Day 2, May 25, 2008. Prague, Czech Republic.

The breakfast downstairs in the Hotel is quite bountiful. We’re getting used to the Czech style of breakfast involving much breakfast meat. Although there’s plenty of western-style foods like cereal and milk.

It was a bright sunny day and we walked to Hradcany via the Charles Bridge. This quaint neighborhood is near the Prague Castle around the hills and surrounding grounds near the Charles Bridge. There are many outdoor cafes, gardens and galleries throughout much of this neighborhood. The weather was bright with sunlight and warm. We walked around admiring the unique architecture of the neighborhood while scoping out future destinations for eating and drinking.

With the time of our Josefov tour beginning, we hot-footed it over to the Intercontinental Hotel via another bridge to meet our tour. We probably could’ve taken a trolley or other form of mass transit to get there but this mode of transport required less thought. Wittman tours offered us a very pregnant tour guide who was Jewish herself and possessed a wide range of knowledge on the history of the Jewish people in Prague and all the Czech lands. The “Old-New” Synagogue, one of the oldest in Prague, was our first stop. This hundreds year old synagogue still held a place of honor for Rabbi Loew (“Lev”) one of the first great rabbis of the jewish community in Prague. His seat by the pulpit had allegedly never been occupied since his death in the 16th century. This the oldest of the Jewish Quarter synagogues was followed by the astonishingly ornate Spanish Synagogue which was designed in a Spanish style to reflect the Alhambra and not to serve Sephardic Jews. There was a sculpture in honor of Kafka outside this synagogue. Following this we visited the historic Jewish cemetery that housed over 100,000 dead in just around 12,000 grave markers. A very dense and crowded burial ground, it was beautiful on the grounds. Famous Jews buried there included Mordecai Maisel (politician and advocate of the Jews in the Royal Court) and Rabbi Loew , the originator of the Golem myth and the most revered Jewish leader in the history of the community. His seat in the “Old-New” Synagogue is still a guarded place of honor. We saw another synagogue with some of the more recent history of the quarter and then did some light shopping. Golem figures and Hebrew clocks abound. Mostly tourist schlock including much Kafka memorabilia.The Jewish Town Hall is still in operation and guarded against Neo-Nazis during times of festivals or other popular times to visit Prague. This unique building is just outside the center of the Jewish Quarter. We had lunch in the Old Town Square at one of the touristy cafes after a long walk across town. We debated the merits of eating near the Jewish Quarter or walking somewhere else but we had not spent much as of yet, sitting in the Old Town Square enjoying the sights. The unsmiling, supermodel waitress at the café we had chosen served us dark Krusovice beer and delicious spicy sausages. All sausage in this city is amazing and much more tasty than back in the States. We went back to the Hotel and got ready for dinner.

Dinner was a restaurant near the Church of Our Lady of Tyn in a Courtyard. We had Italian style pizzas on a back outdoor patio. There were tables available even though a waitress said that they were full. The dinner was average at best but that’s ok there would a Prague holiday blow-out coming for us. After dinner we found an older authentic style pub that had been too busy for us the night before. We watched a local devour an entire shank of a pig and enjoyed light Pilseners. The pub themed around medieval executions, was very small but afforded us a nice local flavor. Russian ladies sat next to us and enjoyed their pork chops, a local specialty. We wanted to find somewhere else to have a drink but it being Sunday, most establishments were closed including U Tygra – a famous local pub we had been wanting to try that once hosted former President Bill Clinton and super-hip playwright/politician Vaclav Havel.

This was a great end to a beautiful sunny day in Prague. Perfect weather in a nearly cloudless sky with temperatures near 80°F. Good for us as Prague is “no fun in the rain” according to Jess.