We slept in yesterday, which seems to be the Czech thing to do. Most places don't open until 10, including restaurants. Instead, everything is open late. It's more or less the opposite of how London worked. We had a luxurious breakfast at a fancy cafe across the street from the Louis Vuitton and Porsche stores. It was close enough to lunch time, so we even had dessert ;) From there, we turned the corner into the Jewish District. We walked past the Old-New Synagogue, one of the oldest in Europe and the place of origin of Golem, and into the Pinkus Synagogue. Part of the Jewish Museum, this synagogue was a somber reminder of the effects of the Holocaust. The synagogue walls were lined with names of those taken, and a room upstairs contained a collection of children's artwork that had been smuggled out of the Terezen Concentration Camp. This is yet another experience that's hard to put into words. As someone who works with young children, it was almost unbearable for me to process. Paintings of memories of home placed next to the harsh realities of the camp. And if I remembered the numbers correctly, only about 100 out of the thousands survived the camp. The exit off the synagogue led to the Jewish cemetery, which hasn't been an active cemetery since the late 1700s, but contains roughly 12,000 gravestones and layer upon layer of remains. From that somber experience, we explored a completely different realm of Prague: the castle. The castle is massive; our tour lasted 3 1\2 hours! This is where the president lives and conducts business. Buildings have been constructed on the premises since the 900s!! There was some outstanding Gothic architecture with incredible detail. So amazing in fact, people couldn't wait to get in! As our tour group tried to get into the building, a mad if angry people also wanted in the building. This led to some sort of Black Friday-esque mob. There was pushing, yelling, and elbowing... all to get into a building! We made it safely and took plenty of photos. The tour also led us to a monastery (where they make beer of course), to a mosaic with over 1.2 million pieces, and to see the changing of the guards. We had dinner at Krcma, a place below ground with a real old world feel. Chad had the pork knee and a liter of beer (proudly pictured above). It was a fun way to end the day's adventure. Today we're off to explore more of the Jewish District, the Beer Museum, and more of the Christmas markets!
