Going Home!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Mmmmm,  it’s really time to go home.  We’re up and packed and downstairs, waiting for our airport shuttle before the anticipated arrival time of 7:15.  There is an arrival window of 7:15 to 7:45 but we’re hoping for the earlier end of that.  

Our home for past six days

Breakfast was included, which meant one of these and all the cereal, coffee, tea and "orange juice" you could eat
between eight and ten am.

Early morning

The hallways are REALLY brightly painted!

The second kitchen, right next to our room.
You can tell it's early because there's no one here!

The ladies' shower room

Our door.  If you look carefully you can see the room number!

There is an entry code for the downstairs door and also
for the door to our hallway.

This is confusing for Americans.  "0" is our first floor, "M" is
our second floor, and "1" is our third floor.

Directly across the street

At about 7:20 a big van pulls up and the driver eases our bags into the back.  We’re ahead of schedule and quite tickled.  Prematurely.  We drive a bit and pull into a parking spot.  The driver says we’re a bit early and will wait.  Turns out there’s another couple that we’re picking up here.  Our driver has time for a cup of coffee and a cigarette before they show up.  It’s all good, we’re still ahead of schedule.  More driving.  Another two passengers.  More driving.  Ah, there’s a sign to the airport!!  We finally arrive and it’s exactly the time we were hoping for!  It never pays to worry!

In the door and follow the signs for check-in and baggage drop-off.  We show our passports and e-passes and receive real paper boarding passes for both flights.  Yay!  And my incredibly heavy bag is under the weight limit!  It’s only 17.5 kilos (about 38 pounds)!  On, now, to departures to find our gate, up the escalator, down the hall, over the river through the woods and we get to passport check.  And then to security. Marilyn sails through but something sets off the metal detector when I pass through.  I get the whole treatment, pat down, waistband check, even removing my boots and feeling the soles of my feet!  They don’t find anything, of course, and even with that we still have more than an hour before boarding is scheduled to begin!

Breakfast is the next order of the day.  The only place we’ve seen that might offer bacon and eggs doesn’t open until 10:30;  but there’s a place with coffee and lots of delicious pastries.  Marilyn gets an apple tart, her last for quite a while, and I have a perfect pain au chocolat.  Even the café au lait is good!

We finish up, head to our gate, and take turns checking out “the facilities”.  Marilyn finds one last gift for her grandkids and it’s time to board.  It’s a Swiss Air flight and very comfortable.  And we have the exit row with all that legroom!! The start by walking down the aisles with baskets of Swiss milk chocolate and don’t even give you a dirty look if you take two of the little bars!  It’s a short flight to Zurich, only a little over an hour, and they give us both a beverage and a croissant!  And another round of chocolate!  To balance that, the flight arrives about ten minutes late and we only had forty-five minutes to change planes before the delay!

Our land gate is a A gate.  Our departing gate is an E gate.  It’s as far away as that implies!  And we have to go through passport check, even though we’ve never left the secured area.  Everyone is line at passport check has five minutes to get to a flight and so there isn’t much pity for the coupe that try to cut in line because they only have five minutes!  We’ve ALL got only five minutes!! 

We’ve bonded with a family of four who are also flying to Tampa and we move as a group, keeping together and spotting the next turn!  We take a train and when we arrive at our gate there are actually quite a few of us who came from the Prague flight and they’ve held the plane for us.  It’s an Edelweiss flight and I guess they are travel partners with Swiss Air.

Everyone is settled in their seats and we’re finally heading home.  It’s a ten-hour flight, which means there’s time to watch four movies!  “Tea with Mussolini”, “”Exodus:  Gods and Kings”, “Queen and Country” and “Philomena”.  If I could sleep, I probably wouldn’t just watch movies;  but it works for me!.There is an endless flow of food and beverages!  We are still getting settled when we are brought a little snack pack . The main meal is a choice of beef or vegetarian.  I can’t look at any more beef, so I choose the vegetarian and receive tortellini in cream sauce, prosciutto and melon, cucumbers, cheese and crackers, roll and butter and strawberry whip!

 In a couple of hours there is a strawberry/raspberry sorbet. And a couple of hours after that there is a “snack” of roast beef slices with horseradish and a tomato and a roll to put them on.  This is accompanied by curried rice with peas and a lovely flan.  There is coffee or tea after each meal and beverages are offered about once an hour!  I really like this airline!

We land at the Tampa airport and get to see the international terminal.  This is where we clear passport control, after a nice lady welcomes us to Tampa and another points out the line for US citizens.  Interestingly enough, the passport stop also turns out to be customs!  The agent takes my declaration pages, asks if I have any food (just candy) and that’s that!!  All that trouble to itemize three pages worth of declarations!  Not that I’m complaining!!

We collect our bags from the carousel and Marilyn calls Premier from the white courtesy phone and we go outside to await the shuttle.  Happily it comes quite quickly and we don’t have time to melt. We are going to claim Marilyn’s car, which the Poles left about a week ago.  It takes a bit of time for the overworked kid to locate the car and the keys; but it is worth the wait!  What a smooth ride!  What  a powerful engine and air conditioner!

Floofen is ready to come in when I get home and Rosa and Miss Kitty are the inside welcoming committee! Jody checks in when he gets home and reports on the month’s activities and I’m exhausted.  It’s going to be so marvelous to sleep in my own bed and wake up when I want to, not when the sun comes up at four!  It’s been a great trip – but it’s great to be home!

Early the next morning - HOME!

Prague's Jewish Quarter

Monday, July 27, 2015

This is it, our last day to enjoy the splendors of Prague.  We know our way around fairly well and head across the Old Town Square without even having to think about it!  What in the world is going on in the square??  There are brides everywhere!  And each has her own photographer!  But it isn’t very bright and there aren’t any lights or reflectors or anything! 

Marilyn can’t stand the suspense and asks one of the young men what is going on.  Is it a shoot for a bridal magazine?  “No”, he replies in perfect English, “It’s a group honeymoon!”  There are seven couples who all got married at home in Japan and have come to Prague on their honeymoons because the backgrounds for their photos are so magnificent!!  They are all having a ball and the girls get more use out of their wedding dresses! 

 We’re heading to the Jewish Quarter for round out our Prague Experience.  For centuries there had been a thriving Jewish population living peacefully with the rest of the Czechs.  As in so many other cities, the Jewish population was decimated and the Quarter, now, is really just a … square block museum.  You even have to buy tickets to enter the holy sites, including synagogues and the old cemetery.

Although we’ve walked through most of the Old Quarter, in which the Jewish Quarter is located, we are still finding new street to explore and this morning we finally find a store that only sells handmade Czech crafts.  Of course this requires a stop-and-shop!  Great beginning to our last day in this architectural fairyland! And there are always new details by which we are delighted!

With more bags and less cash, we’re on our way.  The tickets are sold just outside the Pinkas Synagogue.  You can choose how many sites you want to visit and if you want to take photographs there is an extra charge of 70 Krona (less than three dollars).

The walls of the synagogue are covered in neatly written names of all the Jews from Prague and the nearby towns who were exterminated in the camps.  They are arranged by family with hometowns being written in ochre, family names in red, and individuals. first names, dates of birthday, and last date on which they were known to be alive written in black.  When the Communists took over, they obliterated nearly everything;  but with the return of freedom the names were all rewritten.  In just a couple of places you can see the original lettering and the desecration.

 Upstairs is an exhibit of children’s artwork from the Terezin Concentration Camp.  This was the Nazis showplace, used to demonstrate to the world that the stories of horror and death were not true.  There were concerts and plays and art classes.  There was even a weekly magazine produced by the children.

"Darkness"

"Butterflies"

"Flying"

"To the Train Station" and the artist

From here, one visits the Old Jewish Cemetery.  For about three hundred and fifty years (1439 – 1787) this small place was the only burial ground for the Jewish community.  As a result, tombs were piled one atop another with the resultant crowding and upheaval, and a plateau was eventually created.  The path curves among the stones leaning against one another with lettering all but erased by time.

 From here, the route leads to the Ceremonial Hall.  This is where the bodies were prepared for burial, by the members of the Burial Society.  There are displays inside describing the cleansing and burial rituals, and actual implements are displayed, as well as a burial shroud.

Alms boxes

Burial Society beaker

 Next is the Klaus Synagogue, built in the 17^th century. It continues the description of Jewish life and religious practices.  Downstairs, the exhibits center on the Jewish calendar of festivals.  Before going upstairs we succumb to our hunger pangs and so in search of some ethnic food.  There’s a van outside touting the virtues of a restaurant called King Solomon and offering coupons, so we head toward the restaurant.  Along the way, though, we happen up Kafka Snob Food.  Who could resist? 

Torah Shield

Non-smoking Section! 

For the first time we’re asking if we want the smoking or non-smoking section!  Our section turns out to be two whole tables!  But the servers are charming and the homemade soups, carrot and tomato, and the salads, tuna and Greek are huge and fresh.  And of course the fresh breads to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar could have been a meal by itself!

For those who don't remember Golem's story.

See how close some of the Museum's components are.

Heading back to finish the Klaus Synagogue we run the gauntlet of souvenir stalls.  Upstairs in the Synagogue the exhibits center on the rituals of life, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, circumcisions and kosher eating.

Spice boxes

The Old-New Synagogue has been the most important synagogue in the city for more than seven hundred years.  It was built in 1270 and you have to go downstairs to reach the 13^th century level of this Gothic building.  It’s the oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe. I found it fascinating that, since Jews were not allowed to build, the synagogue was built by the Christians, who also built the St. Agnes Convent nearby!

This is a copy of the banner which the Jewish community
carried through town during Medieval parades. The hat in
the center of the Star of David is the hat which the Pope
required Jewish men to wear in 1215.

At last!  Franz Kafka's statue!

The Spanish Synagogue is a couple of blocks away and Marilyn isn’t so sure we need one more synagogue.  Being my parents’ child, I figure that we’ve paid for it and we ought to go see it!  Boy are we glad we did.  Prior to this, we’ve been comparing the gilt and glitter of all the cathedrals and basilicas we’ve seen with the relative austerity of these synagogues.  The Spanish Synagogue dispels this view. While it will never match the Christian displays, it is quite striking and beautiful.  The Moorish influence is obvious, especially noticeable in the shape of the windows.

Torah Crown

There are so many artifacts and memories.

 On our way home we stop at the last site, the Maisel Synagogue.  It was built as a private place of worship and is only one room.  But don’t let that make you visualize a tiny space.  It is anything but!  There is an animated display showing the development of the area through history and there are displays tracing a thousand years of Jewish history in Bohemia and Moravia.

"Do a mitzvah today!!"

Back through Old Town Square and one last chance at the perfect photo!  And we finally have our definition of Shisha confirmed.  It’s a hookah!  Many cafes offer them.

Giggle!

The Tyn Church, finally, in decent light!  And the clock, too!

We head upstairs at OPH and begin the arduous task of packing.  Marilyn orders a ride from the Prague Airport Shuttle to pick us up at 7:30 in the morning.  That should give us an hour to arrive and two hours before take off.  We check in to our flight online and I receive my first texted boarding pass!  I’m really nervous without my trusty piece of paper;  but it will be another adventure!

The plan had been to return to the terrace restaurant around the corner for another bottle of that lovely wine and, possibly, dessert.  But when we get outside, it just seems like a better idea to go to the little café right next door.  There is only one table open outside and it means we have to claim it away from the couple sitting at its twin.  They are very gracious and we move what is now our table a bit away from theirs so as to give us all our personal space.

We order a pitcher of sangria and are waiting patiently when our server returns to say they are out of (something??) and can’t make the sangria.  We order a bottle of Riesling instead.   Then the pitcher of sangria appears! At this point we begin to chat with our neighbors, Leena and Jeri.  They are from Finland and live in the middle of the country, near the Russian border.  They say it isn’t scary and that, in fact, the Russians buy houses in Finland! 

The food choices are pretty limited and all three of the ladies order the bread bowl filled with goulash.  Jeri ordered something blindly because it was the only thing that didn’t have mustard in or with it!  It turns out to be a meat and cheese plate and looks yummy!  We compare notes on what we have seen and done and help them get oriented.  Funny to be able to help someone else in a city we’ve just “met”!

Back to the room and all those final preparations. Everything is ready and maybe, just maybe, it will be quiet enough to sleep.