Prague Day 1

Sorry for the week-late post. It seems like after even a small vacation, it takes a while to catch up. We both loved Prague for its charm, walkability, great architecture and yummy food (as described in this post). Our first day we did a walk around town, visiting the old town and Jewish Quarter. In our borrowed guidebook, we saw that because Prague has been largely spared from bombings in past wars, there are plenty of different architectural styles throughout the city.

On the way from our hotel into the city, we stopped off at the Powder Tower and Obecni Dom (municipal building) next door. The Powder Tower was blackened with age and stood at a contrast to the municipal building, which was Art Nouveau from top to bottom.

In the Jewish Quarter, the most amazing sight was the Jewish cemetary. Just piles upon piles of grave markers all slanted at different angles and in different levels of decay. I tried to read some Hebrew on the gravestones for Greg, but it was pitiful. Apparently, almost 100,000 Jews had been buried there over the years, mostly in levels one on top of the other. I wish we had photos of this part, but instead I've found a good one from Flickr. In the ceremonial hall, they had paintings of how it would have looked like when it first started being used. They helped to imagine how the cemetary fit into the quarter.

Thanks to CxOxS for this one of the Jewish cemetary... now just imagine this whole thing snow-covered.

The Jewish Quarter itself changed throughout the years depending on the situation the Jews found themselves in in that particular century. Sometimes the leaders tolerated them, sometimes they hated them. As usual, a cyclical history of mild tolerance and severe intolerance continued.

We stopped off for a late lunch at the fantastic vegetarian lunch place, Lehka Hlava. Take a look at the photos in their gallery in the link. The room we were in was the night sky room with big comfy chairs and lighted wooden lookalike tables. The waitress actually came around in the room at one point with incense that smelled like campfire. Greg unfortunately was too stuffed up to taste the flavors, but it was a fantastic lunch. He instead kept the bowl of fresh mint tea near his face for most of the time. The fresh mint tea was the best over there!

I'll post the rest of the days in Prague over the next week *hopefully*. For a sneak preview, here's the link to our photos. Enjoy!

Prague