg double headed eagle.

 

The Rotunda of St Martin-(11th C), Prague’s oldest surviving building

 

Vltava River

 

Guard house for customs collectors ruins

 

Castle & St Vitus view- The bridges are Vysehrad (railway), Palacky, & then Jirasek

 

This isn’t the famous Libuse statue, but I love the legend of this one involving Ctirad & Sarka about women’s domination over men!

[stonepebble]

Eliska Plaque (Charles IV’s mother) on the corner of the church…there’s more to her story!

 

We had reservations for dinner that night at a great restaurant I had chosen in our planning, U Kroka, which is in a residential area just a little down the hill from Vysehrad! We sat outside and had an interesting conversation with a cute young couple from China. After dinner we continued down the hill until we got to the river. We walked along the river embankment. There were alot of barge restaurants, bars, and people out on this pretty Friday evening.

 

We continued walking along the embankment to see the Dancing House

 

the National Theater-I love the lit up crown on top!

 

Prague Castle & St Vitus at night

 

Near the National Theater we caught the B metro to Florenc to our hotel. Got our keys, found our door ajar, luckily all of our luggage was there, and shortly went to bed.

 

So my intial choosing has 35 photos for day 2….think I need to weed some out before posting!!

Edited September 27, 2016 by stonepebble
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[stonepebble]

So this morning we joined in the included tour, again mainly to take advantage of the transportation. Helena was our guide she was funny! We also had her for our Terezin tour and concert tour. First thing is Prague Castle (10 C). It gets very crowded but no lines as we were there early. We toured the grounds of the largest ancient castle in the world. The most interesting part of the palace is the magnificent 16th-century Vladislav Hall, a massive structure used for coronations, banquets, markets, and even jousting tournaments. We did not visit the interior of the castle (I’d read that most are underwhelmed by the interior).

 

 

Fighting Giants gate into 1st courtyard-from the reign of Maria Theresa

 

Matthias Gate into 2nd courtyard. It was the first Baroque structure in Prague.

 

Old Royal Palace

 

St George's Basilica (Romanesque 10 C) facade is Baroque from the 17 C. Oldest church in the castle complex.

 

Old Provosty with Romanesque palace ruins

[stonepebble]

Next we visited St Vitus Cathedral (within Prague Castle) a Gothic masterpiece and the spiritual symbol of the Czech state. Finally completed in 1929, it took 600 years to built.

 

 

 

Tomb of St John Nepomuk-he was tortured and thrown into the river Vltava from Charles Bridge in Prague at the behest of King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia.

 

I couldn't find any info about this statue

 

Famous stained glass window by Alfons Mucha in 1931. This window motif represents the Slavs being baptized by St. Cyril and St. Methodius.

 

Note The Last Judgment Mosaic on the Golden Portal of St Vitus Cathedral through which kings entered the cathedral for coronation.

[stonepebble]

At some point we peeked down Golden Lane (originally Goldsmith’s Lane) but it required a ticket and we, as with the castle, opted to skip it. As we were leaving we saw the changing of the guard. We boarded our bus and headed to the other side of the Vltava. Our bus dropped us at the beginning of Prague’s Paris Street. This wide street, built in the early 20C in the former Jewish ghetto (Josefov), combines Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque and Secession styles in a series of buildings unlike anything else in Prague. Lined with elegant shops, it is one of the most prestigious addresses in Prague.

 

The Hotel Paris near Paris St-highly rated!

 

It’s a short walk up Paris St to Old Town. We left the group at Old Town. I finally got a Kürtőskalács from a stand in Old Town. We never saw any in Budapest and we ran out of time in Cesky to get one. They are made from sweet, yeast dough, a strip is wrapped around a truncated cone–shaped baking spit, and rolled in granulated sugar. It is roasted over charcoal while basted with melted butter until its surface caramelises and forms a shiny, crispy crust. Then it’s topped with additional ingredients such as ground walnut or powdered cinnamon. They are really even better than they look!

 

So St Stephen’s in Budapest has the Holy Royal Hand, but in Prague they have a thief’s arm! It’s hanging in the Church of St James the greater. It belonged to a thief who tried to steel some jewels from the Madonna on the high altar one night. But the Madonna grapped his hand and didn’t let it go. The thief had to wait until the next morning. When the Minorites came to the Church, they tried to separate the thief from the Madonna, but in vain. They had to cut his arm. Then the Madonna let the hand go. The monks hung the arm to remember this event and as a warning for other thieves.

 

The façade bears three large scale bas-reliefs: the scenes are veiled in celestial clouds and filled with cherubs, they represent the Apotheosis of St Francis, St James the Greater surrounded with pilgrims, and the Apotheosis of St Anthony of Padoua.

 

We weren’t aware of it when we were there but Count Jan Václav Vratislav of Mitrovice was buried alive in his beautiful tomb in the church!

 

Pieta carving from the 15th C.

[stonepebble]

After St James we caught the subway back to the hotel for the trip to Terezin. Our tour began at the National Cemetery created after the war where 10,000 victims of Terezin, most moved from mass graves elsewhere, are interned.

 

Next we went to the prison and saw the cells and communal shower room. We learned that it has been determined that, although it was never used, there was a gas chamber built at Terezin toward the end of the war.

 

 

We drove around the main square and saw the barracks, the market square, where the SS soldiers lived, etc

 

Our last stop was the Ghetto Museum which is housed in the former boys barracks. It is very well done showing the development of the “Final Solution”, memorials, and exhibits of life in the ghetto. Of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin around 100 survived. Due to the charade that was Terezin and an artist who was held there these children were at least able to have a little normalcy. Artists, both adult & children, left extensive documentation of life in the ghetto. We saw this artwork both here and at the Pinkas Synagogue. We watched a propaganda video portraying the good life at Terezin before heading back to the hotel. Although I excelled in history, I had forgotten so much. Being in Central Europe and walking in the footsteps of it’s history made an impact on us that I don’t believe we’ll ever forget!

 

From the hotel we caught the subway to Wenceslas Square which is a really long pedestrian area. Many of the important historical events in Prague's recent history took place here, such as the protests against the Soviet occupation in 1969 and the protest march in 1989 which led to the Velvet Revolution and the end of the Communist era. I didn’t think there was much to see there and hadn’t planned for much time, but it looked like a really fun place. What I did want to do was see The Good King Wenceslas!

[stonepebble]

For dinner that night we went to a great restaurant, Mlejnice (the one down an alley on Kozna). It is just adorable, very rustic. The chicken schnitzel was the best anywhere. All of our meals on this trip were extremely inexpensive, the total for this one was $25! We are normally wine drinkers but we were in Prague (they are the largest beer consumers anywhere) and that beer was so good!

 

There is supposed to be a pic of me drinking a really nice looking beer here, but the only nice looking thing in the pic is the beer so it's not getting posted!

 

After dinner we were excited to head to the Charles Bridge! The direct path to the bridge took us on Karlova St and once we were on it I remembered reading in my planning to avoid this street at all costs, and we should have! It is packed with tourists and tourist shops! I had read that you should cut through the Klementinum…oh well. My husband thought the bridge was crowded but it wasn’t as bad as I had read!

 

Charles Bridge Tower

 

King Charles!

 

Observation Tower on Petrin Hill-another great Prague view spot but we didn't get there.

 

After walking along the bridge we took the subway back to the hotel. We had wanted to check out the Cloud 9 Bar at the rooftop of the hotel and this was the perfect night. Panoramic views of Prague, popcorn, and egg white margaritas (never again!).

[stonepebble]

We had a great breakfast at the Hilton and then caught the subway to get closer to the Jewish Museum. The neighborhood is named Josefov in honor of the Josef II who in 1781 eased much of the discrimination against jews. It was fascinating! Several of the synagogues are set up for a specific purpose. We used Rick Steves guide and started at the Maisel Synagogue. There were signs inside the Maisel that said no photography so I don’t have any pics from inside. I subsequently asked and found out that it was fine without flash. The synagogue was built as a private place of worship for the Maisel family during the late 16th C. It has been rebuilt several times. Inside there is an exhibit that shows a thousand years of Jewish history in Bohemian & Moravia. In WWII Jewish synagogues all over the Czecb world were ordered to send their riches to Prague to be part of a Jewish museum. They were stored here. Some think that the plan was to have a Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race.

 

 

Next we went to the Pinkas Synagogue. This synagogue is set up as a memorial to the victims. The main focus is its walls, inscribed with the handwritten names of 77,297 Czech Jews sent to the gas chambers. The names are carefully organized.

 

 

 

On the ark wall is a list of the ghettos and extermination camps that received Czech Jews. As you walk around you hear the somber reading of the names alternating with a cantor singing the Psalms.

 

Upstairs there is a small Terezin children’s art exhibit. The collection is organized into poignant themes: dreams of returning to Prague, sentimental memories of the simple times, scenes of everyday life at Terezin, Etc.

 

A cycle of Mickey Mouse drawings (like a filmstrip) a child made for a friend.

 

Exiting the Pinkas Synagogue you enter the Old Jewish Cemetery. From 1439 until 1787 this was the only place in Prague where Jews were allowed to be buried. Graves had to be piled on top of one another, seven to eight layers deep until a small plateau was formed. Standing here you are several feet above street level which is way above medieval level. Among the dead buried here are Aaron Horowitz (builder of the Pinkas Synagogue), Mordecai Maisel (of the Maisel Synagogue), and Rabbi Loew, famous for creating the Golem from mud and bringing him to life!

[stonepebble]

From there we went to the Klausen Synagogue. This 17 C, Baroque style synagogue now houses an exhibition of Jewish traditions and customs. It also deals with Jewish worship, the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays. In the gallery are exhibits relating to the daily life of a Jewish family, explaining customs related to birth, circumcision, bar mitzvah, marriage and divorce. There was even an upholstered circumcision chair (1805), with one seat for the child's godfather and one for the prophet Elijahto.

 

 

Circumcision tools-I can't imagine this being done outside of a hospital!!

 

On to the Old New Synagogue, which for more than 700 years has been the most important synagogue and the central building in Josefov. It is not actually part of the Jewish Museum (I’m guessing because it’s Orthodox?). The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in Europe. It was completed in 1270, and was originally called the New or Great Synagogue. Later, when newer synagogues were built in the 16th century, it became known as the Old-New Synagogue. The synagogue is orthodox, with separate seating for men and women during prayer services. Here, instead of an upstairs gallery, women worship in rooms that flank the hall listening to the service through horizontal windows in the walls. The interior is Gothic and the original architects were Christians.

 

 

 

Our last stop in the Jewish Museum is the Spanish Synagogue, the newest synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. Its name refers to the style in which it was built, Moorish Revival. It was built in 1868 for the local Reform congregation. At this time with the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Jews were granted full rights, many prospered. The decor is exotic and awe inspiring. There is an organ to accompany singing. It houses an exhibit dealing with the history of Jews in Bohemia, with special emphasis on the Holocaust and the Terezin Ghetto. On the second floor is an exhibit featuring more than 200 of the most valuable silver artifacts from the museum's collections.

 

 

[stonepebble]

Next to the Spanish Synagogue is this interesting statue of the writer Franz Kafka, a Jew who lived most of his life near here.

 

We grabbed a coffee nearby at a cafe called “No Stress”. Ha ha! Then caught the subway to the Vltavská stop. It was less than 1/2 mile walk to the National Galleries' Veltrizni Palace where Alfons Mucha’s Slav Epic is located. It is a cycle of 20 large canvases painted by the Czech Art Nouveau painter between 1910 and 1928. The largest is around 19’ by 26’. We are aggravated at ourselves that we didn't take a photo in front of one for perspective. The cycle depicts the mythology and history of Czechs and other Slavic peoples. In 1928, after finishing his monumental work, Mucha bestowed the cycle upon the city of Prague on condition that the city build a special pavilion for it.

 

My favs.. A close up of part of “The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan”. The procession is led by young girls in Serbian folk costume who convey Mucha’s faith that the younger generation will carry forward Pan-Slavic ideals.

 

And a section of “The Apotheosis of the Slavs, Slavs for Humanity” In the last painting in the series, Mucha sought to bring together all the themes addressed in the other 19 episodes of the Slav Epic and celebrate the independence of the Slav nations.

 

It rained while we were in the exhibit but had stopped just in time. We got back to the hotel right at 5:30pm and our concert was tonight! We decided to grab something at the hotel quickly. We stopped at the nicer restaurant, the Czechouse Grill. There was a waiter outside but the restaurant didn’t open until 6 and we had to leave at (meaning be on the bus before) 7:15p. He assured us they could handle it! So upstairs to change and freshen up and we were at their door at 6P! True to their word we had a wonderful and really not rushed dinner. Now off to the the Mirror Chapel of the Klementinum. NOT! So we arrived at the Grand Bohemia Hotel (another highly rated hotel). I found out that the Klementinum has been closed for sometime…Oh well. The Boccaccio Hall in Neo-Baroque style*from the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic served as a luxury cabaret for the Prague´s cream of society. It was beautiful and the performance was wonderful!

 

 

Back at the hotel we joined some fellow cruisers to chat and have cookies for dessert before bed.

[stonepebble]

Gosh our last day and there are still so many things we want to do…Well, this is what we did do! Got everything packed, had them store our luggage, and checked out of the hotel. Luckily cloudy but no rain. We took the subway to Malostranska and walked a very short distance up the hill to Lobkowicz Palace, the only privately owned building at Prague Castle . Built in the 16th century, the palace has been home to the aristocratic Lobkowicz family for around 400 years. Confiscated in WWII, and again by the communists in 1948, the palace was finally returned in 2002 to William Lobkowicz, an American property developer and grandson of Maximilian, the 10th Prince Lobkowicz. Highlights of the museum include paintings by masters, original musical scores annotated by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn (the 7th prince was a great patron of music – Beethoven dedicated three symphonies to him), and an impressive collection of musical instruments. But it’s the personal touches that make an impression. There is a very good audio guide.

 

 

My favorite painting. A rather romanticized painting of the Defenestration that provoked the Thirty Years War showing Polyxena Pernštejn, the first Princess Lobkowicz, barring the door of the palace against a Protestant mob while the bruised and battered emissaries cower behind her. Another version of the story says that she actually hid the men under her skirts. (Polyxena was one of the most powerful women in Bohemia, and influential at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor.

 

 

The views from Lobkowicz at Prague Castle are fabulous!

 

Zizkov TV tower

 

The Charles Bridge & Tower

 

It was a nice walk down the hill to the John Lennon Wall, a symbol of freedom and rebellion against the communist regime in the 1980´s.

 

 

Not far from the wall is the highly rated John Lennon Pub! Love the yellow submarine!

 

[stonepebble]

Then a very short walk to the Charles Bridge in the daytime. It is said that if you rub the bronze plaque of St John of Nepomuk you will one day return to Prague & I really want to go back! I love all the statues on the St Salvator Church behind the tower. It’s part of the Klementinum and marks the entrance to Old Town.

 

 

 

Back through Old Town and to Republic Square. So for our last stop in Prague we ended up at the first sight we went to, the art nouveau Municipal House. We had thought about taking a tour, but it didn’t ever work out and we had read all about it so we did a little tour of our own. Afterward it was time for coffee and our last local dessert.

 

 

Traditional Blueberry Cake at Plzenska at The Municipal House

 

Now the only thing left to do was to get home…

 

We took the subway back to Florenc, walked back to the Hilton, collected our luggage, and took a hotel car to the airport about 40mins away. We had used points for our flights and the best flights we could get started with a late flight out of Prague. We actually were excited about that as it gave us another day in Prague. So a short flight to London where we stayed for the night. Thankfully they checked our luggage all the way through. Our hotel was the Renaissance London Heathrow (it was fine). There was a pretty good restaurant, The Pheasant, about a 20min walk away. It wasn’t the least bit scenic but it was nice to walk around a bit. Back to the hotel, great night’s sleep, and no trouble with our flight the next day. It was really nice to be traveling during the day! We got back to CLT and the Hickory Hop was actually early picking us up. Retrieved our car (they have unlimited free parking) and were home shortly. We were really pleased with the travel arrangements! So our amazing first river cruise had sadly come to an end.

[mimmy52]

Thank you for doing a trip review. I really enjoyed reading about your travels.

[stonepebble]

Thanks so much Mimmy. It was such a great vacation.

 

And it'll be a great, quick way to relive it!

 

Now on to the planning of the next adventure!!

 

Chris