The McKenneys: Trip to Prague

On September 8th, We started the trip with an overnight train ride from Zurich to Dresden (Germany). We thought about exploring Dresden and traveling to Prague later in the day, but the weather was very cold, so we decided to hop another train and head directly to Prague. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and quickly booked a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter, which is in the north part of the city. Once the slums of the city, this sector is now a very upscale and exclusive place to live. Highlights of the quarter include 6 original synagogues from pre-WW2, a cemetery where tombs were in layers (up to 12 I think) and one of the tombs is for a dog, and finally the myth of the Golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a prominent Rabbi. The remains of the golem are thought to be buried in one of the synagogues called the old new synagogue, which some scientists claim exhibits unusually high levels of radioactivity. After the tour, we went back to the hotel, showered, changed, and went out for a traditional Czech dinner (we found the food to be delicious and very inexpensive) followed by a night at the opera. We saw Don Giovanni, which Mozart debuted and conducted himself in Prague. The opera was performed with marrionettes - it was very funny - the kids loved it - it was a great way for all of us to experience opera for the first time. The kids did so well that we decided to try real opera the next night. After another walking tour (of the Prague castle - which is one of the largest castles in europe and also in the guiness book of records for being the worlds largest currently occupied castle), we enjoyed another delicious Czech meal, followed by opera at the renowned National Theater. We saw La Travietta, and for about 60 USD we had our own box (there were other seats in the box, but fortunately these did not get sold, so we had the box to ourselves). The kids were a bit restless at the intermissions, but in general, they enjoyed the "real" opera more than the marrionette opera. From our vantage point, we had a birds eye view of the musicians in the pit as well as a clear view of the action on the stage. What was really helpful for Sandy and me was a small screen above the stage with english subtitles, so that we could actually follow the storyline. The Czechs seem to share a common goal of catering to tourists. Everyone is friendly and has a working knowledge of English, all menus are in English, it is easy to get around, food and drink are delicious and inexpensive, there are a lot of beatiful and interesting sights to see and things to do - Prague really tops our list of great European cities. Our final day, we took our final walking tour and saw sights such as Wenceslaws square (you probably know the Christmas song written about good king Wenceslaws - same guy - the funny thing is that he was never a king, only a duke), astronomical clock where Jesus leads his 12 apostles around the clock chased by the devil, bithplace of the famous writer Franz Kafka (unpublished during his life - at death (by tuberculosis), gave all his writings to his best friend with strict instruction to burn everything - his friend was a big fan of his work and instead published everything), and the Charles bridge which is the pedestrian bridge connecting the Prague castle with the old town. The are several religious statues along the charles bridge. Most of these are blackened by time and polution. However there is one statue that is said to grant wishes. As such, there is a spot on the statue that is very shiny (bronze statue) where people rub it to request their wish. On our way out of town, we stopped by the dancing building (not sure of the name origen). It is famous for its architecture, which only a picture can describe. We took a train back to Dresden where we walked the city a little bit before we caught our night train back to Zurich.

Listening to the tour guide