Puti's and Keiko's journey to Prague and Vienna
APRIL 03: PRAGUE
Josefov, The Jewish Quarter
Our round begins from he Jewish Ceremonial Hall. The ticket office is at the corner, but to enter we had to walk around the block to the entrance, passing through a lane of kiosks.
As a warning for a casual tourist it should be mentioned that many of the sanctuaries in Prague have an entrance fee, and it can be a rather steep one considering how much there is to see inside. What comes to Catholic churches, the reason may be that Czech is allegedly teh least religious country of Europe, and many of the churches are actually museums, presumably maintained by the government. Photographing is either forbidden or permitted by a license paid separately at the ticket counter.
The entrance to the Jewish Ceremonial Hall was also on the expensive side of the scale. In case of Jews I presume that Jewish culture stresses the value of remembering the history rather than showing spectacular items. The inside of the hall was rather austere. There were exhibitions, but the most prominent sight was the name list of the Jews died in the Holocaust, continuing from wall to wall, from room to room. There is also a cemetery, packed full of tombstones; it was not clear to me how the bodies were arranged or if they were present in the cemetery at all. We have no photos from the site, but Wikipedia has a page showing something about the cemetery.
In the area there is also Jaroslav Róna's statue of Franz Kafka, who was born as a Jew in Prague.
We visited also the Spanish Synagogue.
Charles Bridge (Karlův most)
This is a famous bridge crossing the river Vltava (or Moldau by its German name). The bridge was named by the king Charles IV. It has many beautiful statues and it is busy with tourists and vendors. Therefore many of its postcard images are taken in the dark hours to let the bridge show from the multitude of the people.
St. Nicholas Church at Old Town Square
Please do not confuse this church with St. Nicholas Church at Lesser Town Square earlier on our trip. This Baroque church was temporarily an Orthodox one, but was later given to the Hussites (see April 01).
Easter market revisited
Rest at Letná park
The park is on a hill and provides a good view over the city. There is a moving metal artwork called "Metronome" in the park.
Strahov Monastery (Strahovský klášter)
There was a mass going on in the monastery so we did not take photos. The first images of this sequence are about our walk to the monastery. The monastery has been founded 1149. There is also a library that was closed when we visited the site.
Finland, Japan, and Czech
As we were walking back towards our hotel, we noticed that the Finnish and Japanese embassies had been located to the same building. At a park near the place Keiko also found blossoming cherry trees and enjoyed hanami, the Japanese delight of cherry viewing. We were lucky to find the trees at an auspicious moment, considering how short is the time that the flowers stay on the tree.
We finished the international day with a delicious dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant next to our hotel.
