Prague Day One
It is 7pm and we've just stumbled up the 51 steps to our apartment, exhausted and hungry.
We left this morning at 8:30 and spent the first half hour walking up and down the suburban streets in search of an ATM and a grocery store. We eventually found it - 2 block south...we had been walking east and west.....16 blocks!!!!!
We took a trip underground, down an incredibly steep (and fast) escalator to the tube. Thanks to Andrew we found our way to the old town square and spent several hours wondering around tasting local cuisine (slinky potato chips and coal cooked sweet bread rings - please don't ask me to pronounce the Czech names....hehehe). Dad jokingly said he'd like to go and explore somewhere other than the information places as we visited 3 before we found the maps and information we were chasing.
We checked out the old churches in the square (the first of many I presume) and the astronomical clock. From there we walked to the old Jewish quarter and went through 3 synagogues, a ceremonial hall and the old Jewish cemetery. It was pretty sobering as 1 synagogue contained the names of every one of the 88000 Jews from Prague who were killed in the holocaust. We also saw artwork that was done by children in the concentrations camps. There was an art teacher who taught the children to draw and encouraged them to remember their old 'happy' lives and imagination. The pictures only survived because the art teacher put them in a suitcase and buried them. They were later used in the Nuremberg trials.
Our feet were crying out for a break so we sat in a square across from the Spanish synagogue before heading back to the old town square to enjoy a gelato.
Our final exploration for the day was st Wenceslas square. W wondered down the length of the square and enjoyed an interesting street performance with singing and a giant dragon puppet controlled by 3 men..
We are currently planning our day tomorrow, attempting to save our feet.