2015 Prague to Budapest and Beyond - and so it begins

Prague: our first stop on this new adventure. We came a couple of days early to orient before meeting up with our bike tour group. The first day we headed across the Charles Bridge to the Jewish Quarter -  a compact area of synagogues and a cemetery.  for whatever reason the Nazis allowed the Jews of Prague and the region to collect and archive their treasures. The Jews were killed in the camps but the treasures survive in the museums here.  There are several synagogues, a ceremonial hall and the only cemetery where Jews were allowed to be buried from 1438 to 1787. The tombs are askew and it is said that the graves are 7 and 8 deep with more than 100,000 bodies here.

We wandered around Old Town Square and, of course, watched the chiming of the Astronomical Clock on the Town Hall along with a billion other tourists. Prague is crowded. Walking along the Charles Bridge is sort of like being in Disneyland on a busy summer day.

The following day we climbed up to the Castle Quarter and toured St. Vitus Cathedral. It has a beautiful window by Alfons Mucha and the tomb of Good King Wenceslas (I only remember the first two lines of the carol which drove me nuts)  and some of the Hapsburgs.  The wholes castle area is filled with palaces and the office of the Czech president. There is even a lane  filled with little shops where the servants and goldsmiths used to live.  We ate at the cafe overlooking the city at the Lobkowicz Palace and will return to the museum there at the end of our trip.

We did see lots of stuff with the name Kafka on it but felt we had to take this picture of the fountain  of the two peeing men in front of the Kafka Museum.  I almost took a picture of the some woman who had her friend film her washing her hands under the outflow from one of the guys.

We are returning to Prague at the end of the trip for a few more days so this post is the beginning of a big circle. We will end here in three weeks. Stay tuned.