On the train to Prague Lindsay and I tried to teach ourselves how to say thank you. It didn’t work so well, so decided to take the mumble then run approach.
We arrived in Prague, found our hostel, Hostel One Prague. The guy who checked us in showed us around. We went up to our room where the party had already started. Not being a huge fan of dorm room parties Lindsay and I were not exactly thrilled.
Our first day in Prague we did the New Europe walking tour. We had been told by the hostel that the New Europe tour was terrible. But we had had so many good experiences with New Europe so far we decided to do the tour anyway. And I am so glad we did! It was brilliant. We had Isaac, he had us laughing from the very beginning.
standing in the middle of the main square in Prague our guide suddenly shouted out “I know what you are all thinking…tell us a story about Nazis”
this photo is of a human arm that was hung in the back of a church
the story goes that a priest caught a theif and to punish him cut the mans arm off and hung it in the church! About 400 years ago!
One story the guide told us was how during a Russian invasion after WWII the Czech people renamed small towns as Dubcek or Svoboda. They removed all signs except for those pointing back to Moscow, confusing their enemy and making it very difficult for them to reach Prague.
Our 2nd day in Prague we went to the Jewish quarter. Our first stop was an old Jewish Synagogue. Every single wall, from floor to ceiling was written the names of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Prague. There were so many names.
Upstairs from all the names were drawings done by Jewish children in the Prague Ghettos, they had an art teacher who tried to help the children deal with the stress by taking art classes. The teacher found out that they were all to be sent to concentration camps she hid over 4000 of the artworks in an attic. They were found sometime later and have been on rotating display in the Synagogue. Next to each picture was the childs name, date of birth and if she survived or not. Most didn’t.
Next door was a really old Jewish cemetery. When the cemetery was full the city refused to grant them more land for a cemetary. So they pulled up all the graves stones and put another layer of soil down, and put the old grave stones but in the ground, buried their dead there until it was full again. They did this about 14 times. This is the result:
no one has been buried here since the 1700s!
Prague has a chain of cafes called Bohemian Bagel which serve real, hard core and delicious cheese cake. Unlike the rest of Europe who still are unaware of such a thing. Lindsay loves cheese cake more than anything. So we ate there daily!
we spent the rest of that day admiring the pretty streets around Prague
Our last day in Prague we crossed the Charles Bridge, half way along the bridge is a plaque. There is a woman on the plaque who you touch for good luck, you can see where because it is polished from all the people touching it. 
on the left side of the plaque is a dog, that some people as a joke polished. The dog is considered bad luck. All the tourists touch both sites thus canceling out any good luck!
We walked up a very steep hill to the largest palace still in use!
the view from the top of the hill was so good.
we could see all the higgelty piggelty orange roof tops
I also spotted this….
Um??
These statues were above the gates to the palace
they were huge and not the least bit threatening…
We then spotted this young chap in his handsome blue uniform
The cathedral has some amazing stained glass windows
We then found this statue outside the toy museum
remember how I talked about the plaque earlier and how the parts of the metal which are touched frequently become polished…
We then bought a cup of hot mulled wine
saw a funky tree
and skipped down the mountain (we hadn’t eaten much and the alcohol went straight to my head!)
Back in the main square we saw the famous Prague Clock
there are hundreds of people standing under the clock every hour waiting for the next “show” its very beautiful and old not hugely exciting as tour books make it out to be…but it was lovely.
I spoked these naked giants leaning casually against a little balcony in Wenceslas Square
In case you are worried, yes, I did sing Good King Wenceslas for Lindsay over and over again.
Up next Vienna!