Hello from Prague!

Hello from Prague!

As I am sure your students have already told you, we have all fallen in love with the city and are ready to book a trip back here next year for more time. It is such a gorgeous city and despite the throngs of tourists, we are loving every second. Yesterday, the group got up at the wee hour of 6:00 am in Berlin to department for Prague (via Paris) by 10 am. A hassleless journey and we made it here around 4pm. Our hotel is smack dab in the center of the city, two minutes away from the Old Town Square. We can even hear the famous clock tower ring from our hotel rooms! After resting up a bit, we ventured out in the town square and students did a mini scavenger hunt to find 5 items located around the main square. At around 6pm, it began to pour and we all found ourselves in a portico resting out from the downpour looking straigt up at the astronomical clock tower and got to see the changing of time at every hour with a little dance from the wooden puppets attached to the clock and a trumpet call. After this, we took an elevator up to the top floor of this very tower and were afforded spectatular views of the city. The sheer number of red tiles, church spires, and gilded roofs was an amazing site.
We then embarked on a dinner of typical Czech food: goulash and dumplings and went to bed happy but tired!

Today we got up early to walk off some of the dinner and visit the huge Prague Castle complex on the other side of the town. With a local guide, we received a tour of St. Vitus cathederal where several of the Hapsburgs who used to rule the city are buried and several chapels dedicated to national saints can be found. This is the cathedral of the Czech Republic and we learned why. We next visited several rooms of the palace attached to the cathedral and ended our tour with a quick glimpse of the changing of the guard ceremony. Students had free time afterwards and several of us took up some suggestions given by the guide to wander around this more quick side of Prague. We visited the gorgeous Baroque extravaganza of the St. Nicholas church, got a bagel sandwich at Bohemian Bagel Cafe and then walked along the cozy and beautiful island of Kampa in search of a UNESCO World Heritage Site where a wooden statue of the historical figure of the infant Jesus of Nazareth is found. Apparently it has miraculous qualities (with a special story attached to it) and again we were stunned by the ornate Baroque interior. We next moved onto a museum dedicated to the life and words of Franz Kafka and wend our way back to the hotel for some free time. Our stomach was calling again at 7: 30pm and we were all well fed at the famous Cafe Louvre where the likes of Kafka and Einstein once dined (but at separate times of course).

Tomorrow we are back in the realm of the Cold War with a visit to the Museum of Communism in Prague in the am followed by a trip around Wenceslas Square where both the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989 took place. Students will then have free time and many will attend various musical events in town tomorrow. It is incidentally a national holiday tomorrow so we might all land up at a spontaneous culture event too. Stay tuned!