Praha (Prague) 2015

After dropping off the puppies to the dog sitters, we headed off to the airport, boarded Delta Air France from Salt Lake to Paris, and headed for the Czech Republic.

Jaromir Kavan - photocredit

It's funny how much time you have on a plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean... I love being able to watch the foreign films provided by the Airlines for flights. On this trip I watched Assassination Classroom. It is a Japanese film. Main theme: good teachers give all that they have to their students in order to help them believe in themselves and to reach their potential...even when the teacher is an alien).

Pulling from my experiences in 2014 and in 2015 I'd like to share my favorite things to see in Prague. I would plan on 3 days for these 8 attractions.

1. Prague Castle

2. Charles Bridge

3. Astronomical clock & Old Town Square

4. Wenceslas Square

5. Jewish Quarter

6. Lennon Wall

7. Church of our Lady

8. Mucha Museum

9. Klementinum Library

10. Klementinum Cathedral

1. Prague Castle

This castle was built in the 9th century and is the largest coherent castle complex in the world. There is an entrance fee to go inside the castle, but you can walk around it and wander the grounds for free.

2. Charles Bridge

photocredit - Felix Mittermeier

Charles bridge is the oldest bridge in Prague started construction in 1357 and finished in 1402. This bridge allows you to cross the Vltava River, is adorned with 30 statues, and is a great photo-taking spot. There are also some spooky and funny storiesabout this bridge.

Be sure to touch the statue of St. John of Nepomuk (a Czech saint) for good luck!

3. Astronomical Clock & Old Town Square

This is the oldest working clock in the world. Also, every hour the apostles come out of the clock in a parade, so be sure to stop by the clock at the top of the hour.

This clock shows the time, date, Christian holidays, and astronomical cycles. You can buy a ticketto see the inner workings of the clock for a fee.

By the astronomical clock, there are often students offering free walking tours (The tours are free, but it is polite and appropriate to tip the students at the end of your tour). We followed around our German student guide and got an incredible introduction to Prague. We learned tid bits of history and saw many of the famous, typical tourist sights in a few hours.

This city is so breathtaking just taking a Prague Walk is so enjoyable.

4. Wenceslas Square

The square is more like a boulevard than a square or a plaza. Wenceslas Square is so significant because of historical events that took place there.

November 17, 1989 there were 15,000 students who began a march. The march was supposed be in commemoration of Jan Opletal, a Czech who had been killed by Nazis in 1939, but the march quickly morphed into something else.

Once the students reached Jan’s gravesite, the planned, concluding destination of their march, they didn’t stop marching. Students began to hoist slogans and banners against communism and called out for democratic reforms. The march became and anti-communist demonstration. (Not doubt inspired by the earlier Prague Spring of 1968)

The students started to march from the Czech National Cemetery at Vysehradto Wenceslas Square, but they never made it to the square. At Narodni street,the students were stopped by a barricade of Police. The students attempted to continue their peaceful demonstration by offering flowers, singing songs, and showing their bare hands to the police. The police responded by beating the long students and blocking all escape routes. Approx. 200 students were injured.

The next 6 weeks became a time of peaceful revolution i.e., the Velvet Revolution. Vaclav Havel, a playwright with anti-communist opinions, became president of Czechoslovakia in the first democratic elections since 1946 in Czechoslovakia.

Narodni Street is best reached by trams 6, 9, 18, 22, 23 to station Narodni divadlo, there is even a memorial to November 17. It is in a passage through on the right side if you walk from the National Theatertowards the Wenceslas Squareyou will see a portrayed a hand on the wall showing a “V” with its finger, which stands for Victory. It was a favorite gesture of demonstrators during Velvet Revolution meaning we will succeed.

Velvet Revolution Walking Tour2.5 hrs €9 Kids €11 Adults

5. Jewish Quarter

One of the sadder tourist attractions we visited was the Jewish Quarter. Hitler wanted to preserve this quarter of Prague to eventually serve as a "Museum of an Extinct Race." Well, we learned during our tour that Hitler only had one testicle supposedly because he tried peeing inside a goat's mouth as a child... so take that Hitler!

There are 6 synagogues here, one of which is The Old-New Jewish Synagogue and is the oldest active synagogue in Europe having opened in the year 1210.

Hours: Sunday-Friday 9am-6pm; closed at 4:30pm November-March; Closed Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath.  

Cost:530 CZK for Adults; Children 6-15 & students under 26 are 370 CZK; Kids under 6 are free.  Entrance fee covers all 5 Jewish Museum Synagogues (Old New Synagogue is an extra 220 CZK), the Old Jewish Cemetery, Ceremonial Hall, and Robert Guttmann Gallery.

As an artist, artwork is dear to my heart and I believe it has great power to heal and express. As we toured through the quarter we entered one of the museums where there was artwork from children displayed. I learned it was the Children's Art Exhibit from children who were in the Terezín Labor Camp from 1942-1944. The finger paintings were dismal, black, sad, colorless. I learned that an art teacher, Mrs. Friedl Dicker, came to to the camp and encouraged the children to draw from their memories instead of the horrors they saw around the camp. As I turned around to the other side of the gallery there were pictures of grassy fields with families playing, kids and games, horses, candies, and memories of happier times. The contrast was immobilizing. Only 120 of the children artists survived, as most were sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Mrs. Friedl Dicker was also sentenced to death and sent to Auschwitz, but before they moved her she hid the works of art in her luggage which was later found.

I was particularly touched by the Pinkas Synagogue. In this synagogue 77,297 names are inscribed on the walls of Jews who were sent to die in concentration camps.

Each name is followed by a birth date and last known day that they were alive.

The Jewish Cemetery is built for 1,200 plots, but because it is the only place in the city Jews were allowed to be buried there are 12,000 headstones and an estimated 100,000 bodies buried there. The Jews literally had to pile new dirt over old tombs to make more room. In some places it's estimated there are plots 10 bodies deep and the settling of the ground has caused the tombstones to tilt haphazardly in every direction.

I felt it was worth taking a paid tourbecause there was so much information and we were able to see a lot of the quarter in a short time. There are also options for a Free Prague walking tour of Jewish Quarter - do it yourself.

6. Lennon Wall

How to get there: From metro station Malostranska (green line A) take trams no. 12, 20, 22, 23. The nearest tram stops to Velkoprevorske namesti are either Malostranske namesti or Hellichova. The wall is across from the French Embassy.

Each of us can do a google search and learn that we probably share a birthday with some famous historical event, celebrity, or catastrophe. Mine happened to fall on the 400th anniversary of Columbus day, and for my husband, Ryan, his fell on the demolition of the Berlin wall.

The John Lennon Peace Wall is Prague's equivalent of the Berlin Wall. Some people say that this wall helped inspire the non-violent Velvet Revolution that lead to the fall of Communism in 1989 for former Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia).

Revolutions are typically violent, but this peaceful revolution was named "Velvet" because it was smooth, like the material.

Although John Lennon never visited Prague, since the 1980s people have decorated this wall in Mala Strana with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and lyrics from The Beatles. Under the regime of communism, western pop songs like John Lennon's were banned for praising freedoms that didn't align with the communist authorities' politics.

John Lennon was murdered in 1980, and his picture was painted on this wall in retaliation to communism. Playing Lennon songs could land a Czech in jail, and creating graffiti would have been a "subversive action against the state" that would likely guarantee imprisonment.

The Communist police tried repeatedly to paint over the wall and whiteout John Lennon's portrait and the messages of freedom that were spray painted, but each new day the graffiti and portraits of John Lennon would reappear.

I loved visiting the wall because it is still a memorial to John Lennon and his ideas for peace, as well as a testament to young people who are willing to speak out against evil through free speech and non-violent rebellion.

7. Church of our Lady

See the famous statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague. The infant is clothed and the clothing is changed about 10 times a year according to the liturgical calendar. This is a beautiful church and a great stop on your way to the castle.

8. Mucha Museum

How to get there & admission prices Open daily 10am to 6pm

This was my favorite thing I saw in Prague. I have never seen anything so symbolic as this exhibit. It touched my heart and caused me to think deeply. I wish I understood Slavic history before I went to see the exhibit. There was so much to learn here about the changes in humanity across the ages. It gave me a unique feel for who Alfonse Mucha was and the genius he conveyed on canvas.

I have always felt drawn to his works and his style of Art Nouveau. This is the only museum in the world dedicated to the life and work of Alphonse Mucha.

In the Slav Epic, 20 monumental murals throughout the exhibit, over and over again Mucha depicts the Slavs with a peaceful, non-violent nature pitted against the forces of darkness. He shows how submissiveness and passivity become the weakness of the Slavs, but over time they will come to realize the importance of freedom and the strength in unity.

Each mural symbolizes and depicts different historical events that shaped the future of the Slavs. Mucha explores religion, folklore, politics, battles, philosophy, and the human experience in each one of these murals.

The exhibit culminates with Apotheosis 'Slavs for Humanity!' which depicts how all Slavic history has lead up to this moment and a vision of the future role of the Slavs. A little girl holds a heart in her hands, radiating light, which is interpreted as the light of love that illuminates man's way along dangerous paths. A monumental, Slavic man towers over all the other figures in the painting and holds wreathes of unity and freedom in his hands, framed by a rainbow, and Christ stands behind him bestowing His blessing.

9. Klementinum Library

Don't you just love the smell of old books? This library has a lot of untouchable books--they can only be checked out by students with certain permissions to access them. Due to the age of many of the books, and the risk of damage, they are not all accessible to the public. Both Galileo and Kapernicus studied at this library.

Tours are always guided and take 50 minutes. Tours start at 10am and happen every 30 minutes until closing.

If you get a chance to see the Estates Theater this is where Mozart premiered his Don Giovani and where the movie Amadeus was filmed, as well as the site of Mission Impossible, X-Men, and a Knight's Tale.

10. Concert at the Klementinum Cathedral

Ryan's favorite part of our trip was attending a concert at the Klementinum Cathedral. The concert we attended was called A Little Night Music and featured more music including Bach: Air, Albinoni: Adagio, Pachelbel: Kanon, Schubert: Ave Maria, Smetana: My Country, Dvorak: Waltz in A, Vivaldi: Spring & Summer.

We polished off our last evening in Prague with gelato.

check out 16 free things to do in Prague