Back to Central Europe - Touring Prague

Thursday, May 12, 2016 -- As the photo indicates, it was a little cool and a little cloudy when we started out with our guide, Šárka Kačabová, in front of the hotel. She pointed out the metronome on the hill behind us and explained that the pedestal once held a monumental statue of Stalin.

Šárka took us through the Jewish Quarter, known as Josefov, between the Old Town Square and the Vltava River. While many Jewish homes were demolished in the last century, there are plenty of fine examples of Art Nouveau or Jugendstil architecture scattered among the old synagogues and cemeteries.

We visited several historic synagogues (the Old-New as well as the Spanish). We toured the Jewish Museum (the walls are covered in the names of Holocaust victims) and its cemetery, the largest in Europe. This small space in the old city center is packed with gravestones from the 15th century to the mid-1700's. Today it is customary to place a small pebble on the top of a gravestone, in keeping with the Jewish custom 

to indicate respect for the deceased. 

We had absorbed a lot of Czech history and Jewish culture for one morning. Šárka had made a reservation at one of the pastry shops in the Old Town Square, this one with a fine second floor view of the famous Prague orloj, a medieval astronomical clock on the side of the Town Hall.

 It was about time for the clock to strike and perform, so a large crowd had gathered in the streets below.

Back to Central Europe -- Arrival in Prague

Monday, May 11, 2016 -- Our plane from Frankfurt swoops low over the bright yellow fields of rapeseed (canola to Americans) as we approach Prague this afternoon.  It's a smooth, quick flight, but we later realized that the train from the basement of the Frankfurt airport would have gotten us here faster and more cheaply.

 

We've been in Shengan since Frankfurt, so arrival was painless, and the Czechs make a point of welcoming you!

Tauck picked us up from the airport with a van and deposited us with some other travelers at the Intercontinental Hotel.  Formerly the Conmunist Party guesthouse, it has been completely redone inside and is conveniently located on the river and at the edge of the old Jewish quarter. After settling in, we went for a walk down Pařížská Street. Lined with fancy stores such as Versace and Gucci, it is considered the most exclusive – and expensive – street in the whole of Prague.  

It leads through the Jewish quarter to the Old Town Square. The square opens suddenly before you, the spires of the Church of Our Lady Before Týn rises on one side (a Gothic church with a Baroque interior) while the tower of the Old Town Hall dominates the other. 

There's all manner of stuff going on in the square, especially around the statue of of religious reformer  Jan Hus, who for his beliefs was burned at

the stake somewhere else about 600 years ago.  The people making and flying large, graceful soap bubbles -- by waving plastic nets in the light breeze -- seemed to do it for the fun of it -- no money being asked or collected.  There were of course the horse-drawn carriages for hire, as well as brightly decorated roadsters that looked like the 1930's but which were probably built last month on a modern car's chassis just for the tourist trade.

It was sunny and warm, so we wandered around a bit, soaking up the atmosphere and just looking around.  We knew we'd be back here tomorrow or the next day with a guide.  It was just fun to know you're back in Europe, even if there are hordes of tourists everywhere.

We did not want to do too much of the Old Town this first evening because we'd hired a guide for tomorrow.  Besides, it was getting late enough to think about dinner.  Most of the obvious options looked kind of touristy -- and probably expensive for being right on the Old Town Square.

Grady seemed to enjoy it all just fine. We wandered through the archway to the Ungelt area, or Tyn Courtyard.This was founded in the 12 ^th century as a place where merchants from foreign countries paid customs for the goods they brought in to Prague, a major regional trading center even then.  

There was a lady making some kind of artsy glass in one shop, and a window full of the famous Prague marionettes in another.

After some deliberation we settled on an outdoor restaurant in the Ungelt.  It seemed popular, which was as adequate a recommendation as we were likely to get at that hour and in that area.  We enjoyed our first Czech white wine with some pasta dishes.  


As an extra treat, after the sun went down, we noticed the bright sliver of a moon sparkling against a dark blue sky beside the steeples of Týn church. 

Welcome to the Czech Republic!

May 5, 2016 - Luniquan Back from the Groomer

Thursday, May 5, 2016 -- Following his appointment at Canine Carousel in nearby Herndon, Luniquan came home very proud of himself.

He was bouncing around the living room.  It seemed as though losing all that fur had liberated him.

A good time for a photo of our boy.

May1, 2016 -- Smithsonian Natural History Museum

May 1, 2016 -- An outing with Case was planned for today, but it is rainy and cold.  The outdoor options are discouraging.  So we opted for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.  Pop got a parking place right at the front door!

They have dinosaurs, after all. Well, mainly they have dinosaur bones and skeletons.  Case liked being able put his hand on and to touch the Tyrannosaurus bones.

And, they have a lot of information about fossils and how to hunt for fossils. Case probably didn't notice, but there was a lot of information designed to make the profession of archaeology sound interesting to young people.

The elephant was hard to miss, standing right there in the center of the rotunda room where you enter from the street.  All kids like elephants.

While Pop watched the rest of the dinosaur film in the IMAX theater -- it was kind of scary in places -- Case and Nana visited the Live Butterfly Pavilion.  It is reported that Case did not like having a butterfly sit on his shirt, but he thought it pretty cool that a butterfly sat on Nana for a long time.