Chapter 5
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Nov. 7, 8, 9
Nuremberg and Prague
Map Review Time
We made it to the end of the river cruise portion of our trip, now we start in Nuremberg and then continue to Prague for a couple of days.
Tuesday, Nov 7: Nuremberg, Transfer to Prague
Disembarkation from the boat was straightforward and on time: with only about 150 people on board, it is not a complicated process. We were in a specific group that included only the people who were doing the post-cruise visit to Prague, about 15 of us. The bus was waiting for us just a few steps from the dock so we verified that our luggage had made it on the bus and climbed aboard ourselves. The plan for the day was first, a brief look around Nuremberg, the end point of our cruise, and then a drive to Prague.
Our first stop in Nuremberg was a bit of a surprise to me, as I quickly recognized it, but did not realize that it still existed. This was the site of the pre-war Nazi annual rallies with the large reviewing stand and some other structures. The reviewing stand was by far the largest and most impressive of the remaining structures. It was not only a review stand for Hitler to deliver speeches from, but also a large seating area for the Nazi party elite.
Reviewing stand at Nazi Rally grounds
Our guide for the day had brought along a notebook with photos taken at some of the rallies and they showed the large numbers of people who attended these rallies. Nuremberg was considered the “home” of the Nazi party so the annual rallies were held here. Obviously, these rallies were well organized and choregraphed in order to put on such a show to the world. The photo (of a photo) just below shows a view of the rally grounds from high up on the reviewing structure with Hitler standing and reviewing the mass of people in front of him. In the photo above, he would have been standing on the small raised platform with railings around it.
Photo from one of the rallies with Hitler on reviewing stand
The reviewing stand is kept and maintained as a reminder of how a nation can be misled and taken into a very dark direction. The fields around the stand are used for multiple purposes: when we were there, the road immediately in front of the stand had been marked off with a starting grid for a car race. After leaving the rally grounds we rode through the part of Nuremberg that had hosted the “Nuremberg Trials” of the WW-II war criminals. It seemed appropriate that we got views of the “before and after” of the Nazi party: before and after the second world war.
After looking at the events around the second world war, we went back much further in history. The bus dropped us off close to the main market square in the city and we started a bit of a walking tour. The first (and primary) stop was the market square where there were several historical structures. In the foreground of the photo below is the fountain that was constructed in 1396 and is still beautiful. Matter of fact, it is so beautiful that its name is “Schoner Brunnen” or “Beautiful Fountain”.
Nuremburg’s main market square with fountain and church
The city hall is adjacent to the fountain and across the square is the Frauenkirche or, “The Church of Our Lady”, that was started in 1352 and took about 10 years to build. You may notice the clock on the front of the church which is part of the glockenspiel or mechanical clock that still works to this day. We will return to this a little later.
At this point our guide turned us loose to walk around the area as we liked and have lunch at one of several restaurants he pointed out, but we were to return to the square before 12 noon as that is the one time each day that the glockenspiel operates. A small river, the Pegnitz, flows gently through the town with buildings stacked along its edges. We walked over the bridge close to us and explored the area for a while. The main activity appeared to be some workers starting to set up the decorations and facilities for the coming Christmas Market which would be centered in the square.
Pegnitz River running through Nuremburg
As with almost any market area in Europe, there was a very nice open-air fresh produce market with colorful and nice looking fruit and produce. I was tempted to purchase some of the produce, just because it looked so good, not that we really needed anything else to eat.
Another colorful fruit market
Since we were supposed to get ourselves some lunch and be back to the square by noon, we headed to one of the restaurants for a slightly early lunch. The Bratwursthause restaurant served good German foods with only a slight tourist slant to them. There was an elevated cooking platform in the middle of the restaurant, where there were always some sausages on the grill and a large pot of sauerkraut on the stove. We shared a large pretzel, had the recommended grilled sausages and sauerkraut, and made it back to the square in plenty of time for the “show”.
The Bratwursthause restaurant
Truthfully, the mechanical clock was a bit disappointing, but when you realize the level of mechanical complexity when it was constructed, it really is quite amazing. The show went through three phases: first the bells rang out the hour and a lot more as they must have rung at least 20 or more times. Then a small figure next to the clock face moves a little (I suspect that other figures originally moved also), and finally some figures circle around the clock face and main figure three times. You can get a feel for the action in this condensed video of the mechanical clock. In the second phase, you have to look closely to see the small figure moving at about 4:30 position on the clock face and a couple of feet from the clock. After the mechanical clock excitement, we headed back to the bus, boarded, and drove off to Prague.
The drive was supposed to take about 2.5 to 3 hours, but of course there was a problem. When we should have been about an hour from Prague, the traffic on this interstate type freeway (the E50) essentially stopped. We inched along for probably 40 minutes, then finally got to an exit where we could get off on some local roads. Of course, all the other traffic on the E50 was doing the same thing so these roads were also backed up. We eventually got past where the obstruction was (we never found out just what the problem was), back onto the E50, and got into Prague about an hour and a half late. We checked into the hotel and Marcia said that she would be talking a walk around the area and through the old city of Prague in 30 minutes, if anyone wanted to join her. Well, of course we did!
Our hotel, was about a block off the main plaza in Prague, a very convenient location. With Marcia in the lead, we left the hotel and headed to the Plaza de Wenceslas. To a large degree during our stay in Prague, everything was centered around this plaza and, we knew that if we could find the plaza, we could get back to the hotel.
The Plaza de Wenceslas in Prague
We walked to the end of the plaza (the opposite end from the National Museum that you see in the photo above) and soon entered what is considered the “Old Town”. Prague was fortunate and was not bombed or shelled in WW-II, so there are many of the old structures still in very good condition. Our first stop was in another plaza, the Plaza de la Ciudad Vieja, which is the largest and most significant within the old city.
The Plaza de la Ciudad Vieja
There is an old town hall and several churches around this square and in the center of the square is a momument and a statue of the religious reformer Jan Hus. The square is a popular meeting point and many events are held here throughout the year. Close by the square is another historical building, the “Powder Tower”. Construction was initially started in 1475 as a gate to the city and it was called simply the “New Tower”. The tower was used to store gun powder in the 17th century, giving it the name it is known by today.
The “Powder Tower” (Prasna brana)
When we got back to the Plaza de Wenceslas, we knew that we could find our way to the hotel and a number of us spotted an interesting looking restaurant and headed in for dinner. The food turned out to be not as interesting as the restaurant’s appearance, but at least we got to the hotel and went to bed with reasonably full stomachs.
Wednesday, Nov 8: Prague Tour & Folklore
We had two main activities scheduled for today: a (fast) walking tour of the old town and Prague Castle area and then a evening dinner with folklore entertainment.
Like a couple of days previously in Bamberg, this was to be an active “hike” through some of the most interesting parts of Prague and our guide was a fast walker, although not quite as fast as our Bamberg guide. Our tour got off to an interesting start only about a block from our hotel as we went into a sort of interior shopping mall. The most interesting part, however, was in the atrium area of the mall: an upside-down horse hanging from the ceiling. And, not just the horse, but also a rider seemingly riding on the horse’s belly. The rider is King Wenceslas , the same person for whom the large plaza is named for.
The Upside-down dead horse, with King Wenceslas
The sculptor, David Cerny, is known for somewhat weird and quirky art and was apparently mocking the king by placing him on an upside-down (and dead) horse. While King Wenceslas lived in the 14th century, Cerny created his sculpture in 1999, so I assume it was not very significant to the king.
From the shopping mall, we walked out onto the plaza (named for King Wenceslas) where we had been the night before. It is a large plaza with the national museum at one end and it seems to be one of the key landmarks in the city.
The Plaza de Wenceslas in daytime
From the plaza, it is a 5 minute walk to the “Old town” part of Prague which has many old buildings and monuments of interest. Prague’s old buildings are in better condition than those of most European cities because the city was not bombed or the site of any significant battles in World War 2. One of the best known of these structures is the Old Town Hall and its Astronomical Clock.
The Astronomical Clock at the Prague Old Town Hall
The basic workings of the clock was started in 1410 and was occasionally enhanced over the next 200 years to the complexity and completeness you see above. It also has a mechanical clock feature, somewhat similar to the clock in the Nuremberg square and the figures do move each hour. As you might expect, the clock and its mechanisms have been repaired and renovated numerous times over the centuries.
Not far from the Plaza de la Ciudad Vieja, where the Town Hall and clock are located, is the most famous of a number of gate towers that were originally built to guard the gateways to the city, the “Powder Tower” that we saw the previous night. The tower in the photo below looks very similar as it has a similar purpose and was built about the same time. This tower guards the Old Town end of the Charles Bridge, probably the most famous of the several bridges that cross the Vltava river.
The Old Town Bridge Tower at the Charles Bridge
The Old Town Bridge Tower was begun in 1357 and has guarded this gateway ever since. The Charles bridge was started at the same time as the tower and connects the two most important parts of medieval Prague, the Old Town and the Prague Castle complex. Since our destination on this walk was the Prague Castle, we had to walk across the Charles Bridge.
Looking from Charles Bridge toward Prague Cathedral and Castle
The bridge offers interesting thing to look at itself, such as numerous statues and monuments, as well as impressive sights of the city. From the bridge we had a good view of our destination, the Prague St Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle complex.
Yes, we really were in Prague (and yes, it really was cool).
As you might guess from the photo above, it was a rather cool day and there was a stiff wind blowing. At least it was not raining as it had been for much of our trip. After crossing the bridge, we made our way through the streets with shops and cafes all around us. Since the cathedral was at the top of a hill, we had a pretty good uphill hike to get there.
Shopping area on the west side of the Vltava river
We did make one shopping stop along the way when our guide steered us into a chocolate shop. The young woman working there was very helpful and patient as we tried various chocolate covered items, including about every kind of nut you have ever heard of (and some you haven’t).
They had chocolate covered peppercorns!
I was going to avoid purchasing anything, but then I tried the chocolate covered peppercorns… wow… They were definitely unique and given my history of hot foods (need any “Flaming Gator” Hot Sauce??), I had to get a small box of them. I don’t understand why most people eat one chocolate covered peppercorn and say they have enough.
Once we got up the hill and were approaching the Prague Castle, we had a nice view of the Prague skyline. What struck me was that, for such a large and modern city, there was an almost complete lack of tall “sky-scraper” buildings. I don’t know if this is the result of poor weight bearing ground formations, or some kind of legal height restriction, but it did make for a nice view.
Nice view of Prague from Prague Castle grounds
Our destination was the Prague Castle complex and we had one last hill to climb to get there. The initial parts of the castle complex were built in the 9th century, but I’m sure it has had numerous expansions since that time.
Approaching the Prague Castle main building
With over 750,000 square feet of interior dpace, it is the largest “ancient castle” in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In addition to the primary castle, there are multiple other structures in the comnplex, such as museums, churches, art galleries, towers and gardens. This 360 degree video of the Prague Castle complex will give you some idea of the other buildings in the immediate vicinity of the castle.
We walked through part of the grounds of the castle, coming out again in a courtyard somewhat behind the primary castle. From here we had a great view of probably the most visible other structure in the area, the Prague St Vitus Cathedral, which is the largest cathedral in Prague.
The Prague St Vitus Cathedral (the largest cathedral in Prague)
After walking around the cathedral, we walked down a sloping walkway, leaving the complex behind, but providing another great view of Prague, the Vltava river, the Charles bridge, and the Old Bridge Tower.
Looking back at the river, Charles Bridge, and Prague
On our way back to the Old Town, we went across a different bridge, just out of view to the left in the photo above. We went through the Old Town and, once more, found ourselves in the Plaza de la Ciudad Vieja. Here our guide said our tour was over and gave us the challenge of finding our own way back to our hotel. We only made one wrong turn, and quickly realized that and recovered to successfully get back to the hotel.
The Plaza de la Ciudad Vieja in daytime
We relaxed and looked around the area close to the hotel in the afternoon, waiting for time to meet and head to our evening activity.
In the evening, about 14 of us loaded onto the bus and headed to a building on the outskirts of Prague where we were to get some local Czech food, hear some traditional Czech music, and see some Czech folk dancing. When we arrived, there were already other groups there, probably making for a total of about 50 people. Judging by the expressions of the musicians when they started playing, I was not optimistic about the quality oif the entertainment for the evening. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.
The three musicians (they looked happier later)
I’ll get to the music and dancing in a minute, but first a word about the food and wine. The food was cooked in large quantities and dished out into simple plates, but it did taste good and I thought it did probably represent the typical local foods. The wine was nothing special, except for the way it was served. The wine server carried two glass containers with long narrow “spouts” through which the wine was directed into the glasses. I think this video of the process will explain it best.
Music and dancing does not lend itself well to normal photo, so this section is going to be “video intensive”, so bear with me. The musicians were really pretty good: here is a composite video of some of their performance. The two dancers did several numbers, both “straight” folk dancing and a couple of silly/comedy numbers. This dance video should give you an idea of both. The musicians also demonstrated a couple of very unusual traditional Czech instruments, one of which reminded me of an Australian Didgeridoo and the other… well, I think you will recognize it if you take a look at this video of the unusual instruments. But the instrument that interested me the most was the one the man was playing while seated: it sounded different than about anything else I’ve heard. At the end of the evening, I went up and asked him what the instrument was called and he said it was a Dulcimer. It did not look or play like any Dulcimer I have ever seen before, but a little research later showed me that it was a “Hammered Dulcimer” and these Hammered Dulcimers come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and complexities. Take a look at this Hammered Dulcimer video and I think you will agree that it is unique.
At the end of a pleasant evening, we headed back to the hotel and got a good night’s sleep before a rather big day tomorrow.
Thursday, Nov 9: Prague and Terezin
Today our primary activity was not an especially pleasant one, but a necessary one: a visit to the Nazi Concentration Camp at Terezin. Terezin is a town and a fortress (two, actually) about 30 miles north of Prague that was used as a prison and concentration camp during the second world war. It took the bus about an hour to get there from our hotel and we unloaded and made the short walk to the first site, the “Small Fortress”.
Sign at entrance to the Terezin “Small Fortress”
The Terezin Fortress was originally built in the late 18th century and was composed of two parts. On the west side of a small river, the Large Fortress was a normal fort of the time, with facilities for housing, feeding, training the garrison troops, and accommodating their families, and, of course, rather robust defensive fortifications. The “Small Fortress” on the east side of the river was designed and built as a prison. Probably the most famous individual who was held as a prisoner was Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, effectively starting the first world war.
When Germany took over what is now the Czech Republic early in WW-II, the German and Czech leaders quickly realized that Terezin could be used as a prison for Jews and political prisoners. There were two primary prison areas, the “Jewish Getto” where most of the Jews were held, and the prison section of the Small Fortress, which also held many Christians. Of the approximately 190,000 people who passed through Terezin as prisoners, about 32,000 were not Jews, but various forms of political prisoners. Most of the people coming into Terezin were eventually moved on to other prisons or concentration camps, but about 33,000 died here, both Jew and Christian. Most died from malnutrition and disease, but hundreds (mostly political prisoners) were executed here. There no mass killing facilities here, such as gas chambers, but the horrors were very real.
One thing that struck me as we entered the area was the cemetery in front of the Small Fortress. There were row after row of simple grave markers, all essentially the same, and overlooking the cemetery was a Christian cross and a Jewish Star of David. The cemetery and the symbols were put in place after the war, of course, but I thought it fitting that the people were placed here together: they lived, suffered, and died in a similar manner so they are now resting together.
Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress: Note the Christian Cross and Jewish Star of David
This short video of the cemetery may give a better idea of the extent of the cemetery. After entering the Small Fortress, the first area we visited was the area that incoming prisoners would have first seen, the administrative and medical facilities. All incoming prisoners (although the Jews were generally referred to as “prisoners”) had a brief medical check then name, age, and family information was recorded and all possessions taken from them before they were assigned to one of the prison blocks.
Offices and administrative buildings
A few of the prisoner blocks.
The prison blocks were a bit rougher than the administration facilities. In the winter they had little or no heat and were very cramped. Facilities designed to accommodate little more than 2000 prisoners were stuffed with as many as 36,000 people.
One of the typical prisoner blocks that accommodated 48 people
The prisoners had to construct much of the “furniture” in the rooms where they slept and spent much of their time. In crowded conditions like this, any disease would spread rapidly and the malnourished people did not have the strength to survive it.
The “Shaving room”, which was seldom used.
One of the interesting things about the Terezin prison is the lengths that the Nazis went to in order to hide the actual conditions here. They produced a movie showing families playing sports and working in gardens as though this was almost a vacation place. When Red Cross teams came to check the conditions, they were shown facilities like the “shaving room” above. But these rooms were only open when the prison had visitors.
Housing facility for the staff and guards
For the guards and administrative staff, this was considered a good assignment, as it was much safer than serving on the front lines. There was even a swimming pool for the staff.
Firing positions for guard target practice
The guards still had to maintain their training and there was a firing range with sand “boxes” where the soldiers could kneel or lay down in normal firing positions.
Backstop for the target practice
When doing target practice, they used a very thick fortress wall with dirt piled in front as the backdrop for the targets. Unfortunately, they sometimes used prisoners for targets.
The “cinema” or Movie Room
There was also a cinema or movie room that was primarily used for staff entertainment. When inspection groups, like the Red Cross, would visit, some of the healthier looking prisoners would be put in the cinema and the swimming pool and told to have fun. As part of our tour, we did view much of the film that was made by the Nazis that convinced many people that this was a healthy and productive facility. Knowing what we know today, it is hard to imagine how people could have been fooled by that propaganda film, but I guess that most of the world had no idea what was really happening in such concentration camps.
Photo of a map of the Large (left) and small (right) fortresses
After touring the Small Fortress, we got back into the bus for the short ride to the “Large Fortress”. This was more like a town than a fortress, it just happened to have walls and fortifications completely around it. You can get an idea of the relative sizes of the large and small fortresses in the photo above: the large fortress was definitely large!
There was a large open park area in the middle of the large fortress and a museum to one side of the park. Admission to the museum was included in the tour, so we headed that way. The most memorable part of the museum was one room in which the names of most of the prisoners had been written onto panels on the walls. From a distance, the panels just looked somewhat grey, with a faint pattern to them.
Four walls covered with the names of most of the victims
As you got closer, you could see the individual names and get some appreciation for how many people had gone through this facility, most to their deaths.
Small section of above photo so you can see the names
Most of the large fortress looked like almost any town, with well maintained buildings and public areas. At Marcia’s suggestion, we had made sandwiches to bring with us, using materials from the breakfast buffet, so we found a bench to sit on and ate our sandwiches. Soon after we finished lunch, we climbed back into the bus for a quiet ride back to the hotel in Prague.
Some of the buildings of the “Large Fortress”
After we got back to Prague, we asked Marcia if she could join us for dinner on our last night on the tour. She said she would like to, but that some other people had already invited her to dinner. It turned out that the “other people” were two brothers and the wife of one of them, whom we had gotten to know and had sort of hung around with during the cruise and tour, so we all went to dinner together. Marcia led us to a nice restaurant not far from the hotel and we all had a very enjoyable last night in Prague and on the tour.
Susan and I and Marcia and friends we made on the trip
After dinner we packed our bags and made ready for a rather early departure in the morning.
Friday, Nov 10: Leaving Prague
Marcia was there to see us off from the hotel at 6:00 in the morning. She had been up for some time already, as she had seen our friends off at something like 4:00 AM. We had a private taxi for the 40 minute transfer to the airport where we were met by another “helper” who escorted us to our check-in counter and then to the security line. The hotel had provided “box breakfasts” for us and, since they had drinks included, we found a couple of seats to eat/drink our breakfast before going through security and finding our way to the appropriate gate. We had to wait about an hour until departure time, but the flight was on time and reasonably comfortable.
Leaving the Prague airport
There are no non-stops from Prague to Atlanta, so we had to stop in Amsterdam for a connection. Most European airports seem to be in a continual state of construction and confusion, but we found our departure gate in Amsterdam without too much problem. Another hour wait, and we boarded our Delta flight to Atlanta.
Everything was wet as we left Amsterdam.
No matter how good and interesting the trip may be, it always feels good to be headed home, and this was no different.
The map says that we are headed home.
End of Chapter 5:
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