Live blogging from Prague Czech Republic and Germany

Mtn Gramma wrote: Walter, thank you for sharing your trip with us. I'm really enjoying your pictures and narrative.

You're welcome. There will be more to come, dribbled in slowly. I'm working on an article for the Flume that I have to get done today on unemployment figures for Oct. and I have a day earlier deadline of tomorrow (because of Thanksgiving).

Meanwhile... here is some interesting reading on Terezin...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terez%C3%ADn

And on Dr. Dagmar Lieblová (translated from the Czech)...

http://www.pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/id/1256/

One of the most unusual churches in Europe. St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora. Kutna Hora is about 40 miles southeast of Prague, and it was the town where Dr. Dagmar Lieblová was born and it is the town where she and her family were removed from and transported to Terezin concentration camp (see my post up thread for more info on Dr. Dagmar Lieblová).

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St. Barbara's Church (St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners and mining)
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A view of the town of Kutná Hora
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Dr. Dagmar Lieblová
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Barbar ... C3%A1_Hora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutn%C3%A1_Hora

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The Old-New Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Old Town Prague
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As the story goes the attic of the Old-New Synagogue is where the remains of the Golem is stored, awaiting to be awakened if his help is needed.
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The Jewish Town Hall in the Jewish Quarter of Old Town Prague. Notice the Hebrew and standard clocks on the tower. The Hebrew clock runs counter-clockwise.
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The Old New Synagogue (Czech: Staronová synagoga; German: Altneu-Synagoge) situated in Josefov, Prague, is Europe's oldest active synagogue. (The Scolanova Synagogue in Italy, also 13th century, was converted to a church by 1380 but was restored to synagogue use in 2006.) It is also the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design.[1]

Completed in 1270 in gothic style, it was one of Prague's first gothic buildings.[2] A still older Prague synagogue, known as the Old Synagogue, was demolished in 1867 and replaced by the Spanish Synagogue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_New_Synagogue

In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ goh-ləm; Hebrew: גולם‎) is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.[1]

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the Golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

The Jewish Town Hall (Czech: Židovská radnice) in Josefov, Prague, was constructed adjacent to the Old New Synagogue on the corner of Maiselova and Červená Ulice in 1586 in Renaissance style under the sponsorship of Mayor Mordechai Maisel. It acquired its Rococo facade in the 18th century. The building was the main meeting house of the local Jewish community but is currently closed to the public. It is perhaps best known for its two clocks, one on a tower with Roman numeral markings, the other, lower, has Hebrew numerals, which are the same as letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew numerals begin with aleph and continue counterclockwise around the clock dial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Town_Hall_(Prague )

Up to 1989 the Czech Republic was ruled under the powerful fist of Soviet Russia. But in the short span of only 25 years since then, the country has come out in favor of private ownership, capitalism and has done an interesting job of catching up with the west.

Proof of that can be had in these two pictures of the Palladium, a shopping mall hidden behind the facade of a 300 year old building on Republic Square. Right on the eastern edge of Old Town this Czech shopping center already had Christmas decorations up when we arrived on Nov. 6th 2013.

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This is a view of the front entrance of the mall. Notice the front of the building which has been restored to it's original 18th century look.
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And behind that facade is a 5 level shopping mall, with 3 of the levels below ground.
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http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=1424

http://www.palladiumpraha.cz/en/

And now some pictures and information from our 3 day, 900 mile "side trip" by car from Prague to Bochum Germany, nearly crossing the whole central part of Germany.

In this post we will start with Dresden.

We spent 3 hours exploring the Old Town portion of Dresden Germany. Dresden was almost totally destroyed by a bombing raid late in WWII. I'll keep the politics of the bombing out of this post but you can read up more on the bombing here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of ... rld_War_II

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This was Dresden after the British/American bombing.
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This is a picture I took of the main square in Old Town Dresden. Most of these buildings were totally reconstructed from scratch or reconstructed with a combination of original stones and new material.
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This was the Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) after the bombing.
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This is a picture I took of the church after it's reconstruction, which was finally completed in 2005. The darker bricks are from the original structure and the lighter colored bricks and construction materials is part of the reconstruction.

My picture was taken from the same angle as the picture above of the bombed out structure. You can see the parts that were originally left standing after the raid, visible in the reconstructed building.
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Dresden Frauenkirche
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche (German: Dresdner Frauenkirche, IPA: [ˈfʁaʊənˌkɪʁçə], Church of Our Lady) is a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Although the original church was Roman Catholic until it became Protestant during the Reformation, the current Baroque building was purposely built Protestant. It is considered an outstanding example of Protestant sacred architecture, featuring one of the largest domes in Europe.

After our 3 hour stop in Dresden, we continued on to Leipzig where we spent the night. Our plans were to bed down for 8 hours and then continue on to Bochum the next day so we could see "Starlight Express."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipzig

My partner found a great deal on a hostel/hotel in Leipzig. "The Space Hotel," which was a fund raising non-profit arm of a educational organization called the "German Space Education Institute."

http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/space-leipzig.html

http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10000674-9.html

The Space Education Institute (SEI) in Leipzig, offers high-school students the possibility to train as a “student astronaut” in Germany, the US and Russia. Through various projects, students gain early hands-on experience in space programs and related technologies. Each year, they participate successfully with one or several teams in NASA’s Moon Buggy Race in the US and have already received multiple awards for their design and performance.

http://spacegeneration.org/index.php/sg ... pe/germany

It was a "colorful" location to say the least. The cost was only $36.00 for a room with two single beds. We arrived after dark and even our GPS unit wanted to recalculate and get us out of there. But the room was neat and clean, there were communal bathrooms down the hall and breakfast was hearty and filling. But they did give us two keys when we checked in. One key for our room door and the another key was for the hotel. "If you go out you need to make sure you lock the hotel behind yourself, this is not the best of neighborhoods" we were told. The hotel was not staffed after sundown.

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The room was furnished with IKEA styled minimalist furniture.
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There were some lovely ladies on the street working late.
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Most of the street was littered with roll-offs. It was as if the whole nieghborhood was being hauled away.
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There was a tram that passed below our window, every ten minutes, in both directions... all night long.
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After all, it was only 25 years ago that this town was under communist rule and part of East Germany. The great thing is, they are quickly catching up with the west.

Just getting back home and caught up on your travels. Thanks for the pix and the description.

As for the head cold, any relation to the beer previously?

The streets in many of the areas look quite clean and well taken care of. A good clean up crew or people more attentive to not trashing?

RidgeWay wrote: Just getting back home and caught up on your travels. Thanks for the pix and the description.

As for the head cold, any relation to the beer previously?

The streets in many of the areas look quite clean and well taken care of. A good clean up crew or people more attentive to not trashing?

If you're referring to the pictures of Prague then my answer is I didn't notice people throwing trash on the street like I would see in a place like NYC or other big cities in the states.

I even mentioned that to my partner while we were there.

And of course in Germany, most of the large public places were spotless. Scary spotless. Like "ve have ways to make you clean up ze trash" scary spotless.

RidgeWay wrote:
As for the head cold, any relation to the beer previously?

I don't understand? Can you explain? The head cold did come a few days after ingesting the one beer. But what's the relationship?

I react to the ingredients in most beer and usually not right away. It usually shows as a head cold or sinus infection. So just wondering if you do the same.

Nice to see people take pride in the area and not trash. lol Even in Germany.

Look forward to more.