Luckily the Easter bunny found us even in Prague. :-)
The boys coming out of their room
and opening up some presents.
And there was even an egg hunt. The Easter bunny didn't hide any hard boiled eggs this year, but plenty of plastic ones with lots of candy in them! The boys emptied them all in a giant zip lock baggie.
I took this picture from our bedroom window just to give you an idea of where we were. Again, it was empty in the morning, but by afternoon you couldn't find an empty spot to walk through.
It was such a beautiful day, blue sky and warm!
This is for all my hometown crowd, it is even spelt the way we spell it! And I am 100% Cashmere like the sign says!
On Sunday we headed to the Jewish quarter. Elsewhere the Nazis destroyed and burned synagogues and other Jewish buildings. But, the story goes, the Nazis chose to leave Prague's Jewish quarter intact so that once their aim of murdering every Jew was complete, the Prague Jewish museum would be turned into a macabre "Museum of an extinct race." We started out at the Pinkas Synagogue. The one bad thing about the tours through them is that you couldn't take pictures. This was turned into a memorial for the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia murdered by the Nazis. On its walls are inscribed the names, dates and places of birth of the victims. There is 80,000 names and it took 4 years to get them all up there. Only 242 of the 8000 children under the age of 15 remained alive in 1945.
The Old Jewish Cemetery was established in the 15th century. Today it contains over 12,000 tombstones, but there is almost 100,000 people buried there. Jews were not allowed to be buried outside the ghetto, so the dead had to be buried on top of one another, up to ten layers deep. It looks like the tombstones were just thrown wherever and not really placed. A very different looking cemetery from all the others we have seen.
This is the ceremonial hall. It is amazing all the different ceremonies, etc that the Jews have. I learned quite a bit about their customs and rituals. They have a Prague's Burial Society. It takes you 3 years of basically interning before you might become a member and then 15 years before you can become a voting member.
After that we headed back to the Easter market were at the center was this huge statue, the Jan Hus Memorial which depicts the victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus. He became the symbol of dissidence and of strength against oppressive regimes.
Like I said there were bubble guys all over the place and the boys loved it!!!
There were also so many musicians, etc on the street playing. This one was really different music, but good.
Here is another thing to make money, take pictures with birds on your shoulder or head, they do it big there.
We had a little extra time and AJ really wanted to go to the torture museum, so off we went. This was called the Virgin of Nuremberg and was first used in Germany. It got its name from the fact the exterior resembled a Bavarian girl. The condemned person was closed inside the contraption where the body was pierced by sharp spikes. The spikes were positioned in a manner so that, even though they penetrated various parts of the body, they did not rupture any vital organs, ensuring a long and agonizing period of suffering. Some survived three days in it.
These were the mask of infamy - used for shame and some had spikes in it to maim the person wearing it.
I asked the boys if they wanted to put their head in this, but they told me no. I am not sure why. :-)
Gotta love the shark with the bloody hand coming out of his mouth.
Some more beautiful architecture. We had such a great time in Prague we definitely want to go back if time allows. I have a lot of places I want to visit, so we shall see.
And of course what is a trip to a different country without some local beer. David had to try "some" Czech beer. He has enjoyed what he has tasted so far!
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