The Last Lunch

We saved the best for last!  The "special" today at one of Prague's many outdoor cafes was Pig's Knuckle.  Marc ordered a right knuckle and I ordered a left - both were succulent and delicious!  Best meal of the trip.  Not exactly kosher but a wonderful treat, nevertheless!

Last Day of Touring in Prague

We visited the Strahovsky Monastery which dates back to the 1100's.  It is a huge house full of treasures.  Most impressive is the "public library" which is the oldest (1679) privately held library in the world.  It is public because despite the value of the library and its books, any citizen can have access to the books for research. The fresco on the ceiling is pretty much a painting of the history of the world.

Spectacular.

Next, we toured the Jewish area with four fantastic synagogues from different eras.  The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest landmark of the Jewish part of town and is one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe.  It was built in the 13th Century and it is a testament to the important status of the Jewish Community of Prague in the 1200s.    The synagogue is the subject of many legends.  For example, legend has it that the stones in the synagogue were brought to the site from Jerusalem by angels.  Another legend is that the attic of the synagogue is home of the remains of the Golem, the legendary creature made of clay that protected the Prague Jewish Community.  We were not allowed to take pictures.

I know, I have written about a lot of cemeteries on this trip.  However, The Jewish cemetery of Prague is something very special.  It dates back to the middle of the 1500s and was in use till the late 1700s.  80,000 Jews were buried here - on top of each other.  Soil was continously added to the top. 12,000 gravestones still exist.  The oldest gravestone dates back to 1439!  It is an extraordinary place.  Maybe the pictures will convey the sanctity of this place:

These plaques are being placed in the sidewalk, in front of homes in the Jewish quarter where people who died in the Holocaust lived:

We wrapped up the day with a walk across the scenic Charles Bridge.

And.. a farewell dinner at the Lobowicz Palace (long story about the Lobowiczes).  I was there too but someone had to take the picture.

Prague at Night

Traditional Bohemian Feast Platter

We decided to have a light snack for dinner tonight

Prague

We are winding down to our last few days but still seeing and learning so much.  Our hotel in Pargue is The Mark and our hotel room is more like an apartment!  It is modern and beautifully appointed and huge!  Two bathrooms, a bedroom, living room, kitchenette, several closets... pretty luxurious.  Prague, on the other hand was pretty gross when we arrived last night.  it was Saturday night and it was party central for Europe.  The streets were a combination of Mardi Gras and Times Square - but much grosser.  We have not been out on the streets yet today because we went out of the city this morning.  However, we'll see if Sunday night is any better when we head out for dinner in a little while.

This morning we went to Terezin or Theresienstadt, the "model" transit camp outside of Prague.   It was a former military fortress which the gestapo turned into a prison and ghetto through which 150,000  German and Austrian (and others) Jews passed on their way to Auschwich.  15,000 children were imprisoned at Terrezin.  33,000 Jews died at Terezin from torture, disease and starvation.

Entrance to the Gestapo Small Fortress prison.

Small Fortress courtyard

Prison where about 100 Jews were kept.  There is a stove, but heat was negligible if not nonexistent.

"Processing" (torture) room

"BATH HOUSE" that was constructed for the Red Cross propaganda visit - then closed the next day, never to be used by the prisoners

We visited the site of the Terezin  Ghetto, where thousands of Jews were squished into attic/loft rooms:

In the Ghetto - in the 1990s, a tiny hidden prayer room was discovered in a basement.  The walls had been hand painted:

We also visited a fantastic and comprehensive Holocaust Museum that was housed in the former Boy's home.  A suitcase of 45,000 drawings by Terezin's children made for an incredible history of what was in the minds of the children imprisoned here.  Museum also had extensive displays and records.  Could have spent hours here.  However, after an hour, we very much needed a Pilsner Urquell:

And, look what we found in the nearby towon of Litomerice:

Vienna

It's easy to get lazy in Vienna.  The cafes are so inviting that one can spend hours drinking beer or coffee and watching the people.  Despite the "sitting around" time, we are doing a lot!  Yesterday we visited the Medieval Jewish sector -JUDENPLAZ where a beautiful memorial has been constructed on top of a 13th Century synagogue.

The memorial is an inverted library - with the books on the outside. It commemorates the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews who were killed by the Nazis:

We also visited the ruins of the synagogue below but I didn't take pictures.  In this synagogue, in 1420, 200 Jews commmitted suicide rather than submit to forced Baptism by the Viennese Christians.  It was interesting to learn that this Judenplaz was the home of a very significant Jewish population in the 1400's.  Of course, those Jews were blamed for anything bad that happened in Vienna.

We had a great lunch of Wiener Schnitzel:

Last nght we went to the most charming chamber concert of Mozartz and Strauss by The Vienna Residence Orchestra (the most famous chamber orchestra in Vienna.)  In addition to the music, there were arias and dancing - waltz, Polka and  ballet.  It really was extraordinary and private for just our group.  It took place in a gorgeous palace!  They played a lot of favorites that we all recognized like - Blue Danube Waltz, Radetskymarch by Strauss abd the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. Loved it!

Visited a Jewish Cemetery this morning that dates back to the 1500.  The cemetery stories are unreal! Before WW II, the Jewish community took down all the headstones, numbered them and moved them to another part of the city and hid them.  It wasn't until 1980 that the city of Vienna got the old headstones and have tried to reconstruct the cemetery:

We learned today about a wonderful Jewish Austrian contempory artist named Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who as a young boy was baptized so he would be spared during the war.   Influenced by the Spanish artish Gaudi, he designed a charming apartment block in Vienna, the hundertwasserhaus,  which we visited.  The building has uneven undulating floors and a roof covered with grass and trees.

Then we spent our free afternoon at the Upper Belevedere Museum where we enjoyed Gustav Klimt's famous painting The Kiss, among others:

In front of the Belevere:

Tomorrow:   Off to Prague

If it's Wednesday, this must be Hungary... I mean Slovakia ... I mean Austria...

Three countries in one day.  We awoke in Hungary and said farewell to Budapest.  We stopped for lunch in Bratislava, Slovakia and then arrived in Vienna, Austria mid afternoon.  Without a doubt, Vienna has the best food of the three! We had an excellent dinner of Austrian beer, Riesling, Ice Wine,  a little pizza, chocolate truffle torte, ice cream walnut sundae, apfelstrudel with schlag and a dessert delicacy called Kaiserschmarrn that can only be described in a picture:

The other difference between Budapest and Vienna is while Budapest had World Cup broadcast on big screens all over the city, Vienna was showing the opera Das Schlaue Fuchslein (The Cunning Little Fox) LIVE - on a big screen in front of the Vienna Opera House!!  Very cool:

Going back to lunchtime - Bratislava is a beautiful fairy tale city:

While there, we made some friends - first, Napoleon:

The knight:

Schlemiel and Schlamazel:

More to come...

Handmade Animal Sweaters

Handmade 3D animal sweaters for you-know-who and her cousin.

Busy in Budapest

I don't have much time to post today because I am very, very busy holding up the Parliament Building in Budapest...

Whew!

So busy in Budapest that it's hard to find time to post pictures.  Learning so much that it's hard to put it all into words.  Budapest is awesome and made even more awesome by the fact that the World Cup is going on (giant TVs and fans everywhere), there is a meeting of four heads of state at our hotel and the hotel next door (police everywhere) and today is the Day of Independent Hungary (people and rock bands everywhere).

Today, we saw a ton of stuff.  The second largest synagogue in the world - Dohany Synagogue - which looks more like a cathedral than a synagogue, monuments, memorials and more.  We had time for a lovely leisurely lunch of chicken paprika on the banks of the Danube.  Bought some paprika (hot and sweet) for everyone.  

Later this afternoon, we visited the Frenkel Synagogue and met a young Rabbi and his charismatic wife who are doing an AMAZING job rebuilding the Jewish community here.  What an inspiration!!  We fell in love with them.  The story of the young Jews in this town is so fantastic -- I can't wait to tell you all about it. I couldn't begin to write about it in a blog.  

A few pics from today:

The Dohany Synagogue

 

Us

Memorial sculpture followed by description

Notice above that this takes the form of an upside down menorah to signify that the world was upside down.

The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorializes the Jews who were taken to edge of the Danube, told to take off their shows, then were shot and fell into the River to float away.  Sixty pair of shoes (appropriate to the period of 1944-45) were created in cast iron and affixed to the edge of the riverbank.