Trick or Treat!

Things to do: spend Halloween in Prague. Check...Republic. We went on holiday to the Continent, as the Brits say. As you can see, Prague is a beautiful city. We don't really remember a whole lot of details about it; we took a couple tours, but we didn't really understand the guides. They spoke English, but it had such a thick Czech accent that we didn't soak a whole lot of information in. So don't take my word to be 100% acurate, but pretend like I heard everything right. The city of Prague was fortified in the 12th-14th centuries. This is the Powder Tower, which was one of the towers around the old city. It's called the Powder Tower because they used to keep gun powder in it. There are a lot of old churches because when the city was young there was something like 3200 citizens and 22 churches, including Church of Our Lady Tyn in 'Old Town'. The Jewish Quarter, or Josefov (Joseph's town) houses the oldest preserved Jewish Synagogue in Central Europe, built in the late 13th century. There is a cemetery that holds 200,000 graves but only 12,000 headstones. It is a tiny little cemetery. It holds so many graves because they are layered, with some graves on top of others. Kafka is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery. We took a walking tour through the 'Jewish Ghetto'. Seems a bit of an oxymoron, huh? The River Vltava runs through the city. There are 14 bridges, and the most famous is the Charles Bridge. It is the oldest stone bridge in Praha (the Czech spelling of Prague). There are 30 statues all along it of Christ's crucifixion. It was built during the reign of Emperor Charles IV in 1357 and there is a statue of him as well as his son, St. Wenceslas at the Bridge Tower. At one end of the bridge there are 2 plaques. If you rub one, your wish will come true. If you rub the other your mate will always be faithful, but you can do what you want. I rubbed that one really good! There was actually a queue to touch them. Charles Bridge is a walking bridge only now and always packed with people. The Dancing Building is one of Prague's newer sights. It's nicknamed 'Fred and Ginger.' Check out Daniels' face. (If you click on the picture you can view it full size.) Prague Castle (Praha Hrad) is one of the famous sites. It is one of the biggest castles in the world. This is a view of the castle from afar, and the next shot is a view of the city from within the castle.
It has many buildings inside the walls. It has been home to Czech kings and Holy Roman Emporers, including the current the Czech Republic President, and the government still operates from within it. Little military guys in their dress blues go marching through from time to time carrying their bayonets. There are a couple churches located within the castle. St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral was founded in 1344 and took about 600 years to complete. Good King Wenceslas (yes, the actual good king from the song) is buried there. That song will be going through your head for a while, so you're welcome. Our baby is a great little traveler. We just strap him on and go. He enjoys the ride.He likes to stretch his legs a bit from time to time. And he gets tuckered out and has a little sleep now and then.

Since it was Zeke's first Halloween we felt he should go trick or treating. Obviously we didn't know the neighborhood so we decided to stop at every newsstand and street vendor to get some candy on the bustling street along Wenceslas Square. It's a busy place with lots of newsstands and street vendors. But we're good parents so we stopped at every one. We trick or treated and got candy from each. Except we weren't wearing costumes. And we didn't say "Trick or treat." And we had to pay for our treats. And we got a beer at each stand.