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
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.
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