after our lunch and a brisk walk, we came to the old jewish cemetery, which is located in the jewish quarter of prague. here is an interesting fact. the nazis deliberately maintained the buildings and cemetery in the jewish quarter of prague, because they planned for it to be a monument to their success in their hideous goals. it's the only jewish quarter in europe that is relatively the same as it has been for centuries. and when you have been all over europe, it's very sobering to walk around this area and remember all the places you've been that had neighborhoods like this, that were thriving and historic and full of history and ancestors and tradition-- and there's not a trace left.
the jewish quarter is similar to the prague castle ticket: you buy one ticket for a number of different buildings. again, we only had the afternoon, so we did the minimum, which included 4 synagogues (all of which now hold various collections of jewish artifacts, literature and culture), and the jewish cemetery. you are not allowed to take photos inside the buildings, and i respect that. but you can take photos in the cemetery, so here are some:
some of these graves are from the 1400's.
and some of them have coffins buried on top of coffins. that is why the tombstones are so close together. coffins are piled on top of coffins, some 12 layers deep, and the tombstones are reset in the upper layer of soil, all in a row.
the outside of one the spanish (i think) synagogue's window.
and then we were museum-ed out. we'd been to six that day, if you count them all separately. and so we sat on a bench for a very long time. then we saw this statue dedicated to kafka, and ryan took a picture.
so did i.
then we walked back to our hotel. (we had walked 10 miles by this point. yay us)
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