The French Connection: 2013

After a brief flight to Prague from Paris, we arrived to an almost completely empty terminal. It was not much busier on our departure. As we made our way by taxi to our hotel, we passed some interesting structures.

Many pastel buildings - sort of a rebirth after the Communists

Our hotel, the Alychymist, was built in 1517. There are "charmant" touches everywhere. The owner has an art collection he displays throughout the premises. The hotel was right next door to the American embassy. Every time we took a taxi back to the hotel, it was stopped and searched by Czech security guards, including opening the boot and the hood due to the proximity to the American embassy.

We were startled to see this customer sitting in a spa window. Little fish are eating the dead skin cells off his legs and feet - a service we had not seen before.

One restaurant had the following phrase painted on the ceiling, "After communists those of whom I hate the most are anti-communists" by Sergey Dovlatov.

We toured St. Nicholas church. Ron is standing right in front of the alter. He looks a bit like a while circle in the middle of the while altar cloth covering. This gives you the scale of the statuary.

It was shocking to see how prevalent is the sale of Absinthe.

Several old buildings still bear quite clearly the stencil designs. This design is not painted but rather carved or stenciled into the stone.

Since it is Christmastime, we thought you might like to see the real tomb of Good King Wenceslas.

Artistic gate

Ancient building

Traditional heavy Czech food abounds as you would expect, but notice the Absinthe in the food offerings also.

An attractive restaurant

Those little numbers on the wall show the flood levels of various years. The lowest flood shown was in 1390, then 1345, then1784 and finally way at the top of the photo in the box somewhat cut off shows the flood level of 2002. The whole city was under water and no one had electricity or any services, so it was evacuated.

Strolling on the famous Charles bridge. Charles IV was a major historical figure who transformed the entire area in the 14th century.

He received a French education and was literate and fluent in five languages: Latin, Czech, German, French and Italian. His reign was characterized by a transformation in the nature of the Empire and is remembered as the Golden Age of Bohemia. He promulgated the Golden Bull of 1356 whereby the succession to the imperial title was laid down, which held for the next four centuries. He also organized the states of the empire into peace-keeping confederations. In these, the Imperial cities figured prominently. He was the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor.

This is one of the many statues on the Bridge. Interestingly it has Hebrew written around the crucifix. There was an ongoing attempt to convert Jews to Christianity, and this was part of the PR effort.

Traditionally houses had symbols for their addresses, not names and numbers. Below is the bear house.

As we approached the Charles Bridge, we saw a familiar name.

Right at the New Town Hall constructed in 1377, a sculpture of Rabbi Loew was placed in the early 20th century. This is quite an honor, as it is outside of the Jewish Quarter and a place of great prominence. We have not figured our the significance of the woman crawling up the right side. Rabbi Loew, legend has it, created the Golem (a clay figure that came to life) to protect the Jews.

The Old Town Square where everyone congregates and many weddings are held.

The astronomical clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.

The figures move around the clock, and the skeleton pulls a cord ringing a bell.

St. Vitus Church is the main one.

For 400 hundred years the actual arm and hand of a thief who tried to steal from the church poor box is still hanging on a chain. It is said that one of the saint statues reached down and held his arm until people discovered him in the morning.

There was a thriving Jewish community in Prague for many hundreds of years and synagogues still remain. During the many discriminatory periods, Jews were forced to wear a ridiculous yellow hat which is enshrined in the middle of the Jewish star.

There was a fairly small confined space permitted for Jewish burial. So 12 levels underground exist of graves to accommodate the needs of the community.

We spent an evening singing songs in a tavern with these folks from England. They loved Neil Diamond.

Michelle Obama was at this restaurant, and Barb poses with Peter, our guide in Kutna Hora, another ancient city. Behind them is a Jesuit university of old, now vacant.

This is the tribute to the survivors of the plague in the 1300's.

And then on to a chilling eerie sight. A priest spent many years transforming peoples bones and skulls in an ossuary into "works of art." See the 8 photos below.