Day 76. Last day in Prague.

Yesterday late afternoon, I went for a walk across Charles Bridge to check out a hotel Bonnie had told me about called Aria. But before even getting there, i was sidetracked by the signs saying "John Lennon Wall." During the 80's, the wall was the scene of many clashes between the secret police and the youth of Prague who were discontented about the communist regime and the lack of freedom in Prague at that time. The youth painted about peace and love based on John Lennon's songs, which were banned in Czechoslovakia at the time, including their feelings against the communist regime. The communist police continually tried to remove the graffiti from the wall and the youth kept returning to paint their feelings. The wall now continues to symbolize peace and freedom, although the original paintings have been painted over many times...







I proceeded on to the Aria Hotel, where I went up to their roof top restaurant for an early dinner and to check out the magnificent views of the spires of the city! Awesome!!









Prague is known as the city of a thousand spires.

Today I was going to go explore the castle area some more, but instead I decided to "live Prague." I just walked around the city, with no camera or guide book (but I did take a map), checking out some streets I had not been down. Everywhere I turned there were more beautiful buildings. More spires. More cafes. More cute little shops. I went to the post office. I sat at a cafe and had tea. I had a casual lunch at Bohemia Bagels. And I found the "original" marionette theater of Prague, which had a show tonight....Don Giovanni. So, I thought that would be fun to see it with puppets! With no less than Mozart as the conductor...





... what a blast! It was hysterical. So a great way to spend my final day and evening in Prague.

Tomorrow, I am off to London. My friend, Mary Kathryn, is to join me but just heard that her flight was cancelled due to East coast thunderstorms! So hoping she gets out soon to be able to join me.

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Location:Konviktská,Prague 5,Czech Republic

Day 75. Jewish Quarter, Prague.

What a beautiful day! The weather has been good here, but a bit overcast. Today the sun is out and it's going to be in the mid70's. A glorious spring day!

I am off to the Jewish quarter today, known as Josefov. They are supposed to have a couple of exhibits there that I would like to see. The earliest evidence of Jews in this area was in the 13th century. They were persecuted over the centuries of time that they lived here...even before the devastation of the holocaust. They were forced to live within a walled community, known as a "ghetto.". As their ranks increased, the size of their allotted space remained the same, leading to overcrowding and disease. That is why today, we use the word "ghetto" to describe areas where the living conditions are poor.

I will start out at Pinkus Synagogue...





one of the five synagogues in the Josefov area.

The impact is overwhelming when you walk into this building...the walls are covered with the names of Jews, just from Prague and the surrounding areas within the Czech Republic, who perished in the holocaust. One can't help but cry...in fact I'm even teary again as I write this. Then I started looking for surnames of friends of mine. And that made it even more impactful. How could this have happened? It is so disturbing. I had this same empty pit in the stomach feeling when I visited the Holocaust Museum in DC with my sister when it first opened. We just sat on a bench together afterwards, speechless for a period of time. Neither of us wanted to break the silence.

But I haven't even gotten to the heart wrenching part of the exhibit that will really tear you up. When the Jews were being transported to a holding camp, before being sent to Auschwitz, there was a woman, Freidyl Dicker-Brandeis, who decided that in order to help all of the children, that they should draw....that art would be therapeutic and would help take their minds off of what was going on. A total of 4,000 drawings were done by the children during this time. At such time as she was moved to Auschwitz herself, in the autumn of 1944, she hid these drawings in two suitcases and hid them, which is how they survived, and many are now exhibited here. The children drew about topics such as memories of home, dreams about returning home, death and darkness, good and evil, holiday celebrations, how they were transported via train and truck, scenes of showering in the communal shower, of lining up to get food, of living in the barracks...the insights of these children was astounding. I noticed that many of the pictures, even if they were about positive things, had something in the picture that was black...even one with a rainbow had a black line included in the rainbow. There were 10,000 children who went to this camp, and most of them perished.

As a side story, as I catch my breath, something that is not a part of the exhibit, but which our tour guide told us...there was a man from England named Winton, who offered to Czech parents to take their children to England to "sit out" the war. While many parents were leery, many of them signed up anyway. But he was only able to get out about 650 children before Hitler shut down the trains. One train with 250 children was turned back, and that still haunts him today. Noone knew he had done this until his wife found his diary in 1988. There is now a movie about to come out called Winton's Children...and yes, he is still alive (over 100 years old), and recently he came to the movie's premiere in Prague. I sure hope it makes it to the New York theaters and that I get to see it!

Right outside is the Old Jewish cemetery...





This is another example of the overcrowding of the jewish community. This was the only site that they had available to them for burials. When they ran out of room, they would just make another layer, and bury people on top of one another. They would try to pull out gravestones and put all of them on top. You can't see it in this photo, and I was unable to find a good way to photograph it, but this sits about 20 feet or so above street level, due to the many layers. Many important people of the Jewish community in Prague were buried here, including Rabbi Lowe, of Golem fame, and Rabbi Maisel, one of the important mayors from the 16th century. (Maisel was actually popular with the Austrian nobility as he helped fund the war with the Turks....so they let him do a lot of rebuilding of the ghetto at that time).

Next, I went to the Spanish Synagogue...






...which is the most beautiful one. This was built with a Moorish influence (thus the name). It was beautiful inside, too (no photos allowed). There they also had part of an exhibit of the history of the Jews in the area--the other part was in the Maisel Synagogue. As an aside, the only reason that they even have the items to be displayed in this exhibit is because someone convinced Hitler not to destroy them, and his plan was to establish a museum for an extinct population. How sick was that man!!? And that it wasn't/isn't just one man!!

Other highlights of this area, include the ceremonial burial hall adjacent to the cemetery...





...the town hall,with the Hebrew clock which is read backwards...













...the old/new synagogue...





...as well as the Maisel and Klaussen Synagogues (no photos of those).

The actual "ghetto" was torn down in the early 1900's to make way for new construction of mostly art nouveau buildings.

Time to go sit on a bench for some moments of reflection...

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Day 74. Prague.

After such a full day yesterday, I lazed around in the breakfast room today for a bit. My hotel, the Unitas Hotel, has a bit of history of its own (although my mom will be disappointed that it has nothing to do with Johnny...for you younger folks, Johnny U was a famous quarterback for the Colts...back when they were where they belong, in Baltimore :-)) --although the Ravens are now healing a lot of the wounds caused by losing the Colts.

Anyway, back to my hotel. It used to be a convent, built in the early 1700's by Jesuits, along with St. Bartolomew's Church. Jesuits were banned by the Austrian monarchy in 1780 and the church and convent were sold to the city. In 1850 it was returned to the Grey Sisters of Franciscus for their charitable works. In 1950, the State Secret Police raided and took over the property, sending the nuns to a concentration camp. They used the church as a shooting range, and the convent as a prison where they carried out many brutalities. One of the prisoners held here was the eventual president, Vaclav Havel (more about him in just a minute). The church was reconsecrated in 1998. The renovation of the convent into a wonderful little hotel began in 2006...


Today I first headed off to Wenceslas Square...



This square, which started out as a horse market, is quite an historic place. The first protest here was held in the 1400's. Then in 1918, the people celebrated their independence, or so they thought. In 1969, a young man set himself on fire here to protest the Soviet occupation. And most recently, as many of us remember, in 1989, the people gathered here to hear Vaclav Havel's pro-democracy speech, as communism came to an end....shortly thereafter Havel became president of the new Czech Republic. Gives me goose bumps being here. Havel is still alive and still highly revered by the Czech people.

The building which anchors the plaza is the National Museum, but it's real claim to fame was that it was the casino in the movie, Casino Royale. In front of the museum is a statue of Good King Wenceslas...



The street has many interesting art nouveau and other style buildings, as this area has emerged over the years as the primary commercial hub...






On my way to Republic Plaza, I came upon the State Opera House...



This is the only original opera house that still stands where Mozart performed. The Czechs loved Mozart. When the Marriage of Figaro (which he wrote in that house I went to in Vienna) first played in Austria, it was not well received, as it poked some fun at the nobility. But when it showed later here in Prague, the audiences loved it. Which was what led to the commission for Mozart to write Don Giovanni, which premiered here in Prague. I seem to be following that opera across Europe!! Also, the film Amadeus was filmed here in Prague by a Czech film director. So I'll have to watch it again now.

I continued on to Republic Square where the Powder Tower still stands....one of the towers that was a part of the wall around the city at one time...







It originally housed the gunpowder, thus the name. Next to this tower is the Municipal House, a beautiful music venue where I will go later this evening.



I started to head over to the Jewish quarter, but it was already late afternoon, and I hadn't had lunch. So I had seen a cafe with mussels in this neighborhood yesterday, so after walking around for a little while, I found it. And spent the rest of the afternoon doing the "cafe" thing.

After freshening up, I headed to the Mozart/Strauss concert at the Municipal House. The inside was also quite beautiful...



...and the concert was conducted by a young woman, which you don't see that often, so that made it even more special...



Had a late dinner at the famous Buddha Bar (which was extremely similar to the Tao Restaurant in New York...hmm, who copied who?).

Will head to the Jewish quarter tomorrow!

Day 73 (continued). Prague.

Wow, so much to see!! And so much to tell you about! But where to start. I took two walking tours today...one general one in the morning and one of the castle area in the afternoon. The morning guide did the afternoon tour, too, and since I really liked her I decided to continue on with her. But almost too much info for one day. I'll be going back to some of the places we saw today to get a more in-depth look, so I won't bore you with all of the details in one day....I'll spread the boredom over the week :-).

The tour met in the Old Town Square. The first thing the tour guide told us was to not buy anything in the square, as it would be a rip off. (a couple of guys had already had that experience). But I don't want to give you a bad view of Prague with this and my taxi story from yesterday...there are plenty of other places to go to eat and buy Prague mementos. And I am thoroughly loving this city!

A lot has happened in this square over the years, which was a marketplace as early as the 11th century.....celebrations, marches, executions, etc. The astronomical clock...


...is a highlight of the square. It is on the tower of what is left of the old town hall (the rest of which was destroyed by Hitler as he pulled out of town). The clock was installed in 1572 and is quite remarkable. It is both a solar and lunar clock...



At the top of the hour, bells ring, the rooster crows, the statues dance, and the doors open up, and the 12 apostles emerge...



Then a live trumpet player plays from the balcony. Quite cool!

There are two key churches in the square...the first of which is the Church of our Lady Before Tyn...


This church was completed during the 14th century and had some relationship with the Hussite movement, which was a Protestant movement led by Jan Hus against the corruption of the Catholic church (long before Martin Luther). He was burned at the stake in 1415 as a heretic. As he had a solid following, his death led to revolts. The animosity between Protestants and Catholics raged for years. There is a memorial to Jan Hus in the square...



...and the Hussite Church still has followers in this country.

Another church on the square is the church of St. Nicholas, completed in the early 18th century...



When we went over to the castle district, there were some phenomenal panoramic views of the old town...










At the end of the tours, I walked back across the Charles Bridge (more about Charles another day)...




Entrance to the bridge on the opposite bank of the river...



There are 30 statues in all lining the bridge...including this one with the two spots to rub for good luck (including the dog on the left, Cynthia :-)



All of these statues are, however, replicas. The original ones have been removed and placed in museums for safe keeping. Then there is the gate on the other side...




And a view down to the bridge near my hotel, from which I watched the fireworks last night...



A very long day, so time to return to my hotel with my aching feet. On the way back, I passed a restaurant my hotel had recommended, so stopped for a bite to eat...a very good meal, including some fresh steamed vegetables, which I have not had enough of these last few weeks. I forgot to mention, that on the tour, we stopped at Bohemia Bagels, and I had my first bagel since leaving New York!! Yum!

Lots more to be covered over next few days!

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Day 73. Prague.

I arrived in Prague at about 5:30pm yesterday. I first went to see if I could catch a taxi to my hotel. But it was just as Cynthia and I had experienced in Russia....you have to negotiate your fare, and they unfortunately try to take advantage of American tourists. First, they wanted the equivalent of $50. When I immediately converted it into USD and told them that was ridiculous, they dropped the fare to $35. I told them that was still too high and offered them the equivalent of $15. When they wouldn't budge, I turned around and went to the metro. In anticipation of this, I had studied the metro map the night before, just in case. The only problem was the metro card machine only took Czech coins, and all I had were Czech bills and euro coins. But I was able to talk a woman into giving me the necessary Czech coins for a two euro coin. So I paid her double, but it was still a lot cheaper than the taxi! so I hopped on, made my transfer and arrived at my hotel about 10 minutes later....piece of cake :-). BTW, when I asked at the hotel how much I should have paid to get from the train station by taxi, they said about $15, max!! I really don't know how you avoid their scam if you really need a taxi?

After getting settled in, I went to an excellent restaurant I had read about on line, V.Zatizi, which was right around the corner from my hotel.

Then I took a short walk up to the bridge, as I heard they were doing some fireworks in honor of my arrival :-)...


What very little I saw of the city was spectacular...cobblestone streets, cool bridges, the National Theater...


and the Prague castle on the opposite bank of the river...


Time to go figure out how the trams work here...


...and find a walking tour of the city!

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Location:Konviktská,Prague 5,Czech Republic

Days 69-72 (Thurs - Sunday). Vienna.

I'm going to try to condense my stay in Vienna into one post. I got a little behind in Russia, and then with the blog website down for three days, I've been unable to catch up. So while I'm on the train to Prague on this rainy Sunday, Day 72 (perfect time to travel), I will try to give you the "cliff notes" version.

Of course, I have to mention here that Day 69 marks just 30 days left in my trip. So it is now counting down rapidly! Boo hoo! I am having an even more wonderful time than I ever imagined!

Now back to my stay in Vienna...Central Vienna is contained within a ring road, and just about anything within it is within walking distance, although I hopped on the metro and trams once in a while, to save time (and my feet). A lot of the history of Vienna is located within that ring road. The road itself was built over what was once the wall of the city which protected it from invaders. I found it interesting that the central city has absolutely no relationship with the Danube River, which flows right alongside of it.

Romans occupied the city during the second and third centuries (although there were people here as early as 5000BC). The main history centers around the rule of the Habsburgs, who ruled from the 13th century up to WWI...after that war, they were required to abdicate the throne. The Hofberg Palace was their Imperial Palace, and was expanded during each century, with the last and most magnificent wing completed in 1917...





...it was from this balcony that Hitler gave his famous speech, persuading his country of birth, Austria, to join the Third Reich. There was an exhibit that recently opened which recognizes all of the lesser known Austrians (less known than Schlindler) who helped the Jews during the war...the exhibit was advertised all along the streets...






Part of the palace is currently used as the official residence/office of the president, and the display of these flags on the residence indicate that he is currently in the country...


...by the way, their president, who was just elected for a second 6-year term, has no power...the chancellor of the parliament...






...really runs things. The president is just a figurehead. The running joke regarding the parliament, btw, is that the statue of wisdom should have been placed inside!

But back to history and the Habsburgs. One of the more popular Habsburg rulers was Maria Theresia...



...who ruled from 1740 to 1780...she succeeded her father, who issued the edict allowing women to rule, so that he could pass the throne to her. Unlike many other members of nobility, she married for love, and they had 16 children, including Marie Antoinette (the walking tour guide however said that he was known to have many other children besides just hers...as many as 30...is that right? I haven't tried to confirm that). Most of her children, including Marie Antoinette, whom most of you know married Louis XVI and was later beheaded, were married off to nobility of other countries for political reasons...mostly to keep those countries from invading Austria. While she was an excellent politician and diplomat, her husband was an excellent businessman and he invested in many lucrative industries, including wine and iron (used to make weapons), to name just a couple.

There are a couple of museums within the palace, including the depository, which holds many valuables of Austria, including their crown jewels, which are 1000 years old...much older than the ones in London. I passed on going in to see them, as there was a line, and the cost was excessive (I had passed on seeing the crown jewels in London once for the same reason).

Another portion of the palace...the left part of this building...



...houses the famous Spanish Riding School...I first visited the stables and got a glimpse of some of the all-white horses...



I was told that they only have performances on Sunday, but you can watch the practices from 10-12 each day. But when I showed up on Saturday, they were having a performance, and I was able to get a half price ticket as it was already underway....but only for 15 minutes, so I didn't miss anything! I got to see the cantering, side stepping, jump/kicks, etc. It was quite impressive. I appreciated it much more, having gone with Katherine to one of her riding classes. You couldn't take photos during the performance, but I caught a photo of the arena after it ended...


I had my first Sacher torte...



(yes, there was more than a first....I had to compare!) at the Cafe Sacher, the authentic...



I enjoyed that first one with a couple of Aussies I had met on the walking tour! (and did conclude after some research that theirs was the best). Btw, it did not seem that the Austrians have any other culinary delights besides their cake and coffee...I ate mostly Italian while there.

I went to the Naschmarket a couple of times...



...once trying a sampling of their "stuffed" stuff...cherry tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, dates, etc. And the second time to grab lunch (the best salad with grilled chicken that I have had in quite a while). While there, I met a woman about my age from Arizona who is working in the Peace Corps in the Caucuses (am not sure I'm spelling that right)...she was on holiday. I found the Peace Corps concept very interesting, of course, and want to discuss some more with Bonnie when I get home.

I did venture outside of the ring road one day to go to the summer palace at Schonbrunn...


...another attempt by the nobles to replicate Versailles...













I did a guided tour, which mostly included the apartments of Franz Joseph (I think he was the great grandson of Maria Theresia, and he ruled from 1848, at age 18, until his death in 1916), and his wife, Elizabeth. She was known as Sisi...she was beautiful, athletic, but unhappy, probably anorexic--and word is he slept around...her story sounded very much like Princess Diana's. She was stabbed to death by someone who did it "to be famous" when she was 61. Another highlight of the tour was the room where Mozart played for Maria Theresia when he was six years old.

Another day I went to see the apartment where Mozart had lived after he moved from Salzburg to Vienna, and where he wrote six pages of music per day! It was where he wrote the Marriage of Figaro opera, which then led to the opera Don Giovanni, which I have now seen twice on this trip :-).

The plaza in which my hotel was located was named after this famous church, St.Stephen's...



I went inside...



...but didn't climb the south tower to view the city...I heard it gets pretty narrow at the top! The building of this church began in the 1300's, but it was built and rebuilt several times, and in its last phase, was never finished (the north tower was to have been as high as the south tower).

On my last night, I went back to the opera house...


While the lobby was ornate...



...the theater itself was pretty plain vanilla compared to the Mariinsky, the "temporary" Bolshoi and the Hungarian theaters, the Hungarian one being the most opulent, believe it or not...



...but I thoroughly enjoyed the production which was an Homage to Jerome Robbins...



Some of you may know him for his work on Broadway as producer, director, choreographer for plays such as West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, etc., but he apparently started out as a ballet dancer and choreographed a lot for the NYC ballet. The third act that they did was of his funniest ballet, which was good for a lot of laughs...we all need to laugh sometimes! Having been there the other evening, I knew to order my canapés and champagne when I got there for the intermission! And then I stopped off at cafe Sacher afterwards to confirm my vote for their torte! (Don't worry, Bob and Adam, I am so far still within my goal of not gaining any weight on this trip....all of the walking sure helps!)

I woke up this morning to chilly temperatures and heavy rains, so heading to Prague where sunny skies are in the forecast!

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Location:Stephansplatz,Vienna,Austria