Prague: Week 2

It's almost been two months since Week 2 of our stay in Prague, so my forthcoming chronicles will be less detailed and less chronologically accurate than the previous ones. By this point, I was struggling to keep busy and wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock and sleep until I woke up magically at my home in Utah with the kids all in school. But since that was not to be, I spent my energy keeping us moving, not making a record of our movements.

(By way of disclosure, I did write the rest of the posts about our time in Europe while I was on the flight home, but they didn't save. Bleh. Another reason to hate technology.)

Week 2 began with Sunday church, followed by the arrival of Orlean, Ed's Irish-Scottish post-doc assistant who will be scanning tablets for him in Turkey over the next six months. She came to Prague so Ed could train her on what he needs done and so they could calibrate their equipment. Luckily for Ed, she does pXRF scanning for her own research, plus she's in-between post-doc appointments, AND she has extensive contacts in Ankara, so she's a natural fit. We had a nice time with her and she ate dinner with our family a few times over the week she was in Prague. She went for a walk with us that first day up into the Letenské sady, a park on the north end of the city, just across the river from our apartment. It was a beautiful fall day, one of the last we would have, and I was dying to get out and enjoy it. This park is famous for being a site of students protests during the Velvet Revolution, and I was moved to think of this massive green space teeming with protestors whose solidarity and persistence would help to unseat Communism. This park is also famous as the site of a giant statue of Stalin erected in 1955 and destroyed in 1962. Now its monument is an ugly and massive metronome and the plaza is used as a hangout and skate park for the young and indolent.

Check out this wikipedia image to see the old Stalin monument. 

Most green spaces in Europe now also have a dedicated children's playground,
and Letenské sady included some stylized animal statues for the kids to play on. Abby liked this one.

The hot water in our bathroom had gone out that morning, so our Sunday afternoon ended with a visit from the repairman and the rental agency offering us a new apartment. So we packed up and in three hours we had cooked and eaten dinner and packed our things. Within another hour we were moved into the new apartment a couple miles away on the south end of Wenceslas Square. Ed and I decided we are getting pretty efficient at moving. 

Parking in Prague on weekdays is difficult to find and very expensive, so we found a Park and Ride outside the city next to a train station where we could leave our van during the week. On Fridays I would pick up the car for us to use over the weekend, and then return it to the parking lot on Monday. This meant that Fridays and Mondays were the best times to go on field trips outside of the the capital city. This Monday I took the kids to the town of Kutna Hora, which is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's a quaint little town with four specific churches also on the UNESCO list. We hit each one for only a few minutes, and spent the bulk of our time playing in giant piles of leaves outside the Sedlec Church of Our Lady and Ossuary and St. Barbara's Church. 

Leaf Wars

Joe's best smile.

Our first stop in Kutna Hora was the Ossuary at the Church of Our Lady. Like the catacombs of Paris, it is a decorative collection made from the bones of thousands of people. The legend says that the Church's priest took a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and brought back a handful of Holy Land dirt. He sprinkled the dirt over the graveyard, thus everyone wanted to be buried there. It also didn't help that this was the time of the plague (1330s) and thousands of people were dying each year. Over time they combined the bones into decorative piles. The bone chandeliers and wall decorations, however, weren't made until the 1700s.

Gruesome.

Don't forget the royal coat of arms!

Our next stop was St. James church. It was rebuilt in the early 2000s, and was almost completely empty, so I'm not sure why I paid money to go in there. Interestingly, it shared its northern wall with a Tobacco Museum and its eastern wall with a tobacco factory. 

Very gothic, but only ten years old, so less wondrous than others.

My favorite stop of the day was St. Barbara's church. It was a beautiful fall day, and unlike most other old cathedrals/churches, this was surrounded by lush trees and grass instead of cement or other buildings. This meant I could walk all the way around it and study the flying buttresses and towers and other ornamental elements while the kids played "Zombie" in the leaves.

Architecturally speaking, I think this may be my all-time favorite church.

The inside of St. Barbara's was a rather eclectic collection of artistic periods and styles. There was a late medieval fresco, some modern stained glass, Gothic wood choir seats, and a hideous Baroque chapel: 

While I enjoyed the art, the kids enjoyed the leaves.

Guided Tour of the Old Jewish Quarter: Tuesday I treated myself to a sightseeing trip with only Mary and splurged on a personally guided tour of Prague's old Jewish Quarter. It is now THE trendy and expensive neighborhood to live and work, but both the city and the Jewish Community have done much to preserve the Jewish history and character of the area. Taking pictures was difficult because all the old buildings we visited are squashed between (and it feels like beneath) the taller and more modern buildings surrounding them. The tour guide spoke excellent English and was very interesting. She worked hard to talk about things Mary was interested in, but after a couple hours Mary was over-saturated and zoned out. I enjoyed visiting the sights while getting the history, rather than just visiting and wondering, or trying to get the background from written plaques. 

The Maisel synagogue, one of the oldest in Prague, funded and built in 1590 by the very wealthy Mordechai Maisel.

My favorite stop on the tour was the Old New Synagogue, which has been in continuous use (except for under Hitler) since 1270. It's also the site of the famous Golem, the mud-man build by Rabbi Loew to help protect the Jews of Prague from pogroms and persecution. Unfortunately, one day the Rabbi forgot to un-animate him before the Sabbath and had to destroy him. He then carried the golem's body up the ladder on the back of the synagogue and left him in the attic, where it still resides to this day . . .

The lower roof covers the later addition of the women's room, where women may worship separate from the men.

The stairs to the small attic door. 

A tree of life relief above the original entrance to the synagogue. 

Interior of the Old New Synagogue

This is the old city hall with a newer tower on top. You see two different clocks--the Jewish one that runs counter-clockwise, and the modern one that runs in the usual way.

The Pinkas Synagogue has been converted into a memorial for the Jews who died at Terezin, the ghetto and prison camp in the northern part of the country during World War II. The walls were covered with the names of nearly a hundred thousand people, their birth and death dates, and their towns of origin.

One panel of the twelve foot walls.

A close-up of the names. Hand-painting them must have been a sobering labor of love and remembrance.

The top floor of the Pinkas Synagogue exhibited art work from children who were imprisoned  at Terezin. 

The Old Jewish Cemetery was in use from the early 1400s to 1787, and because of a lack of space and the taboo against demolishing old graves, the keepers of the cemetery would put new layers of soil over existing graves, then putting a new layer of graves on top. Thus, you have thousands of tombstones packed closely to one another but placed there centuries apart.

The color of the tombstones also indicate the century they were installed--lighter stone is earlier.

It was such a beautiful, sunny day.

This was a collection of some of the oldest tombstones for young children that had been buried in the cemetery, and just like the Western Wall in Jerusalem, they have become a popular place for people to put small pieces of paper with their prayers written on them. 

Mary was a trooper--cold and a little bored, but not a word of complaint.

Our final stop was to the Spanish Synagogue, built in the later 19th century in the Moorish style as a showpiece for Jewish prosperity. It was nauseatingly ornate, and our guide said it is now used not only for worship, but also as a museum and concert space. You can also rent it for weddings.

The interior really was stunning but over-the-top. 

This photo was taken looking straight up into the dome. The Jewish star in the center is actually the chandelier. 

And what synagogue has a full-size pipe organ? Wow.

The Karel Zeman Film Museum: One sunny mid-morning we headed out to visit a museum celebrating the Czech director and animator Karel Zeman. It was a fantastic little museum, tucked away in a corner of the Mala Strana down by the river, with lots of hands-on exhibits and fun short films. The kids were mostly not excited to go, but left feeling glad they went. As an added bonus, we discovered in the gift shop on the way out that one of our favorite children's authors/illustrators, Ludmila Zeman, is his daughter. She retold and illustrated the epic of Gilgamesh in three volumes, which we have read and reread. Small world.

Waiting for the subway. 

Isaac was always on the lookout for cool motorcycles, and he loved this one.

The museum was just to the left under the bridge--such lovely architecture!

Zeman was a master of special effects in his live-action films of the 1950s and 60s. Here is a reproduction of his flying machine from his adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. The kids could make the wings flap, turn the wheel, and there was even a fan blowing on them so they could feel the wind as they flew around the room. 

Most of Zeman's special effects were playing with perspective and constructed backgrounds in live-action films. There were lots of opportunities for the kids to make their own movies using reconstructed sets.

This exhibit allowed the kids to create a picture of themselves hanging from the bottom of a hot air ballon, framed in a postcard that says "Stolen Airship Spotted in Prague!" 

A life-size memory game using illustrations from Zeman's movies.

The kids were begging to go bowling (actually, Isaac was begging to go bowling), and I consented to take them, but of course I had to make them go first to a museum. The iconic Narodni Muzeum was cold, but the new building was having a an exhibit called Noah's Ark, which was similar to the Bean Museum. It was an excellent exhibit, focused on biodiversity and species endangerment.

My own wild animals.

An African wild dog that went extinct around 1900--It felt strange to see a stuffed specimen of a now-extinct species.

One of the best things about Prague is that there are grocery stores in the underground tube stations--what a stellar idea! It was so easy to pick up food/dinner/etc. on our way to and from sightseeing. After the Museum we went down into the station, got lunch at the Albert grocery store, then got on the train to the one and only bowling alley in Prague. (Apparently it hasn't really caught on there yet.)
Bowling was tons of fun. The kids could be loud and crazy and throw very heavy objects. It was so fun we went back the next day with dad and played for a couple more hours.

Joe would throw the ball almost straight up and it would come down with a tremendously loud BANG, after which it would roll at .5 mph down to the pins. Sometimes it stopped halfway, and I would have to tiptoe down the lane dividers and give it a push.

The kids loved the shoes. I think the shoes may even have been their favorite part.

One of the things I wish we had done more of throughout our entire trip was go to concerts and performances. I had had big plans to take Abby to see a ballet, Mary to a piano concert, and so on, but I was usually sick of the kids by four p.m. and didn't want to take them anywhere else. While in Prague, Ed and I attended to performances, one of which we really enjoyed and one of which we enjoyed less. The first was a symphonic performance at the Municipal House featuring a female Russian pianist playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. The Smetana concert hall was stunning, although the acoustics weren't great. But I got a seat where I had a perfect view of the pianist's hands, and I can truly say I can't remember ever enjoying a concert so much. She was marvelous, and that concerto is marvelous. It was a great night. 

The outside of the Municipal House, with the gate to the Old City on the left. Our first apartment was just four blocks straight north from here. 

Our second performance was at the Estates Theatre, where Mozart himself conducted the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni 1787. Unfortunately, Don Giovanni wasn't playing, so we decided instead to see The Marriage of Figaro. It was exciting to be in this historic theatre--very small by today's standards and with very low ceilings, but we were somewhat surprised at the amateurish production. I was reminded again, however, that just because something is a couple hundred years old and created by a legendary artist, it is not necessarily appropriate to watch. This staging was plenty suggestive. Live and learn. At least I can say I saw a performance there. 

The interior of the theater--we had box seats (fancy, fancy!).

Some Miscellaneous Photos and Memories:

One evening Ed and I were walking by the Municipal House and saw a street performer playing water glasses. He was absolutely magnificent!

Right in the heart of the city and enclosed by high-rises, accessible only through tunnels, was an old monastery/convent that had been turned into a public garden and park. The kids had fun there for a couple hours one afternoon.

Another fun activity was the model train restaurant, Vytopna. There are model trains that run from the kitchen to the tables, bringing drinks and taking away dishes. We ate here twice for lunch because the price was decent, there was real food for adults and chicken nuggets for the kids, and because it made the kids so happy to get their drinks from a working train!

One afternoon I walked out of the subway and ran into these street performers. Would have thought you'd see Native American style dancers in Prague?

Interlude

Today at church a man I love and admire came up behind me and said "I read every word." At first I didn't know what he meant, but then realized he was talking about this blog. I was surprised and a bit flattered that he would take the time, and he encouraged me to finish writing about our adventures. And then as I logged onto Blogger this afternoon, I saw a comment from an old friend asking for a wrap-up post. First of all, I am grateful that people have read what I have written, and that it means at least a little something to someone else. Second, as I'm sure I've said before, I want to leave a record of our experiences for my kids to read someday. But I just looked over the last post (Prague, Week 1) and realized my tone is rather bitter. The kids and I were so worn out, and trying to write about it when I was cranky wasn't going so well. Maybe now that I'm in my own home again I can write with a more cheerful perspective. So, thank you for the encouragement to finish, and I hope it is more enjoyable than depressing. Here goes . . .

Prague: Week 1

Everyone has always raved about Prague, and since Ed had already traveled there twice, I was very excited to finally visit it. And to have three weeks there! What a luxury! Why, then, did I spend our three weeks there trying so hard to get excited about doing anything at all? It seemed like both the kids and I were worn out. The weather was much better than we deserved at this time of year (usually 55-60 degrees and almost never raining) so we couldn't blame it on that. Everyone was sleeping longer at night, especially me (an embarrassing 9, sometimes 10, hours a night!), so we had plenty of energy. Maybe it's because the museums aren't world class, so they weren't particularly motivating. Maybe it was because the kids had also become generally unimpressed with old architecture, and getting them to a castle, or worse, a church, was difficult. They were definitely tired of making lunches and carrying backpacks and riding trains, and I was definitely tired of making them do all those things.

So even though we went out and toured most every day, there was much more downtime than before. The kids began talking about their friends and their toys and their backyard more and more, and they all began to talk about school in longing tones. I reminded them that they are going to have to start doing real chores again and getting up early, but they're so excited to be with other kids their own ages, it doesn't even phase them. They are also really, REALLY excited to go to Primary where everyone speaks English and there are other kids their age they can talk to. Since we were in Prague for four Sundays, I had hoped the kids could get involved in Young Women's and Primary activities, or at least have a playdate or two, but it didn't ever work out. They are hungry for a steady sociality. To be honest, so am I. I miss my friends, too.

I also couldn't get excited about documenting our outings as we went along, so after waiting so long to write it down, the next few posts will probably read a little more like a travelogue or list. But at least there are some cute kids in the pictures.

As per our traveling tradition, Ed and I went out on the town the first night we were in Prague. The Old Town Square at night is stunning and beautiful, and is one of the very best things to see here. These photos are taken from roughly the same spot, turning in a circle. Amazing.

Our first full day was Sunday, and we enjoyed meeting the members in Prague. There are almost as many missionaries (young and senior) as there are branch members, and they are obviously an integral part. There are enough visitors that they have translation headsets, which are infinitely better than someone translating in the row behind us. Now we can at least force the kids to put the headphones in their ears.

Monday the kids were somewhat disagreeable. I knew a castle wasn't going to be appreciated so we went to the Lego Museum. It was the saddest excuse for a museum I've ever seen (what's worse than a building full of lego creations behind glass so you can't touch them?), but at least they had a small room in which to play Legos for an hour or so. We tried a few stores after the museum to buy new Lego sets, but the kids had a hard time figuring out how best to spend their money. I think they are starting to get a sense for the ridiculous cost of Legos.

Of course, I would have had to pay extra (in addition to the extortion they call ticket prices) in order to take any pictures in the Lego Museum. This photo is from the Tesco department store where we went after the museum to try and find a reasonably-priced Lego set. Hah! They don't exist.

Tuesday I forced the kids to take the tram with me and go to see the Prague Castle--the largest castle complex in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Instead of one massive building, it's a collection of smaller palaces and royal buildings encircled by a huge wall. It's also still the residence of the Czech Prime Minister. The kids thought it was boring, surprise, surprise. I found St. Vitus Cathedral particularly beautiful.

A stunning example of the high Gothic style.

The most amazing thing to me about high Gothic cathedrals is the height of the central nave. It amazes me that eight hundred years ago they could build walls that tall that haven't fallen down. 

The tomb of THE Good King Wenceslas. 

Oh yes, that's right. The kids were happy when I bought them hot cocoa. Granted, it was pretty cold out that day.

The kids also loved the toy store. Actually, I did, too, but chances are good that none of the toys would have made it home in one piece.

One of the streets now encompassed by the castle walls is beautifully restored and centuries-old. This house behind Abby happens to be one of the places Franz Kafka lived. 

Also within the walls of the complex is a "Toy Museum." Like the Lego Museum, it was a disappointing and dusty collection of things for kids that kids can't touch. But there was one whole floor (okay--three small rooms) devoted to a collection of Barbies, many of which were prototypes and never actually sold. And look at the interesting specimens I found!

 

I wouldn't have expected to find BYU and Trailblazer Barbies in Prague. And--does anyone else find Pregnant Barbie slightly disturbing?

Is this Joe's superhero face? 

One of the Prague attractions I was most looking forward to was the Museum of Communism. I know very little about Czech history, but I remember the Velvet Revolution of 1989 when Vaclav Havel took over the post-communist Republic. But I was particularly interested to know how the Czechs themselves represented communism. The museum was mostly photos and text, so the kids didn't get much out of it, but there was an excellent documentary video covering the student and public protests of 1989. 

As you can see from the teeth on the matryoshka doll, the Czech people have no love for Communism. The Museum of Communism was right above a McDonalds and next door to a casino. Stalin must be turning in his grave. 

After the museum, we went out to Wenceslas Square where all the protests in the 1960s and 1980s took place. The kids didn't get the importance of it and whined to go home. I was moved to think that 500,000 people had marched here for weeks to free their nation.

And after all that, we told the kids that Aunt Rachel was engaged. And what did they say? "We want to go home and play computer games!" 

By Thursday, everyone was tired and coming down with a cold, but I tried to brave an outing anyway.  I wanted to walk the Charles Bridge, a stone pedestrian bridge from the 13th century, and I thought I could show the kids the Old Town Square and the Dancing Building while we were out. We'd take a couple fun tram rides, spend only a couple hours, then go back home and relax. 

It was a bad choice.

At the bridge, Isaac is saying "Ugh, this is so dumb."

"The Dancing House," one of the only modern buildings in the architecturally historical Prague. It was small and pretty underwhelming.  

Isaac now: "Can't we just go home, please?!"

At least I got a nice panorama of the Old Town Square

The Skoda Museum. Prague, like other European cities, has narrow streets and very little parking. Most of the parking near our apartment is for residents only, and the only free parking is on the weekends. After doing some research, we found a park-and-ride out in the suburbs and only brought the car into the city on the weekends, making Fridays and Mondays the easiest days to travel outside of Prague. The first Friday I thought the kids would like to see the Skoda Museum, about an hour's drive north of the city. And while Skoda may be the pride of Czech automobiles, the Skoda line isn't exactly prolific. But the kids enjoyed the museum and we had a nice afternoon.

What museum would have little cars for the kids to ride on, and then have no barriers around their show cars? Yikes! 

Skoda started as a bicycle company, then added motors to the cycles.

Then they added seats to the front of the motorized bicycles, and so on. Amazing.

The kids favorite part: the crayons and building toys. Mary was mostly just very bored. 

These were my two favorites in the collection.

The Skoda Museum also had a secondary exhibit of Czech sculptor David Cerny's dioramas of famous moments in Czech history. I was amazed at their detail, as well as the interpretive quality. I won't bore you with too many photos, but I have a new addition to my list of favorite artists.

This one depicts Mozart's premiere performance of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theater in Prague.

HALLOWEEN!

There was ONE pumpkin at the store. 

The kids had been looking forward all week to the Ward Halloween party, and Mary had been planning to attend the youth activity in the afternoon, but the ward party was cancelled, and Mary couldn't get the details about the activity. To combat the disappointment, we decided to splurge and take the kids to the blobsled run. It was so much fun we all went down four times. I wished I could have gotten a photo going down, but I don't have a GoPro and didn't dare risk losing my phone. (My top speed was 43km/hr.) So here are a couple from the top, and one headed back up the hill on the track.

After the bobsled we played at the park for a bit, had a picnic lunch, and drove around the castle area of town. It was a gorgeous day, 65 degrees and sunny, and the autumn leaves were at their height. Then I took the kids to see Hotel Transylvania 2, which they thoroughly enjoyed. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store so they could make their Halloween haul. We had a small dinner and a big dessert.

Here's a nice photo of Linda and Joe I found. Although she can sometimes smother him, they are a happy team. I love these smiles.