The next morning our only plan was to catch the free walking tour of the city that we’d missed the day before. We had done one of these before in Amsterdam and we liked the company that managed them. We met in the old town square just north of our hostel and started the tour there. Our guide, Michael from Germany but with a British accent when he spoke English, gave us the run-down on 800 years of Czech history in a solid ten minutes as an introduction to the tour.
He led us around the square and told us about the various Cathedrals and municipal buildings that line it, and also all about Prague’s famous astrological clock that has been a figurehead on the city hall since the 1500s. The old town square was flooded with people, so I was glad to move out of the old city – passing the original university and Mozart’s concert hall on the way – and out into the “new” old city. Prague was really interesting to walk around in because there were so many different looks to the city: the Gothic architecture from around the reigns of the Charles and the Winceslases, the baroque architecture from the first Czech Republic, the Communist architecture from the post-war years, and finally a Neoclassical style that accompanied the reemergence of the Czech Republic from the USSR. So it was very aesthetically pleasing in an odd, occasionally jumbled sort of way.
We eventually headed back into the old city and into the Jewish quarter. We passed Franz Kafka’s house, the new main synagogue, and the old Jewish synagogue and cemetery. The cemetery is significantly above ground because the kings of Bohemia would routinely deny the Jews a second cemetery, and since Jews are required to bury their death within the Earth, they would have to cart in soil and pile it on top of the old layer to put an additional layer of coffins down. In some parts of the old Jewish cemetery, there were 13 coffins on top of each other and an unfathomable web of tombstones on top. We then passed down to the river and saw the concert hall, but when Michael started leading the group toward the castle, we split off and went back to the hostel.
The next morning our only plan was to catch the free walking tour of the city that we’d missed the day before. We had done one of these before in Amsterdam and we liked the company that managed them. We met in the old town square just north of our hostel and started the tour there. Our guide, Michael from Germany but with a British accent when he spoke English, gave us the run-down on 800 years of Czech history in a solid ten minutes as an introduction to the tour. 
He led us around the square and told us about the various Cathedrals and municipal buildings that line it, and also all about Prague’s famous astrological clock that has been a figurehead on the city hall since the 1500s. The old town square was flooded with people, so I was glad to move out of the old city – passing the original university and Mozart’s concert hall on the way – and out into the “new” old city. Prague was really interesting to walk around in because there were so many different looks to the city: the Gothic architecture from around the reigns of the Charles and the Winceslases, the baroque architecture from the first Czech Republic, the Communist architecture from the post-war years, and finally a Neoclassical style that accompanied the reemergence of the Czech Republic from the USSR. So it was very aesthetically pleasing in an odd, occasionally jumbled sort of way. 
We eventually headed back into the old city and into the Jewish quarter. We passed Franz Kafka’s house, the new main synagogue, and the old Jewish synagogue and cemetery. The cemetery is significantly above ground because the kings of Bohemia would routinely deny the Jews a second cemetery, and since Jews are required to bury their death within the Earth, they would have to cart in soil and pile it on top of the old layer to put an additional layer of coffins down. In some parts of the old Jewish cemetery, there were 13 coffins on top of each other and an unfathomable web of tombstones on top. We then passed down to the river and saw the concert hall, but when Michael started leading the group toward the castle, we split off and went back to the hostel.
No comments:
Post a Comment