Prague in September

We went to Prague in the Czech Republic for a long weekend. We had wonderful, sunny, warm weather. We stayed in a great hotel that was a famous old art nouveau building that had been updated with newer, modern features. The service was fantastic. A river runs through the town splitting it in half. On one side is the castle area as pictured below.

And the other side of the river is the central square. We climbed to the top of the tower at the square to get this picture.

At the central square is the Astronomical Clock. With revolving disks, celestial symbols, and sweeping hands, the clock keeps serveral versions of time. Two outer rings show the hour Bohemian time with times of sunset and sunrise and then Modern time. Even though we read through the description, we still couldn't quite figure it out.

Everywhere we went there was wonderful architecture. Below is an old building with some traditional paintings on it.

Then there were the modern buildings! They call these two buildings Ginger and Fred because they say they are dancing!

More beautiful buildings.



Alfons Mucha was a famous Czech Art Nouveau designer. He designed the stained glass window below and also designed all of those Art Nouveau posters that we've all seen. We went to a museum dedicated to his work and it was fantastic. His influence is seen all over the city.

More Art Nouveau.

Here is one of his most famous buildings- the Municipal House. They consider it the pearl of Czech Art Nouveau. Both the interior and exterior are fabulous! Mucha's design again.

Here's a shot of the interior.

Prague's Jewish Quarter neighborhood with multiple museums and sites was well worth the day we spent visiting them. As the Nazis decimated jewish communities in the region, Prague's Jews were allowed to collect and archive their treasures here. While the archivists were ultimately killed in the concentration camps, their work survives. Below is a picture of Howard at the Old Jewish Cemetery. From 1439-1787 it was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews of Prague. Because of the limited space, the Jewish belief that the body should not be moved once buried, and the sheer number of graves, tombs were piled atop each other. With its many layers, the cemetery became a small plateau.



Below is one of the museums near the cemetery. The museums and synagogues contained tremendous amounts of information on Jewish traditions and history. We were both facinated by it and learned a lot.