Jewish Quarter and Anton Dvorak

We were really flagging this morning after the long day at the castle. We decided that we would let the girls sleep in and that we would go to the Anton Dvorak museum which was located only 5 minutes from our apartment. I noticed it on Google maps but it seemed pretty low on the tourist radar as it wasn't in Rick Steves book and it certainly didn't hit any of the top things to do in Prague on trip advisor. The museum had opened in 1932 about 30 years after Dvorak's death. The house itself had nothing to do with Dvorak although he at one point had lived in the area. Dvorak was obviously a Czech composer known for capturing many of the Czech folk songs and for some of his symphonies specifically For a New World which is one of my favorites. The museum was small and possessed some of his worldly possessions including his viola, piano eyeglasses and various awards he had won. No manuscripts. They had a very nice video on his life that we watched.

We walked back to our apartment and collected the girls before heading off to a cafeteria just off of Wenseleus square. The cafeteria was in the basement of a building and it was something out of the Soviet era. Large portions of meat and potato meals on plastic trays. My son Chris had recommended it. Of course there were no chicken meals for Madeline and Jada only picked at her meal.We had to go to McDonald's afterwards for Madeline.

By then it was about 1 pm and we had to start our tour of the Jewish quarter. Prague had a large Jewish population of maybe 100000 before WW2 and of course we all know what happened with the holocaust. Only 10000 survived. Prague's Jewish quarter dates back to 1000 AD and despite various setbacks ie Pogroms over the years the community had prospered and in 1876 they were granted full rights as citizens. The tour consisted of three synagogues, one mortuary and a Jewish cemetary. The synagogue was interesting because I had never been in one. The second was interesting as the synagogue was no longer being used and they had inscribed all the names of Czech citizens who had died in the holocaust on the walls according to towns and family names. There were 155000 names. It was rather sobering. The Jewish cemetery was very neat. Lots of gravestones all highly pigglty The mortuary and third synagogue we were getting bored. We stopped for iced coffees before hitting the last synagogue known as the Spanish synagogue which was the most beautiful. We were exhausted after an afternoon of Judaism.Read more