Prague, Czech Republic

Here it is: the Prague blog! I love saying that. We had a smooth ride from Germany into the Czech Republic; Dresden is only two hours away from Prague. The landscape between the two countries is very beautiful and lush. It was one of the few times that we paid attention to the scenery on board the train. We really didn’t know what to expect from Prague, other than it being a very old city and vastly different than anything we’ve seen so far. As one of Central Europe’s largest cities, Prague has a history that dates back to the ninth century. It is the heart of medieval Bohemia and once the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire. For most of the twentieth century, the city was oppressed both by the Nazis and the Communists. Fortunately, the original structures and churches remain intact and did not suffer much if any devastation in both World Wars.


As soon as we exited the train, we threw our bags into lockers and headed for the old part of town. We had just enough time to make it to the last New Europe tour of the day, and we wanted to make the most of that evening. We made our way to the Old Town center and were immediately swept up in the swarming crowds. Prague has become a popular tourist destination because of its unique history and it's really inexpensive. The center is surrounded by some of Prague’s most recognizable structures, most notably the gothic Týn Church and the first ever Hussite church. Construction on the Roman Catholic Týn Church began in 1256. Our tour met in front of the Astronomical Clock at the Old Town Hall, which was just in time for the hourly clock performance. There are marionettes placed on the sides of the clock that dance and jingle every hour until nine at night. One of the figures is a skeleton, and he is ringing a bell to tell everyone that it’s time to come with him, essentially that our time is up. Once the bells were through chiming, a trumpeter on the balcony of the tower began to play for the crowd. The clock’s origins date back to 1410, although it has had multiple upgrades since, and has a somewhat morbid but historically untrue legend associated with it. It was believed that the original clockmaker was blinded on the order of the Prague Councilors so that he could not repeat his work; in retaliation, he broke the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next hundred years. Of course now it is widely known how the clock works, although not many understand it. Our tour first took us to the Jan Hus monument in front of the Týn Church, memorializing the creation of the Hussite religion. Jan Hus was a member of the Roman Catholic Church, but at the time he did not agree with the Church’s policy on the treatment of the wealthy over the poor. He wanted to create a similar religion that treated people equally, regardless of their social standing, and built a church right across the way from the Týn. Naturally, the Catholic Church disapproved and wanted to quell any such deviations, which effectively lead to the Bohemian Wars. And it didn’t end well for either side. I didn’t know that there was an actual term for throwing someone out of a window, but apparently it’s called defenestration. A lot of people were defenestrated back then. Our tour moved on around the corner to the concert hall where Mozart first performed the opera Don Giovanni. We saw the two buildings in Prague that were inspired by Cubism, and they definitely looked out of place in a traditionally brick and cobblestone neighborhood. A grim tale was told at a church around the way: a thief walked into the empty church at night and saw the statue of Mary had a gold chain around her neck. Being a thief, he decided to steal the necklace while no one was around. Just as he grabbed hold of the necklace, the statue of Mary came alive and clasped his arm with her hand, then solidified into a statue once more with the thief’s arm in her stony grip. The thief yelled and cried for help, and soon woke the priest who came to his aid. Unfortunately, they were unable to free his arm despite all their efforts and decided that the arm had to come off. The thief was relieved and elated that Mary’s arm would be removed, until the priest told him that it would be his arm, not the statue’s, which would be taken off. The priest felt that if the statue grabbed the thief’s arm because he was trying to steal from her, what would she do to him if he tried to cut her arm off? And through much torment and pain, the thief’s arm was finally cut, and at that moment the statue dropped the severed arm to the ground and resumed her original position. The arm was kept and preserved as a warning to other thieves in the area and still hangs on a chain from the church ceiling. We were able to see the “arm” but not able to take pictures, not that I would want a picture of that. It doesn’t look much like an arm anymore, and I’m sure it is only a demented fable. Our next stop was the Jewish Quarter, an area with a deep and sad history. The Jewish people in Prague were subjected to segregation for several centuries before the Second World War. They were forced to live on lands that no one else wanted because of constant, terrible flooding. Because of economic disparities, the area became a ghetto.There is a Jewish History Museum that is supposed to be incredibly touching. Our guide told us that there are drawings on the wall just inside the museum that children drew while in the concentration camps and the story of the woman who was able to smuggle the drawings out. We really wanted to visit the museum, but unfortunately it was closed due to a religious holiday. There are multiple Synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, all built at different points in the area’s history. The Spanish synagogue, which actually resembles a Mosque, is a tribute to the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. The most interesting is the Alt-Neu, or Old New, Synagogue, which is the oldest active Synagogue in Europe. There are actual stones from Jerusalem that are in the foundation that are on loan and are required to be returned at the time of the Rapture. Inside the Old New Synagogue is rumored to house a Golem, a giant man-like statue that can come alive by a spell and do its masters’ bidding. The story goes that the Golem ran amuck in the city and the spell had to be broken. The statue is said to be sitting in the attic of the Synagogue, but no one is allowed to see it. There is a story of a Nazi soldier who wanted to see the Golem and snuck into the attic from a small window on the outside, and he was never seen again. Across the way is another Jewish building that has a Hebrew clock, which no one on our tour could understand. Our tour ended at a memorial for Czech student Josef Smrkovsk who set himself on fire in 1969 to protest the Communist rule of the city. The evening was upon us and we were advised by our guide to take a stroll along the Charles Bridge. Built by King Charles IV in the fourteenth century, the bridge is adorned with over twenty statues of different religious themes. There were actually two bridges prior to the one we were on, but they were not structurally sound and eventually washed away. On the other side of the bridge is the Hradčany, the castle district. There are several more churches and cathedrals on this side, known as the lesser quarter, all in the shadow of the ominous Pražský hrad, the Prague Castle. Through the tight alleyways paved in uneven cobblestones, we made our way up the steep hill toward the castle. It is the world’s largest medieval castle and certainly one of the oldest. The castle’s origins date back to the year 870, but it was rebuilt in Gothic style by King Charles IV and was finally completed at the end of the twentieth century. His tomb was apparently buried several centuries after his death during the construction and was covered for over one hundred and fifty years. The castle itself is impressive on the outside, but we decided instead to walk along the castle wall and enjoy the panoramic views of Old Town and beyond. We later found the John Lennon Memorial Wall down the hill, which is pretty much just a wall open for Beatles themed graffiti.


Prague is an incredibly interesting city with a deep and often times gruesome history. Over almost a dozen centuries, Prague struggled between periods of political stability and strife. We were really fortunate that a New Europe tour was offered there; otherwise we may not have taken an actual tour of the city. Prague is definitely a tourist destination now, but it’s only been in the last few decades that travel was so easily available. The city as well as the state was under a deep depression during Communist rule, but it seems to have made a complete recovery and thrives on the attention it receives from the traveling community.

Our next stop: Munich and Oktoberfest