After wandering around for a while looking at all the pretty buildings, it was time to learn something about the Jewish history of Prague. I went to the absolutely breath-taking Spanish Synagogue first, and looked through their collection of items, detailing the history of the Jews from about the 18th century until after WW2.
From there, I was off to the Old-New Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The former was very moving, as the walls were covered in the names of the Czech and Moravian Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. 78,000 of them. Also featured were drawing from children in a concentration camp. It was all pretty grim. The last stop was the Old Jewish Cemetery, which is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world, with the oldest tombstone from 1439. It's listed under NatGeo's top 10 cemeteries of the world, but it didn't have the same vibe as other cemeteries I've been to. It was just too touristy.
After the history lesson of the Jewish quarter, I head back to the main square in search of some Christmas goodies for lunch. Next, it was up to Wenceslas Square, which was less square and more really long rectangle. Again, too touristy, and I didn't really get it. It was just shops. But I did go into this very pretty church.
From there, I walked back over the river to Petrin Hill in search of a weird little church. The Carpathian Ruthenian is made entirely of wood, is 14m x 8m in size, and the tallest of the three spires is actually bigger than the church at 17m high!
Afterwards, I walked through Petrin Hill, a big park in the centre of Prague, as it was getting dark, before heading back over the Charles bridge to have a quick dinner and an early night. I had a 5am taxi booked to the airport the next day - next stop, Budapest!
