Last day, Prague wanderings

There is an apartment for rent in this building in Praha 2. It is on a lovely street in a lovely neighborhood. Just considering my options . . .
On the lovely street is this charming, tiny bookstore/coffee house.


At the Museum of Communism. (That last picture is a handprint in concrete of a peace symbol. Someone please tell me how to rotate pictures on a Mac -- I'm sure it's something simple that I am missing.)

Terezin

Terezin (Theresienstadt) Concentration Camp

Catching up

I am home safely from Prague, with the feeling that my time there was just a dream. It went by so quickly, but I have great memories and pictures, which I will work on posting here this week.


On Wednesday, Deborah and I went to Terezin, a Czech city/fortress that was turned into a concentration camp during World War II. We had a wonderful tour guide who grew up in the area, and who was very passionate and knowledgeable about every square foot. I took a lot of pictures, but mostly I spent the time in utter bewilderment as to how something like this could happen. It is heart-wrenching to think that people can be so cruel to other people. I will never understand, but I think it's important to know what happened. I'll post some pictures, but rather than write my usual drivel about them, I'll just let them speak for themselves and share this website about Terezin.

Wednesday evening was a fantastic dinner with Czech friends Richard, Martin, and Vit. We ate at Cafe Louvre and sampled more fine Moravian wine. For those who attended the summer seminar last year, Martin tells me that this year's will be completely different, so we'll all want to come back. It's tempting!


On Thursday we wandered Prague, enjoying the weather and our last day. We stopped in the Museum of Communism where we watched a movie showing scenes from riots and rallies that were held in Wenceslas Square, where we had just been lounging. And we met Katka, who up till now I've only known on Facebook (thanks, Michelle, for introducing us!) and had great pizza.

Sadly, before leaving for dinner I heard from my mom that our dog, Pete, was having trouble breathing and had been taken to the vet. On Friday morning when we woke up for our early flight home Mom updated me that Pete had died. He had a good long life, and I'm sad that I wasn't here to say goodbye to him, but Mom took good care of him.

Cafe Louvre

Prague cats

I have been hunting for some artwork that I bought last year. They are just inexpensive copies of watercolors of the city, with these color-blocked cats sitting in the foreground. I bought three last year and framed them and hung them in the living room at Mom's house, where they look great. I'm moving into my own place in a couple weeks, so I wanted to buy copies for myself so Mom can keep the others. I did not expect this to be difficult, since I remember exactly the store where I bought them.

However, they are proving to be elusive. I have found two, not as pretty as last years', and with the wrong color mat, but at least I won't return empty-handed. I think I have walked through every tourist souvenir shop in the city. We did find these figurines in a store window last night, which gives me hope that I might still find the paintings.

Orchestra

On our way across the bridge earlier in the day, we walked past this cathedral with people outside selling tickets to an orchestral concert in the evening. Happily, we decided to buy tickets. The music was gorgeous and we had absolutely the best seats in the house.

Another return to the sherbet cave

For the Husketeers.

Descent

The pictures don't accurately portray the amount of steps we descended on our way back from the castle. And yes, we ascended these on our way there!

Nap

We didn't go inside the castle gates, but since the weather was just about perfect, we found a spot in a nearby park to rest. One of us may have dozed off a bit.





I spent the time writing in this blog, and then I admit I sat back to just enjoy the day. I had a wonderful view from my spot on the ground.

Charles Bridge and castle

After lunch we walked across Charles Bridge and towards the castle.



And we stopped for gelato!

Municipal Library

Yesterday we met Tomáš, the director of the municipal (public) library in Prague, for a tour of the library and lunch. I met Tomáš last year during the library course, and I am so glad that we've kept in touch. He is a very innovative and forward thinker about libraries, and we had a great conversation about their future, mission, marketing, etc.

Vyšehrad 5: lunch; evening in Wenceslas Square

Lunch was in a wonderful little room full of books.





After lunch, we walked along the river and then back to our hotel where we were given the sad information that my luggage had been returned to the United States. This was a low point for me, and I admit to some whining and swearing. However, after a short rest I collected myself, googled a place to buy a power converter and some inexpensive clothes, and Deborah and I ended up having a fantastic evening in the Wenceslas Square area, running into Luli, finding converters and a new outfit for me (thank goodness, I had been in the same sad clothes for nearly 4 days by this point).

We had pizza and wine at this strange but fantastic restaurant I had found last time I was here, where the staff dress like pirates. Our waitress loved that I spoke Czech with her, and after dinner brought us lemon-flavored becherovka.

Vyšehrad 4: more views

Vyšehrad 3: views