Snowing in Prague

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Prague Pictures
Terezin Pictures


Well, I guess I couldn't stay away from the Canadian winter completely. Jess and I just came back from a 4-day excursion to beautiful Prague where it snowed on the last day of our trip (wet snow that is).

It all started on Wednesday morning (November 30th). We almost missed our flight when the train conductor "replacement" arrived 10 minutes late (we were to arrive at the airport 50 minutes prior to our flight... we arrived 40 minutes with the check-in counter closing 30 minutes prior to flight). We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.

We arrived in the departure lounge of the Gatwick airport starving (because having woken up at 5:00 AM that morning to take the tube and then the train, we were in no mood to wake up earlier to make breakfast). We strolled to a McDonalds and ordered breakfast and coffee. I guess the coffee hadn't sunk in yet when we realized we only had 15 minutes left before our flight was to depart... so we walked very quickly to our gate only to discover our section hadn't been called yet. Finally, we made it on board... took a deep breath... and relaxed for the next 2 hours.

Arriving in Prague was a breeze. No queues for luggage, passport checks or when exiting the airport. We had very good directions to get to the hotel and they proved extremely useful. We took the bus to the metro line and then the metro for two stops and then the tram. We walked the rest of the way (about 5 minutes). We were then shown our humble domain for the next 3 days. We had a very large bedroom (12 feet high vaulted cealings) with an extremely comfortable IKEA bedset. The apartment was along the Neruvoda street, a famous street in the Lesser Quarter leading up to the Castle Steps (for anyone having visited Prague). We shared a full bathroom with another apartment but there was only one night where someone stayed there (we think) and we never heard nor saw the other tenants so we pretty much had the apartment and bathroom to ourselves.



I won't bore you with the details of our trip but I will say Prague is an enchanted, beautiful city which has survived numerous wars, invasions, revolutions and communism. Through it all, the people of the Czech Republic have demonstrated that they could preserve something pristine and wonderful... their city. The city is marked by ondulating hills and amazing 13th to 19th architecture. This ecclectic mix is what makes the city so breath-taking. Every street corner has a different surprise waiting for you. It also has dark secrets as we learnt. After Hitler invaded the Czech Republic in 1938, he commissioned the building of a Jewish museum to highlight the future extinct people. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the museum because we waited till Saturday, our last day, to visit the Jewish Quarter (kind of silly given Saturday is the day of the Sabbath for the Jewish people). But we did get to travel outside of the city to see Terezin, site of a Jewish Ghetto and transit city during the second world war. Over 200,000 Jews were housed in this garrison city during one time or another with a height of 80,000 people living in the city. It should be noted that the city was built for 5,000 people. That meant that when there was major overcrowding in the city, people only had 1.8 square meters of space (this included outside parks and streets).

Close to Terezin (actually less than a kilometer away), there is the Terezin small fortress which was used during the second world war as the Gestapo prison camp. In it, many prominent Czech intellectuals, nationals and Jews were imprisoned. Needless to say, both the Terezin the garrison city and Terezin, the small fortress had a strange eary feel to it. It probably didn't help it was located in the middle of nowhere and that we visited the Jewish Museum, full of drawings and paintings of Jewish children imprisoned in the city during the second world war. None of them survived the war.

But I can't end on such a sad note. We visited the Prague castle which was amazing. We got to see a the Prague string-orchestra perform in the basilica. We also strolled all over the Jewish Quarter, Old Town Square and the Lesser Square. We became enchanted by the people, the sights and the history, even if we were a bit cold (the weather hovered above and below zero... strange how you get used to weather in London which hovers around 5-10 degrees).

Jess and I are finalizing our plans for Africa. We have booked most of our trip with a prelimary itinerary as such:
December 11-12: Cairo, Egypt
December 13-15: Luxor, Egypt (valley of the kings)
December 16-17: Aswan, Egypt
December 18: Cairo, Egypt
December 19-24: Tunis, Tunisia
December 25: Marrakesh, Morocco
December 26-28: Desert Trek in the South of Morocco
December 29: Marrakesh, Morocco
December 30: Casablanca, Morocco
December 31: Rabat, Morocco
January 1: Meknes, Morocco
January 2: Fès, Morocco
January 3: Sevilla, Spain
January 4: Granada, Spain
January 5-7: Barcelona, Spain
January 8-9: Paris, France
And back in London at the end of January 9th! Should be an exhausting but fun Christmas holiday. More news to follow but in case you are interested in getting in touch with us during the holidays, I suggest you contact us by e-mail at lcserge@yahoo.ca.