Dresden to Prague

What a spread.

We had an early start this morning because we had a lot of ground to cover.  We left the hotel at 7:45 am.  

We drove to Terezin and met with Katarina Krušpánová.

Jana and Katarina

Petr our fabulous bus driver.  He has quite the sense of humor.  He was our driver during our whole trip for when we are going from city to city.

 A lot of Terezin has been restored and people are currently living here.  But it has quite the history.  It was originally a holiday resort reserved for Czech nobility.   During WWII it was a transition place.  People died but not like the death camps.  People were promised a good life if they gave up their possessions and went here but then it ended out being a stop-over place until they were sent to a death camp.  15,000 children went through and only 150 children survived.

One of the rooms.  They packed them in.

They could not bring much with them.

They still managed to find hope in the arts.  Music

Painting

Note the artist wrote in Villa Willinger because that is what they had been promised, a villa.

Theater

Newspaper

The art, music, theater, newspaper clippings were all found later and restored.  Most of the people who produced the art were murdered later at other death camps.  So poignant, especially with the art of the children.

This is a building that has not yet been restored.

The last good-byes.  This is where the train would pick up whoever was being taken away.  

I just needed to sit for a while.

Remains of a Synagogue

We went from the main fort to the prison.

Cemetery for all of those who died during the Holocaust who had lived in this area.

Some grave stones just had a number.  No one knows who is buried there.

This was very painful.  The pictures I took do not really do justice to the pain, suffering, and humiliation that people dealt with.  Most died from deprivation, disease, and exposure.

Thes cubby holes held the last of their worldly possessions, rings, or momentos. From then on they were dehumanized as much as possible.

The barracks 

The shower room

We left Terezin and Katarina.  We drove to Nelahozeve's castle.  It was about an hour drive away.  Jana handed out chocolate to give us some energy.

There was a nice area for us to have a picnic lunch.  It was a very generous amount and was all provided. Quite a contrast from Terezin.

A large salad with dressing, a sandwich, bread for making a sandwich with fixing to go in it (sliced dried meat, cheese spread, pea spread), cake for dessert, beer or wine, and water.  Wow.  What an impressive picnic lunch.  Most of us couldn't even eat half of what we got.  With the variety of choices everyone had something they liked.  I thought the sandwich was fabulous and the cheese spread. I ate some of the salad because I should.  I liked the honey mustard vinaigrette dressing.   I hated wasting so much food, especially after hearing the stories of all the starving prisoners.  

We met up with our guide Lucie who took us through a renaissance castle, the Nelahozeves castle, House of Lobkowicz.

Sharon, me, Jeanne, and Kris in front of the castle

Lucie and Jana

The inner courtyard

Painting of the 5 senses

Boys were dressed like girls.  The way you can tell the boys from the girls is that boys are usually holding some animal and the girls are usually holding or have a hat or a fan.

They used antlers in some interesting ways.

Trophy room

Dining room

Black Madonna 

Jewelry box

An original door

Current owners of the castle.  The castle has been in the family for generations.  It was taken away in the war.  The family had to petition to have it returned.  They were successful because they had not done anything to support the Nazis during the war.

We got to the K&K Hotel in central Prague about 5 pm.  Petr (our driver) did a great job of getting us close to the hotel.  There was a lot of construction, traffic, and a narrow street.  We were to meet up downstairs at 6 pm for our orientation walk and dinner.  That did not give us much time to settle in and relax.  Jeanne and I had room 620.

Our hotel

Cool looking toy store

Black Madonna museum

A glimpse of the sun

Old Town square

Someone was making bubbles

This was a very beautiful square

We stopped in front of the amazing astronomical clock.

It was very impressive.  Jana talked about all the different parts of the clock.  We were there in time to see the clock strike 7 pm.  I took a movie of that, with the parade of the 12 apostles.  

We went to Restaurant Mincovna for dinner

Dumpling tower with a slice of tender beef and gravy.  It was very tasty.

The dessert was a caramel cream.

Water was included but not the beverages.

After dinner some of us walked with Jana to the river and the Charles bridge to see the Prague Castle lit up.

Cool windows

Wow.  It was worth the walk

Prague has all styles of architecture.  

I turned around and there was the full moon.  Yippee. I didn't miss it. 

Looks similar to "The Bean" sculpture in Chicago

We got home around 10 pm.  It had been a long day so we went straight to bed.