Europe 2013: Prague Day 6, Part II: Jewish Quarter

After a morning spent at the Prague Castle, I was quite ready to escape the crowds.

A visit to Prague’s Jewish Quarter gave us a bit more breathing room, but there were still troves of tourists in the area. We purchased a combined-entry ticket that allowed us to visit most all of the sights in the Prague Jewish Museum, which actually consists of four synagogues and a cemetery.

We began our self-guided tour in the Pinkas Synagogue. Inside is a memorial to 80,000 Jewish Victims of the Holocaust from the Czech Republic. The walls are covered with the names of those whose lives were tragically cut short. It was a rather moving exhibit, and my eyes welled up with tears.

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We visited all of the synagogues included in our Jewish Museum ticket, but pictures were not allowed inside any of the buildings.

Exterior of the Old New Synagogue:

We also walked through the Old Jewish Cemetery, a tiny graveyard packed with over 12,000 tombstones, and the bodies of thousands and thousands more beneath the ground. In the past, Jews were prohibited from burying their dead outside of the Jewish Quarter, and so they were confined to this small area for a graveyard. The most recent gravestone in the cemetery dates from 1787. [source]

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The flashiest synagogue we visited was the Spanish Synagogue.

Inside the Spanish Synagogue:

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After a long, long day spent stomping the grounds of Prague (seriously, we covered A LOT of ground!), a rest in our hotel room was needed.

A bit later, we headed out for an early dinner.

And I mean early – we may have been the only people in Prague eating dinner at the early hour of 6:00 PM! But we had tickets to a show at 8:00 PM that had general admission seats, so we wanted to get there at a decent hour, and didn’t think we could wait until after 10:00 PM for dinner!

So we went to one of the few places serving dinner at such an hour – a touristy restaurant in Old Town Square.

Natch, we both ordered once of the “traditional” Czech entrees that included a beer. Anything that comes with a beer is fine in my book. Interestingly, most restaurants just have one or maybe two types of beer on draft in Prague. The ones I saw most frequently were Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, or Staropramen. Pilsner Urquell was undoubtedly my favorite, but this restaurant served up Gambrinus. That works. Beer with a view!

I ordered a marinated beef sirloin dish, which, according to one of my Instagram pals, is known as “svíčková.” The dish consists of braised beef sirloin and gravy, topped with cranberry compote, cream, and a slice of lemon, accompanied by bread dumplings. I had low expectations of the food at this touristy restaurant. This actually tasted better than it looked. I was starving after an exhausting day and gobbled this whole plate up.

The huz ordered a similar dish, but with pork.

I stole just a bite of this apple strudel the huz ordered for dessert.

And enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine while enjoying the Old Town Square atmosphere. Vacation at its best.

After dinner, we headed to the Image Theater, located just a block from Old Town Square.

We had tickets to see one of their black light theater shows, which is apparently “a thing” in Prague. I was intrigued, so we checked it out.

The specific show we saw was entitled “Afrikania,” which alternated between some really amazing dancers performing in black light reactive clothing and a little comedy skit. We really enjoyed the show – it was a fun way to spend an evening!