Prague

Paige and I headed to Europe on Tuesday to celebrate (belatedly) our 25th anniversary. Paige's mom and stepdad were at the house until today (Saturday), and now the kids are on their own until we return on Thursday. The most recent update indicates that nobody has starved and the house hasn't burned down yet, so at this point it could be a lot worse (knock on wood).

So our flights from San Antonio to DC to Munich to Prague were easy and totally uneventful. My only complaint is that food concessions at the DC airport apparently shut down at 9 p.m. which is completely ridiculous, but whatever. We got in to Prague at about 5 p.m. local time after 16 hours in transit from San Antonio, walked around for a while and got our bearings, hung out, and went to sleep at more-or-less normal time ... so jet lag hasn't really been much of an issue.

We saw most of the stuff you're supposed to see here (Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral, Strahov Monastery, Old Town, the Museum of Medieval Art, the Jewish Quarter, etc.). We also saw a jillion other cool churches and things, and as always there were some pretty awesome and sometimes random surprises. These follow:

Our Apartment - Our apartment is on the west side of Old Town Square facing (and maybe 250 yards away from) Tyn Church. The not-really-zoomed view from our window is below. So yeah ... if you are coming to Prague and want a fabulous central location, I can set you up.

The Museum of Communism - For the full story you can visit the museum here. The abbreviated story is that the museum occupies a single floor that might be as big as the downstairs area of our house in San Antonio. It's filled with post-WWII Soviet era Czech communist paraphernalia and also has a well-done section relating to Czechoslovakia's initial major anti-communist uprising in the late 1960s (Prague Spring) and then again around the time in the late '80s when the Berlin Wall was torn down (Velvet Revolution). Within a few years, the nation split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, we both thought this place was brilliant, both in content and in its complete tourist trap feel.

Strahov Monastery Library - OK maybe this one isn't random, but as my favorite thing so far I had to include it here. The Strahov Monastery was founded in the 12th century. There are quite a few things on the grounds, but the highlight is the library, some of which was built in the 17th century and some of which was built in the 18th century. There are two large rooms filled with a lot of old books. I don't know what more one would want. Again, more detail can be found here.

Guide at Old-New Synagogue - The Jewish cemetery contains 85,000+ bodies buried as many as 12 deep in a plot of ground that can't be bigger than an acre. Why? Because Jews in Prague weren't allowed to bury their dead anywhere other than in this one spot from the mid 1400s until the late 1700s. Only about 12,000 tombstones are visible at this point and many of them are strewn about seemingly randomly slash stacked like cordwood (if you aren't from Texas, you can look that up somewhere). It is unbelievable. But the highlight of our trip to the Jewish quarter was Mr. Janacek, the volunteer guide at the Old-New Synagogue. Mr. Janacek first asked us if we would like to know anything about the synagogue ... then pulled up a chair and talked to (at) us for 10 minutes ... then asked us if we would follow him please into another area where he talked to (at) us some more ... then asked if we were in a hurry, because he probably would talk to us for about half an hour (direct quote). I mean really, how could we refuse? The dude was soft-spoken, eager to tell us absolutely everything about the place (and the history of Jews in Prague), and seemed like he needed a friend. Seriously, he added huge value to the experience.

Na Ovocnem Trhu - On a wide, semi-empty street that runs southwest from Celetna street to the Estates Theatre (where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni), you will see Na Ovocnem Trhu. I can't comment on the food in general that is served at this place, but I can tell you that you can get an outstanding order of fruit dumplings, two gigantic Czech honey special lagers, and a glass of Moravian white wine for 200 CZ ... which is about $8. We've had insanely good food and drink everywhere we've gone - traditional Czech, Indian, French-Czech, and Thai - but the bang-for-the-buck at this place is without peer. Paige also learned a valuable lesson at Na Ovocnem Trhu, which is that Campari on its own tastes remarkably like Raid.

Trdelnik - Trdelnik is a flaky dessert-type thing that is roasted and rolled in nuts and sugar. It's kinda like a pretzelish cinnamon roll that isn't anywhere near as sweet as a cinnamon roll nor anywhere near as salty as a pretzel. Not sure if that helps or not. Whatever the case, Trdelnik drives home the point that I have ALWAYS tried to make, which is that any food that has five consonants within its first six letters has to be amazing. I have eaten two every night we've been here, no matter how much I ate for the rest of the day. They are solid.

Vysehrad - Vysehrad is a former fortress that is believed to have been built during the 10th century. Other than the outer walls and the Church of SS Peter and Paul, which has been rebuilt and restored at various points in time, most of it is gone and the entire area has been turned into a gigantic city park. The national cemetery is here as well. It includes the graves of various famous personages (including Antonin Dvorak) and important modern families as well. Anyway, the entire place is very, very, very, very cool. The first picture below is of the church and the second is a view looking north toward St. Vitus Cathedral, which you can see a few miles upstream in the right half of the picture. For more details on Vysehrad, click here.

And with that I will close. We hop the train tomorrow to Vienna, where we'll spend four nights (as we did here in Prague). At this point I definitely can say that Prague is highly recommended as a vacation destination. I think I would rather be here in Autumn when the leaves are turning and most of the tourists are gone, but I certainly will not complain.

Cheers,
Mike