Prague, the city of 100 spires, is considered one of Europe's most beautiful cities. It truly does take your breath away, especially when standing on castle hill and looking over the city with the Vltava River snaking through it. For these reasons, my parents were eager to visit Prague on their upcoming trip to Europe, and although I had visited once before, I was happy to oblige and tag along. Unfortunately, Jon would not be able to join us as he was on a TDY to Slovakia.
One day after Judy, Claudia, Lisa and Neil departed, my mom and I flew to Prague where my dad would meet us the following day. As we would be there for five nights, we stayed in a lovely apartment in the old town. After a full week of moving and grooving with my mom and friends, we were we eager to take it easy in Prague and enjoy wandering the old town streets with no real schedule. However, we quickly realized that Prague has a lot more must-see sites than we thought and we kept fairly busy most days, with still plenty of time for long lunches and shop browsing.
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| Lar and Charm on Charles Bridge with St. Vitus looming over the Castle quarter in the distance |
I absolutely adore traveling with my parents and cherish the one-on-one time I get to spend with them. I feel so blessed to have parents that I can call my friends, and these five days in Prague allowed us lots of catching up on quality time spent together that is lacking by living overseas.
One of the things I wanted to do in Prague that I didn't do before was to visit an "old world" cafe. We had a lovely Sunday brunch at Cafe Imperial surrounded by mosaic tiled walls and a ceiling dripping with ambience. It was the perfect relaxing start to a busy day ahead visiting the Jewish quarter (Josefov) of Prague.
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| Brunch at Cafe Imperial |
Since the 10th century, Jews have been living in Prague and eventually became one of the biggest ghettos in Europe. Many Jews from other countries flocked here to escape religious intolerance during the Crusades and live in a more tolerable society. For that reason, the small Jewish quarter is packed with synagogues (including the oldest in Europe, built in 1270), a ceremonial hall, and a cemetery. We spent the afternoon touring the various sites learning about Jewish religious practices and saw more Torah pointers than we thought possible.
The most moving and evocative site for me was to walk through the Jewish cemetery. As Jews could not be buried with non-Jews from the period of 1439 to 1787, this was their only burial ground with over 12,000 tombstones. Because of the small space, tombs were piled on top of each other eventually creating a plateau, and when the ground settled, the tombstones got crooked.
After a Jewish-filled afternoon, we exited Josefov (Jewish Quarter) near the Vltava River where we had great views of the Charles Bridge as the sun was peeking out of the clouds. Although we walked over Charles Bridge many times, it is always packed with tourists and tourist traps, and is best enjoyed at a distance from one of the other many bridges in Prague. From here, you can truly appreciate its unique architecture, built in 1357. Until the 19th century, this was the only bridge crossing the river in Prague, leading from the Old Town (on left) to the Little Quarter and Castle Quarter (on right).
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| Charles Bridge |
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| Lar and me with Charles Bridge in distance |
That evening, we enjoyed a drink on the old town square, which we made a daily tradition. Although the square is always packed with tourists, there's always great people-watching. The beautiful mix of Gothic, Art Nouveau, and Rococo architecture surrounding the square is a perfect setting to enjoy a delicious Czech brew. Afterward, Lar and I visited the top of the Old City Hall for fairy-tale views of Prague at sunset. Although Prague is beautiful during the day, it is surreal at night, transporting you into a different era altogether. Being one of the only European cities to escape the bombs of the last century's wars, most of the city was untouched and still has its Bohemian fairytale charm. It's no wonder this city is nick-named, the city of 100 spires.
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| Enjoying a delicious Czech Krusovice beer with the Old Town Hall behind |
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| View of Old Town square and Tyn Church from clock tower |
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| View of St. Vitus Cathedral and Castle from clock tower |
The next day we decided to tackle the Castle Quarter, and began our tour from the Strahov Monastery, with beautiful views of Prague. From there, we walked down to Castle Square before entering the castle gate and courtyards. For more than a thousand years, Czech leaders have ruled from here and the area is more of a complex of sites rather than one castle. The most impressive site is the Roman Catholic national church, St. Vitus Cathedral. It contains the tombs and relics of the most important local saints and kings. The most striking aspect of this church is the brilliantly colored stained glass windows. The richly decorated Wenceslas Chapel, which also houses the tomb of St. Wenceslas, was unique in that the wallpaper is encrusted with precious stones. We also toured the sparse and Gothic Old Royal Palace, Basilica of St. George and exited the complex by walking down the Golden Lane. This street of old buildings, which originally housed goldsmiths, also housed Franz Kafka for a brief period.
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| View of Prague from Strahov Monastery |
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| St. Vitus Cathedral |
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| Strolling the narrow Golden Lane |
We wandered out of the castle complex towards the river to the charming and quiet Little Quarter. We ate at the Hergetova Cihelna along the Vltava with an excellent view of the Charles Bridge. It was the perfect and peaceful afternoon break needed after the tourist-packed sites of the Castle Quarter.
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| Lunch at Hergetova Cihelna |
In addition to its well-preserved architecture, Bohemian crystal and delicious beer, Prague is also known for its love of classical music. There are concerts abounding day and night throughout the old town halls and churches. We thought this would be a fun way to spend an evening and attended the Gershwin concert in the Spanish Synagogue. The musicians were from various orchestras in Prague and the only thing that could top the beautiful music was the beautiful setting we had the pleasure of experiencing. Afterward, we walked through the old town square to enjoy the brilliant evening glow reflected off the cobblestones.
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| Gershwin Concert at the Spanish Synagogue |
Our last day in Prague, we decided to take a day trip to the Terezin Concentration Camp, located about an hour outside the city. I had visited both Dachau and Auschwitz before, but my parents had never visited a concentration camp, and they wanted an opportunity to explore this history. Terezin was actually a town that was taken over by the gestapo as a Jewish ghetto. They chose this location due to the town's excellent 18th century fortress. More than 150,000 Jews were sent there from all over Europe, and although it was not an extermination camp about 33,000 died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. The most horrific site was viewing the walls of names that included all the Terezin children who died. Although it was a sombering experience to tour the museum with pictures of the victims and see the barracks where they lived, it was also an inspiration to see how the Jewish people there never gave up hope and worked together to maintain their dignity and further their culture. Some of the continent's best artists were sent here and made a priority to play concerts, direct plays and continue educating the children. However, only a handful of them would ever make it out of the ghetto alive.
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| Terezin Prisoner Camp with the famous Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" - Work Brings Freedom |
We spent our final afternoon in the old town picking up last minute souvenirs and enjoying the Prague-tastic architecture one last time. That evening, we stumbled upon a charming and rustic restaurant down a side street that turned out to be our favorite meal in Prague. Lar and I shared a pork shoulder that was delicious and of course, had to enjoy some Czech beers one last time. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip to Prague with my parents!
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| Old Town Square |
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| Final Dinner in Prague |
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| Ahoj (bye) from our Prague apartment |
