Germany: Day IV (Berlin, Potsdam)

Saturday, June 18^th:

Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace):

            Today was a really sweet day, and Jen and I again got to see some incredible stuff! We woke up very early to try to fit two separate half-day adventures into one day; one to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, and the other to Potsdam. I had been gifted two tickets to visit the summer palace of Frederick the Great called Schloss Sansoucci for my graduation from Cornell University in May. The tickets were given to me by two German family friends of mine, Annike and Marcel Henrix, who we will be staying with for a night in Aachen, Germany on Sunday. After grabbing a quick muffin and some juice at the train station, we realized that it would be too difficult to fit the two trips into one day, as they were both in opposite directions of one another, and we already had the tickets for Potsdam. Sachsenhausen is a former Nazi concentration camp, the closest one to Berlin, which is now a museum and memorial to the Holocaust. I guess we will save that for another time.

Berlin Wall Graffiti Art at the East Side Gallery:

            Instead of going to Sachsenhausen, we took the train to Museum Island, and had an early breakfast on a bridge overlooking the Spree River next to the Bode-Museum. We then made our way into the East Berlin part of the city to check out a really cool site: the East Side Gallery. This gallery is a 1.6 kilometer long still-standing portion of the Berlin Wall that has been covered in graffiti-style art by world renowned artists dedicated to peace. We walked along the wall for almost an hour, admiring one of the world’s largest open-air art galleries, before moving on. We had wanted to check out the Neues Museum next, the newest of Berlin’s state museums, where the famous bust of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is held. We went back there and tried to go inside, however visitors must sign up for a time slot and we opted to go to Potsdam early instead.

St. Nicholas Church in Potsdam:

            We took the twenty-five minute regional express train to Potsdam station and decided to walk through the historic town towards the massive Schloss Sansoucci Park and to find some lunch. We quickly realized, however, that it was a half-hour walk just to the historic downtown area. We walked by tons of buildings adorned with sculptures and golden leaf artwork before we arrived at a pretty little street next to Potsdam’s version of the Brandenburg Gate. Here we sat down for a walking break and both devoured a Bratwurst with a Berliner Kindl Pilsner to wash it down with from a cute little hot dog stand. We continued our walk another fifteen minutes up the hill to the Schloss Sansoucci Palace.

Inside Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace):

            We had a 2:30pm entrance ticket, so we walked around the grounds a little before entering the palace with an audioguide. The palace was magnificent—Frederick the Great had an affinity for fruit and grape-growing, so that theme is exemplified all over his summer palace. From there we walked towards another palace called the Orangerie when it started raining. We hid from the thunderstorm and downpour until it let up a little, then ran to go inside the palace to tour it while it rained some more. The Orangerie palace was particularly dark but well-preserved, and visitors are required to wear slippers inside to not mark up the beautiful parquet floor.

The Orangerie in Park Sanssouci:

            We dodged some more raindrops and walked some more towards the next palace on the property, the New Palace at Sansoucci. While walking through the park we also passed some notable regal buildings called the Dragon House and the Belvedere on the Klausberg. We had a fairly short visit in the New Palace, because it closed at 6pm, however we were able to quickly see just about all of it. Good thing, because the main hall of this palace was my favorite of the day, as the wall is covered with thousands of sea shells arranged in different patterns. Some of the shells even show different sea monsters of old mythology! Following our tour around the New Palace we walked back through the park, passing another palace called Charlottenhof before wandering back by way of the Chinese House. It started to rain again, so we went back to downtown Potsdam for some dinner at a restaurant called Gastmahl Des Meeres, where Jen and I both had some Potsdamer Pils-Rex beers with an assorted dish of pan-fried seafood and potatoes including salmon, plaice, and eel.

The New Palace at Sanssouci:

            Our plan for the night was to go out in Berlin, but after a day of walking close to twelve miles, literally all day long, we were so exhausted when we got back to our hotel room that we crashed early on tired and sore legs. I had wished we had more time to conquer the city of Berlin, as it is so massive, but I guess we should leave things to future trips!

Germany: Day III (Berlin)

Friday, June 17^th:

Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate):

            Before discussing the day’s events, I want to wish my sister, Jillian, a happy 27^th birthday! Today we went to some of the more historic buildings in the city. We began the day by eating a Nutella and banana crepe outside the train station and then taking a train straight to the Brandenburger Tor, or the Brandenburg Gate, the famous symbol of the city. This is the area with the most tourists in the city, by far, and rightfully so as many of the main sites in Berlin are within immediate walking distance from this central spot. The gate was built in the end of the 18^th century as one of fourteen in Prussian Berlin, but is the only one still remaining. Prussian armies used the gate as a symbol of victory, marching through it on their way home after successful campaigns. Ironically, the gate was last used for this purpose in 1945, as the Red Army victoriously paraded through the gate after defeating the Nazi forces. Along with the theme of victory is the Quadriga on top of the gate, a four-horse chariot driven by Nike, the goddess of victory.

The German Reichstag:

            While we were waiting for our 1pm entrance time to the Glass dome of the Reichstag building we walked down the road to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This interesting memorial is a collection of 2711 concrete slabs, loosely looking like sarcophagi. They are arranged at different heights on a very uneven surface, to create an unusual appearance of confusion. We walked around the memorial before realizing that there was more underground, but we decided to come back to it after going into the Reichstag. Before going into this building, which houses the current German Parliament, visitors must reserve their visit online beforehand (Thanks Annike!) and go through a security check. We were then brought inside and up an elevator to the bottom of the glass dome on the top of the building. We had an audioguide to give us bits of history as we walked up the ramp to the top of the dome, offering awesome views of Berlin on all sides. Astonishingly to me, I learned that due to an act of arson in 1933, Hitler never set foot inside the Reichstag building as the Parliament had to be moved. Jen and I walked around this building for a long time and admired the beautiful weather outside before we went back down.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:

            We grabbed a soft salt pretzel and walked across the massive lawn in front of the Reichstag next to check out the Soviet War Memorial, a statue and memorial constructed to remember the 2,500 or so Russian soldiers who perished during their assault on Berlin in May of 1945. This was also the closest point we ever got to the Victory Column in center of Tiergarten. Tiergarten is the largest park in the city, at 650 acres, and the humongous golden column lies at its center. We continued walking back to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe and went inside the free underground museum. The place is astoundingly quiet as visitors read about the unfolding events of the Holocaust in a timeline before entering a room that displays letters and diaries of some of the people who were killed. Particularly disheartening to me, most of all, was a letter written by a twelve-year-old girl to her father, telling him that she will be killed and will never see him again, and that she did not understand why, but that she loved him. The room also displays the number of people killed per-country based on 1937 borders. The next room contains stories of families who were broken apart during the horrible time. The following two rooms discuss the locations of memorials and of the different concentration, work, and death camps that existed during the Third Reich. It is a very powerful site, and I was left thinking about it for a while after we left.

Checkpoint Charlie:

            We walked from the memorial towards the Checkpoint Charlie area and passed another outdoor exhibit called the Topography of Terror. This exhibit was built in the ruins of underground offices used by the Nazi secret police, and it lies immediately alongside a large remaining piece of the Berlin Wall. We walked from here down the street to Checkpoint Charlie, the site where the four corners of Post-War divided Berlin came together. Berlin was split up amongst the allied powers of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Russia. Checkpoint Charlie is at the entrance to the American sector, which lies at the corner of all four of the sectors. We hung out here for a bit and got a beer or two before walking back towards the train station. On our way we walked around the large Potsdamerplatz and got some Frohsinn Joghurt (Frozen Yogurt) to hold us off for a while.

Victory Column:

            When we got back to the hotel, we showered and changed into some nicer clothes to go to a ballet! Jen had noticed that the Berlin Staatsballett was performing Schneewittchen (Snow White) nearby. We took the train towards the theatre and almost missed the show because they moved the performance without telling us, but we made it inside. We both enjoyed the show very much, and my favorite scene was one when the seven dwarves performed a very cirque-du-soleil-esque scene, doing acrobatic stunts while dangling from wires. After dinner we went back to our hotel to eat at the famous Quadriga restaurant. Since I remembered the most about Germany in my Wines class this past semester at Cornell University, I was excited to tackle the massive German wine list that the restaurant had. I settled on a 1998 Auslese Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region of Germany. For dinner, I ate risotto with truffle oil while Jen had a Norwegian salmon soup with potatoes and carrots. Our dessert was particularly interesting: cloudberries from Finland and frozen yogurt. This dinner was one of the best we have had this whole trip, and it put us right to bed!

Germany: Day II (Berlin)

Thursday, June 16^th:

The Neue Synagogue:

Guten Tag!

            We woke up today around 1pm due to our super-late night watching the Bruins. I had not been that happy waking up in a long time! We left our hotel and began our time sightseeing in Berlin after stopping for a croissant at a café. Berlin is an absolutely massive city, and the sites are fairly spread out; public transportation is a must. We walked up the street to our first site and one of my favorites from when I had visited the city when I was twelve, the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church was completed in 1895 but almost completely destroyed by bombing raids in 1945. The bell tower of the church remained in its half-destructed state as a symbol of peace while a modern version of the church was constructed after the war. Very unfortunately for us, however, was that the city of Berlin was in the process of restoring the church exterior (however they will keep the bombed-out silhouette). The entire church was covered with a very ugly aluminum siding covering the scaffolding underneath. We did get to visit the church memorial hall, though, with its beautiful mosaics and the old statue of Christ, half-destroyed, that survived the bombings. The new church is ultra-modern, and looks very cool (especially at night) as the exterior is made of glass tiles constructed from tiny pieces of glass attached together.

The Interior of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church:

            From here we made our way to the Zoologischer Garten train station, purchased our Berlin City Tour Cards for the subways, trains, and buses, and hopped on the train towards Museum Island and the Friedrichstraße station. The Berlin City Tour Card allows unlimited travel for anywhere between one and four days (although we never once had our tickets checked on any train…) and gives some discounts at museums in the city. We got off the above-ground train (S-Train) at the Friedrichstraße station and walked across the Spree River to the Neue Synagogue. This synagogue was badly damaged during the Nazi Kristallnacht and furthermore completely destroyed during allied bombing raids in 1943, but its old façade and beautiful golden dome were reconstructed in the mid 1980s. From there we walked back over the river to Museuminsel, or Museum Island, where five massive museums have been constructed. We walked by the Bode-Museum and the Pergammonmuseum, and were going to go inside before we realized that on Thursdays these museums are open until 10pm! We kept walking towards the giant green-copper dome on the other end of the island instead.

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral):

            The giant green dome belongs to the Berliner Dom, Berlin Cathedral. This building was originally constructed in the 16^th century, however today’s massive church was built in 1905 and is the largest Protestant church in Germany. We went inside and explored the multiple levels of this church which include a massive sanctuary, a small museum-style gallery of the church’s history, a Prussian Royal Crypt, and a long climb up to the top of the dome where tourists can go outside and explore the awesome views of the city. The crypt was particularly amazing to me as over 80 sarcophagi of Prussian royals line the room. We walked out of the church and over to the area known as Babelplatz. It was here, in this very plaza, that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels orchestrated one of the largest national book-burnings of the Nazi era. Over 20,000 books were burned here, and a subtle memorial in the center of the plaza commemorates the missing writings. Tourists can look through a glass window and below it is what seems like empty bookshelves as far as the eye can see. It is quite sad to think of the writings that were lost during these hard times in World history.

The Pergamon Altar:

            Immediately adjacent to the plaza is the St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. We did not really get to explore this church, as a service of some kind was going on, but we walked around for a few minutes in this 18^th century gem. Then we walked a block or two over to Frederick’s Church which holds a free sculpture-art gallery inside. We walked around this gallery inside a beautiful venue before heading back to Museum Island at around 6pm. Our first museum was the Pergamonmuseum, and was my favorite of the trip so far. The museum’s title attraction is the Pergamon Altar, an ancient Greek work of art dedicated to the gods that was built in 180 BC in present-day Turkey. Visitors are immediately greeted by this massive structure when entering, and the walls of the main room are covered in bits and pieces that have been recovered of the massive frieze that ran along the outer wall of the altar. Other impressive exhibits include the gateway to Miletus, an ancient Roman structure that reminded me astoundingly of the great Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey, and the Babylonian Ishtar Gate. The museum also has really interesting Babylonian, Assyrian, Ancient Syria, and Islamic Art exhibits.

The Babylonian Ishtar Gate:

            After wandering around the Pergammonmuseum for almost two hours, we got dinner across the street at a tiny restaurant called Pergammonkeller. Here I ate some Smoked Pork with potatoes and sauerkraut with a tomato soup, and Jen ate a mixed salad with a cream of garlic soup. I also drank a couple Berliner Pilsners here, and Jen tried the red-syrup version of the Berliner Weisse. We walked to the other end of the island to go inside the Bode-Museum next. The Bode-Museum is a more traditional museum, filled with collections of Italian, German, Spanish, French, and Dutch sculptures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. An astounding number of these works are of religious figures, especially of Christ on the crucifix. We stayed in this museum until it closed at 10pm, and then took the train back home for the night. It was a great first day in this massive and lively city, and we can’t wait to explore more tomorrow!

The Bode Museum:

Germany: Day I (Berlin)

Wednesday, June 15^th:

Boston Bruins Captain Zdeno Chara Holding the Stanley Cup Trophy:

The Boston Bruins are the Stanley Cup Champions of 2011!!!!!!!! It feels so good to say that, and I am so excited!!! I am very lucky to be able to say that I have witnessed a championship in all four major sports for my hometown city of Boston in only ten years. Pretty remarkable, but more on that in a bit.

            Today was the first time we got to use our EU-Rail Passes on the European international railway system! We slept in a little this morning before waking to pack and eat a quick hotel breakfast before making our way to Prague’s Hlavní Nádraží train station. We got our passes activated and got on our train to Berlin at about 2:30pm. We did not wander down into the dining car, which I regretted because I basically ate a Snickers bar and some dried pineapple for lunch (Jen smartly ordered some Pasta-To-Go at the Prague train station), but the train was very smooth. We rode by a really cool castle and bridge in Northern Czech Republic before crossing the border into Germany and stopping at Dresden. Dresden looked fairly small but really pretty with its old churches, and it felt cool to be in the city of the famous fire-bombing which provided the background for my favorite book, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Night:

We rolled away towards Berlin in no-time, passing plains that looked like the sets for Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. We got to Berlin and to our beautiful hotel, the Brandenburger Hof in the western Berlin area of Wilmersdorf at around 8pm. This hotel, despite being fairly small and not too pricey, is an amazing five-star hotel and it was a very nice break for Jen and I from all of our hostel travelling up until now. We got a quick nap in because I had told Jen that tonight would be a long night, as I had found a bar, Belushi’s All Night Sports Bar, that would be playing game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, starting at 2am. We got dinner in the area known as Savigny-Platz at a Jamaican restaurant called Tastees Soul Food (we were hungry…). I ate some veggie soup and Jerk Chicken with plantains and dumplings, while Jen ate some Steamed Red Snapper with the same sides. It was fairly good, but we were just looking for some food as it was late and many restaurants were closing their kitchens.

My brother, Brad, had told me that the subway system in Berlin was as super efficient, so we tried to use it to go across the city to Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz where the bar was located, right next to the Berlin TV Tower, which is the tallest building in the European Union. While it looked to me like the system was as-advertised, we had some serious issues as one of the lines was having work done on the middle of it, right near our hotel. After struggling with this for about forty-five minutes, we just decided to take a cab across the city to the bar. When we got to Belushi’s, it dawned on me that it was a bar inside the great chain of hostels called St. Christopher’s, which a friend Cole Lupoli had recommended to stay in. Unfortunately for me, the inside was filled with a ratio of about 40:5 Vancouver Canucks fans to Bruins fans, but I was not deterred. Waiting for the game to start I enjoyed some Lübzer beer on tap (for 2 Euros!) and chatted with a Czech man who grew up in London but now lives in Berlin (yeah, I dunno). Strangest of all, he was a massive hockey fan, and a Bruins fan to boot! I also hung out with a Vancouver fan that seemed tamer than the others. When the tap ran out, we also drank some Franziskaner Weissbier, which was supremely tasty to me. Best of all, the Bruins were winning!

The Fernsehturm (TV Tower) at Night:

By the time the sun came up outside, the Bruins were minutes away from their first Stanley Cup Championship in thirty-nine years! Brad Marchand scored an empty-netter goal to seal the 4-0 victory, and my nervous shaking turned into pure excitement and joy. It was after 5am in Berlin, and I could have been the happiest person in the whole 3.5 million person city! The Vancouver fans congratulated me, and I stayed to wallow in the joy of watching my team skate the coolest trophy in sports around the ice. By now, Jen probably wanted to kill me as I had kept her up all night and was screaming and shouting like a madman, so we took a cab home around 5:30am. Before we got in the cab, however, we walked outside and watched a young Berliner get tackled by two cops as he ran down the street away from them. Good start, I guess?

Czech Republic: Day IV (Prague)

Tuesday, June 14^th:

The Entrance to the Hradčany Side (Castle District) of Prague from Charles Bridge:

            Just to preface this awesome day, Prague Castle is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest castle in the world. It is magnificent, and we got to tour it today! Good news to wake up to, the Boston Bruins hockey team had won game six of the Stanley Cup finals, so Wednesday night (Thursday morning actually, at 2am) will be the winner-take-all match. I am getting the chills just thinking about it! I also scoped out a bar in Berlin to be able to watch, so I am super excited. Anyways, we started our day off again with the hotel breakfast, then walked towards Bethlehem Chapel where Jan Hus used to preach against the church teachings of his time in the 15^th century before he was burned at the stake. To begin our little bit of bad luck today, the Chapel was closed, so we walked into the St. Martin-in-the-Wall Church and a couple others on our way to the massive Karlův Most (Charles Bridge). This bridge dates back to 1357 to connect Old Town to the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) and the Castle District (Hradčany). It offers breathtaking sights of Old Town and the towers and chapels of Lesser Town, as well as Prague Castle standing above everything. It also has towers on both sides built in what I now believe should be called “Prague-gothic style” as most of the buildings were originally designed by similar architects.

The Interior of the Church of St. Nicholas (Hradčany Side):

            We walked across the bridge to Lesser Town and found our way to the famous Lennon Wall of Prague, a wall dedicated to John Lennon of the Beatles, and more importantly, to the peace and love that he stood for. The wall is covered in spray-paint art and sayings promoting peace. We then began our walk uphill, first stopping at the (other) Church of St. Nicholas. This church is much bigger and even more stunning than its counterpart with the same name in Old Town. This is where my camera troubles began, as my charger broke and I had run out of batteries, but I had found a temporary solution by buying a new charger and battery, and luckily the new battery had some charge in it right out of the box. We then moved up the New Castle Stairs up to Prague Castle.

The Entrance to Prague Castle:

            Our first view of Prague Castle was of its main gates, guarded by modern guards who are there to protect the president of the Czech Republic who resides inside the castle today. The castle is also situated above the entire city, and everywhere is filled with beautiful views of Prague. We went inside and purchased our tickets, 450 CZK for two “Long-Visit” tickets, plus two maps, and two photo permits. I should note that the Long Visit is kind of a bit much, especially since a couple of the places aren’t completely worth visiting, and the photo permits are kind of a ripoff because I think everyone was again taking pictures regardless of if they had it or not. We also had very good timing, as we walked by at the perfect time to see the changing of the castle guard—we had now seen this in three out of three countries!

The Cathedral of St. Vitus at Prague Castle:

Anyways, upon walking inside the main gate you are immediately confronted with the massive and awe-inspiring St. Vitus Cathedral, the main church on the Prague Castle property that has seen ongoing construction and additions between the 10^th century and the early 20^th century. We went inside here and immediately were struck with the brilliance of this site. Flanking the left and right sides of the cathedral at the entrance are six massive stained glass windows that illuminate the church with bright, vibrant colors. We walked farther down the left side and admired all the side-alters and sites there to see. At the back of the church is a massive silver shrine and the tomb of St. John of Nepomuk as well as a dozen or so more enclaves, each with stained glass windows and golden or baroque catholic shrines. Continuing our walk around the church, we got to the door to St. Wenceslas’ Chapel, which, to our bad luck again, was closed. I was fairly upset about this one, because inside the chapel is the tomb of St. Wenceslas, as well as the door to the Royal Jewels room, which is locked to the public. The Royal Crypt was also closed, so we did not get to see the tombs of such monarchs as Charles IV and Rudolf II. We stayed in St. Vitus for probably over an hour, just admiring its beauty, before we left.

The Bohemian Crown Jewels (Unfortunately, Copies):

            It was this point that I realized I had left my favorite Bruins hat in the Church of St. Nicholas, so I literally sprinted the hundreds of steps back down to retrieve it before going into the Old Royal Palace. I think there were also some rooms in here that were closed, as the palace seemed like a very short visit. We did not get to see the All Saints’ Chapel nor some of the Chancellery rooms, but we did get to see the famous (and massive) Vladislav Hall. This room is used for coronations, jousting tournaments, and modern day presidential inaugurations. We also got to peek into the Diet chamber, or throne room, which displays a case filled with the Bohemian Crown Jewels! Unfortunately, these are copies, but it gives tourists a really good idea of the magnificence of the originals that are locked away from the public. We also saw the famous “Window of the 2^nd Defenestration of Prague” which basically started the Thirty-Years War.

St. George's Basilica:

            We soon walked over to the Romanesque church known as St. George’s Basilica, built in the 10^th century and dedicated to the same St. George that has a sculpture in the Cathedral of Stockholm that I visited in Sweden about a week earlier! This church also reminded me of the Chora church in Istanbul, Turkey. It is very old, and apparently has a massive crypt underneath, as tombstones and sarcophagi are displayed from some of the excavations in years past. After this church visit, we both ate a vegetarian burrito for lunch at the café outside of the Rosenberg Palace where I also grabbed some much-needed charge for my camera battery. We went inside the Rosenberg Palace next, which seemed again very short and almost meaningless (this is one of the places that is on the Long Visit ticket that I would not recommend). We left there and walked over to the Golden Lane, the area of very tiny and brightly colored houses that housed castle guards in the 16^th century who undertook various crafts in their spare time. Franz Kafka also lived in one of them for two years. Inside the houses are displays of the lives of those who lived in them, and some of them have been turned into shops. Upstairs in the houses is a large display hall of old suits of armor of days long ago, as well as a rather funny chance to shoot three shots of a medieval crossbow for 50 CZK—I passed on this opportunity.

One of the Tiny Houses of the Golden Lane:

            Jen wanted to go into the National Art Gallery inside St. George’s Convent next, and while I wanted to I also wanted to climb the 287 steps up to the top of the south tower of St. Vitus Cathedral, which affords the climber an unparalleled view of Prague. The price at 150 CZK is a little steep, but it is pretty cool to be so high up there. After I climbed down, I did probably the world’s fastest tour of the National Art Gallery, stopping at a few that I really liked, as I tried to catch up with Jen. I finally found her and we walked over to the last stop inside the castle, the Powder Tower. It was in here that gunpowder was stored, and today it is a two-story museum dedicated to the castle guards, their responsibilities, their weapons, and their uniforms over their history.

            We soon left Prague castle to search for a monastery that my brother, Brad, had recommended to go see because they brew their own beer! We walked up the cobblestone street for about one kilometer, passing old palaces that had been turned into hotels and restaurants seemingly with each twenty steps, including the massive Schwarzenbersky Palace. This area on top of the city is absolutely beautiful! On our way up to the monastery we also passed the Loreta church, and while the interior had closed for the day, we got to explore its beautiful exterior before continuing our walk. When we reached the Strahovský Klášter (Strahov Monastery) we found two massive churches standing above the small white buildings. This monastery has been in existence since the 12^th century! Another large building stands next to the main church and is the monastery library. This library was also closed, however it is filled with ancient Czech texts including the works of Tycho Brahe. We made our way into the St. Norberts brewery and sat down to taste their work. First on the menu was their Amber beer, a mix between the Vienna Lager style and the Bavarian Märzen style. Next came the Müncher Dark style, then an IPA and finally, a Belgian Wheat. All four were awesome, and I personally liked the dark style beer the best.

The Loreto Church:

            We worked up an appetite after drinking the wonderful monastery beers, and we only had a short walk to a beautiful looking restaurant called Bellavista. It gets its name because the restaurant sits on a terrace that looks out over all of Prague, including Prague Castle itself. This is one of the more picturesque locations in the city, let alone spots to eat dinner! For dinner Jen ate Risotto with mushrooms and truffle oil, while I ate Traditional Czech Roast Beef with a vegetable sauce. With dinner we also ate a potato and vegetable Czech soup, some bruschetta with pesto and dried tomatoes, and a bottle of Czech wine (which somehow the name is escaping me right now). The dinner was delicious, and the only thing that would have made it better is if a thunderstorm had not rolled through while we were eating! Luckily we were under a tent outside, but it did start raining very hard and we had to wait it out before walking home. We made the long walk home down the Old Castle Stairs and across the Vltava River and through Old Town.

Jen and I Dining at Bellavista, with Prague Behind:

            Before going to bed, we stopped in a luxurious looking bar/lounge called Bed Lounge where we enjoyed a few drinks. I had some more Absinthe here, using the traditional method of pouring water over a sugar cube on a slotted spoon and enjoying the drink afterwards. This place was very fun to hang out for a little while, because we could rest our tired legs on the fun beds they have set up all over the room to relax on while you sip your beverage. Following a few drinks, we walked the short walk home while dodging raindrops. Tonight was our last night in Prague, and I will be sad to leave this city, as it has a certain charm that I have never experienced anywhere else. Ahoj Prague!

Charles Bridge as seen from the Old Royal Palace at Prague Castle:

Czech Republic: Day III (Prague)

Monday, June 13^th:

The Spanish Synagogue:

            Today was a pretty intense day of touring. We woke up fairly early and ate the hotel breakfast before heading out to check out the Jewish Quarter of Old Town and to explore the Jewish Museum of Prague. Do not be fooled here though; the Jewish Museum of Prague is not just one museum, but rather a collection of sites including five synagogues, a ceremonial hall, and a cemetery. The first site we entered was the Spanish Synagogue, widely considered to be one of the most beautiful synagogues in Europe. The entire interior is decorated with golden tiles and colorful designs—it is truly pleasing to the eye! Both the upstairs and downstairs of the synagogue are also filled with display cases featuring historical items of the history of Jews in Prague and the Czech Republic, mainly focusing on the 20^th century, World War II, and life after the Holocaust or Shoah. They have lived there for over one thousand years and been through many periods of struggle and grandeur alike. Another funny revelation here, the entire Jewish museum does not allow photos inside the synagogues, but since there is nobody telling you not to, nearly every tourist with a camera takes pictures anyways, and I followed…

The Old-New Synagogue, and the Jewish Quarter Town Hall:

            Next we went into the Old-New Synagogue, which is the oldest continually operating synagogue in Europe, dating back to the mid-13^th century. The building is very basic on the exterior and interior, but it is the age of it that is its charm. This is also the first place that I was required to wear a yamaka, in keeping with the traditions of the Jewish faith. Immediately next door to the Old-New Synagogue is the Jewish town hall, and while we did not go inside it is interesting in that it keeps time in Hebrew numbers counterclockwise on a clock adjacent to the main clock on the top of its steeple.

The Jewish Ceremonial Hall:

            Our next stop was the Jewish Ceremonial Hall attached to the Klausen Synagogue. The Klausen synagogue depicts the daily lives of Jewish citizens in Prague and Jewish celebrations. The Ceremonial Hall is slightly grimmer, as it focuses on the Jewish Burial society and the traditions of burying the dead, as the Old Jewish Cemetery is immediately behind it. I had no idea about these traditions, so it was very interesting to learn about them. Following this stop we walked over to the Maisel Synagogue which is filled with historical items and facts discussing the lives of Jews in the Czech Republic from the 10^th to the 18^th centuries. Some of the artifacts were extraordinarily old, and it was cool to learn about major figures in a period of history and subject that I knew very little about.

Inside the Pinkas Synagogue (Those are all Names on the walls):

            Our next stop in the Jewish Museum tour was the Pinkas Synagogue, which you also must walk through to get into the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Pinkas Synagogue is by far the most solemn and disheartening place in the Jewish Museum, and tourists immediately notice this when they walk inside. Prayer songs are played softly as you walk around, and the basic interior walls are covered with the names of the nearly eighty-thousand Moravian and Bohemian Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. It is absolutely remarkable to see these names covering the walls in such a manner, and you are filled with all kinds of emotions as you tour this synagogue. Upstairs is another exhibit featuring artwork created by children at the Nazi concentration camp known as Terezín. Many of these children did not survive the Nazi “final solution,” and it is another painful reminder of the horrific war crimes of Nazi Germany.

The Old Jewish Cemetery:

            We then moved on to the Old Jewish Cemetery, which is the final resting place of all Jews in Prague who passed away between the 15^th century and the late 18^th century. The oldest grave inside is marked 1439, and many of the chief Rabbis of Prague rest here. The space is so small that the graves had to be stacked, so the cemetery is actually about eight feet above the streets around it. 12,000 or so grave stones are visible above ground while thousands more lay beneath them. A path is set up so visitors can walk through the graveyard and admire the gravestones that lie at all angles across the tiny plot of land. Following our walk through the graveyard we walked over to the Rudolfinium theatre building, then got hungry. We had wanted to get a traditional Jewish lunch as that was our theme for the day so far, but instead we settled on a restaurant called La Veranda. Here we ate a mozzarella and eggplant salad and both Jen and I had a cold tomato soup with eggplant and tomatoes inside it. I also had a pint of Pilsner Urquell, a beer I had tasted before but had to drink it again as it is brewed in Plzen, Czech Republic.

The Astronomical Clock:

            After lunch we walked across Old Town to the Astronomical Clock attached to the Old Town Hall building. We wanted to come here to see its famous animations as the clock strikes a new hour. The clock, dating from the 15^th century, indicates time by the season, zodiac sign, and position of the sun and moon. As the clock strikes the new hour, a skeleton rings a death bell and turns his hourglass upside down. Windows on the top of the clock open and the twelve apostles walk by. As the animation ends, a golden cockerel flaps its wings and crows. The fanfare is topped off by a city-worker in traditional Bohemian Guard dress playing a trumpet at the top of the gothic Old Town Hall Tower. We had planned on going up to the top of the tower next, but had to wander around to find an ATM so I could get the cash to go up (50 CZK each for students). While looking for one, we also stumbled upon another massive church that we checked (Czeched, haha) out. We walked back to the Old Town Hall and took the elevator up to the top. The building was built around 1500 and offered spectacular views of the whole city, especially of Prague Castle and the Týn Church across the square.

View towards Prague Castle from the top of the Old Town Hall:

            We left the Old Town Hall Tower and walked towards the Jerusalem Synagogue near the main train station. To our misfortune, the synagogue was closed—pity because it is super colorful on the exterior and I had heard it was beautiful inside as well. Walking towards New Town (Nové Město) we passed the Estates Theatre, the location of the premiere of the Mozart Opera “Don Giovanni in the late 18^th century. We continued to Wenceslas Square, named for St. Wenceslas, where over 500,000 students gathered to protest the Communist regime in control at the end of 1989—now known as the Velvet Revolution. The square is massive, and at one end is the beautiful National Museum in gold and a massive statue of St. Wenceslas. There is also a very interesting wall dedicated to post-World War II history of the former Czechoslovakia, Democratic Republic of Germany, and Hungary. We continued our walk towards New Town Hall, the site of the world’s first defenestration! The building was unfortunately closed, but we continued walking to Charles Square, now a park where we rested and visited another magnificent church.

Wenceslas Square and the National Museum:

            Walking back towards our hotel, we stumbled upon the smallest brewery in Prague! I was really excited, so we went inside Minipivovar U Medvíků to taste a few beers. We tasted their light beer, their dark beer called Oldgott Barique, and my personal favorite, the X-33 beer which tasted like whipped cream and clocked in at around thirteen-percent alcohol! We enjoyed these with an apple tart, browsed their store, and then walked the fifteen-or-so minutes home. Jen had a craving for some Chinese noodles, and luckily a restaurant called Moon was literally five steps from the front door of our hotel. We both ate some shrimp lo mein and got on the internet briefly at the hotel, finally. We were thinking of going to a club, but it started raining again and we decided to stay in again (I know, we were exhausted so the night-life in Prague didn’t happen very much for us…). Tomorrow will be our Prague Castle day! Hopefully the scattered showers will stay away and it will be like today: sunny and seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit.

Czech Republic: Day II (Prague, Kutná Hora)

Sunday, June 12^th:

The Church of Our Lady Before Týn:

            We woke up today for some touring but were saddened to discover that it was raining outside on the day we had planned to go to Prague Castle. We ate the hotel breakfast, which was typical and like the others—assorted meats, veggies, bread, juices, coffee, yogurt, granola, and cereal. We walked back over to Old Town Square and went inside the massive gothic church known as the Church of Our Lady Before Týn. No photography allowed inside, but this church is massive and gorgeous. I swear that Universal Studios used this church as the guide for building its replica of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter part of its amusement park in Florida. The church stands above just about everything else in Old Town, and inside it is adorned with gold alters left and right. Coolest of all, to me at least, was the fact that the tomb of the great astronomer Tycho Brahe is inside this church, located just to the right of the main altar. The church is one of the most spectacular Catholic churches I have seen in my life. After the Týn Church we quickly went back inside the Church of St. Nicholas to take a few pictures as we had forgotten our cameras the day before. We then realized that we needed more waterproof clothing and that I had forgotten the map, so we ran back to the hotel.

The Powder Gate, or Tower of Prague:

            At this point it began to rain very hard, and we wondered what we should do for the day. We had also heard that there was going to be a public transportation strike the next day, so instead of trying to deal with that on Tuesday when we had wanted to go to Kutná Hora, we decided to go today. We walked over to the main train station, Hlavní Nádraží and took a train to Kutná Hora through the town of Kolín. On our walk we also passed some magnificent buildings such as the Powder Gate tower, also referred to as the Tower of Prague, and the Municipal House theatre. The train trip took about one hour, and we met two girls from San Diego who were looking for the same famous “Bone Church” that we were. My brother, Brad, had told me about this church, actually called All Saints’ Chapel (or more commonly, Kostnice, which means ossuary), is located in the Kutná Hora suburb of Sedlac, just up the hill from the town. The Bone Church dates back to the 16^th century when monks cleared out a cemetery and decided to use the bones to decorate the church. Inside the chapel is a massive chandelier, candelabras, pillars, and pyramids all adorned with human bones. Some of these bones are even from warriors of the Hussite Wars of the 14^th century. We also visited the massive Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary across the street from Kostnice before heading into town (after a detour of a twenty minute walk in the wrong direction).

A Bone Chandelier inside the Bone Church (Kostnice):

            The walk from Sedlac to Kutná Hora is about twenty minutes, and we stopped at a convenient store for some yogurt, dried fruit, and a snickers for lunch as it seemed every café we found was closed for some reason. We toured around some of the Kutná Hora sites and churches before we headed down to the big St. James Church with its large, listing tower. The church was another beautiful catholic church and a lookout just outside of it offered us the first view of the church that Kutná Hora is famous for, St. Barbara’s Cathedral. We walked up the hill to this massive (again gothic) cathedral that looks more like a big-top circus tent from the distance. This building is massive and beautiful on the outside—I had never seen anything like it. The original church began in the late 14^th century, and construction on it continued through the 16^th century based on work from the same architects who designed the Powder Gate and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. Inside it is decorated with numerous gold alters and massive stained glass windows. We stayed in this building for a long time, as it was probably the most spectacular of the trip so far, before we made our way back towards the train station. On our way back we also stopped at a café to taste some Kozel Dark beer, and then made our train at about 7pm.

St. Barbara's Cathedral:

            Back in Prague we walked back towards the hotel and passed another beautiful gothic building called St. Henry’s Bell Tower, which keeps in line with the architectural style of the buildings that line the beautiful city skyline of Prague. We looked around for a dinner spot and ended up eating at a French-Asian fusion restaurant called Nostress. Here Jen and I both ate a Chicken and Shrimp dish with pan-fried rice Indonesian style. We also had an Ahi Tuna Carpaggio with lime, a bottle of Czech-made Pinot Gris, and a dessert dish which was basically a raspberry and strawberry crème cake. After dinner we walked around to some of the parts of Old Town that we had not been to yet, but decided that we were both tired and just wanted to take the rest of the night easy so we went to bed fairly early.

St. Henry's Bell Tower:

Internet Issues Remain

Hey all,

So sorry about my lack of posting for the last month or so, I have had really bad luck with internet at my places of lodging, and when I do find some it is not reliable enough to make a full post (i.e. it cuts me off mid-post... I has already happened two or three times to this very post). I will post when I can, however, and will keep posting until all is caught up.

Cheers!