Day 42 - Another Day in Prague

Unlike the first visit to Prague the weather has been nice.  I liked the city even in the haze so I had an especially good time with the sunny day today.  After booking a train to Krakow for Saturday and finding a new book to read it was off to the old town hall.

You may remember the Astronomical Clock from my first post about Prague.  It is in the picture above as well since it is displayed outside the old town hall.  I was there at the top of the hour so I was able to see the so-called show, which I missed the first time in Prague.  If you have ever seen an action figure ring a bell you have essentially seen the show.

I also went up in the tower this time as well.  The view from the top was great and the whole city was visible.

When I arrived back on the ground level I walked around and took pictures of everything I saw the first time because it was actually sunny.  I know, very exciting.

Today also held a visit to the Old New Synagogue.  It got its name from a mistranslation into German and the name stuck.  The Synagogue is now home to the Jewish Museum, where the names of the 80,000 Jews from Prague who died in the Holocaust are listed.  It takes a lot of floor-to-ceiling walls in many rooms to listed that many tiny names.  There was also an exhibit displaying artwork done by children at the concentration camps.  Many of the children were undocumented so the only record of their existence is this artwork.

I was suprised and a bit offended to see the name of the audio guide printed in German outside of the Synagogue.  I do not think this would ever fly in America. 

Behind the Old New Synagogue sits the Jewish Cemetary.

The gravestones in the picture äbove are actually about 8 feet above street level.  The Jews were allowed only a certain amount of land in their ghetto so when the cemetary started filling up the bodies had to be stacked.  In some places the bodies are stacked 12 high.  It was really eerie when I realized that these were the lucky one who did not die at the concentration camps.  Even the more fortunate were discrimated against, even in death.  

The final stop of the day was the largest church in Prague.

Since today is the 16th of September I know what you are thinking now: Scott what are you going to do for your 22nd birthday tomorrow?  Wïth all of the legal ages out of the way how will you make it awesome?  The answer, of course, is that I will be skydiving over Prague.  Yes, in the span of 4 days I will have been spelunking and skydiving.  I love Europe. 

Scott

Also there is another post from today below this in case you did not realize. 

One more note: I do not know if anyone has noticed that I have not used a contraction in any post since Adrian left.  I still do not know how to make an apostrophe on these ridiculous European keyboards.  This may sound ridiculous until I tell you that to make the @ symbol you have to press Strg and Alt and v all at the same time.  During this post I figured out the ?, which is of course unmarked on the keyboard.