Sunday, June 19
A new day and time to visit the Jewish Quarter.  Tony, from Avalon was there at his desk when we went down for breakfast.  All the things we had heard about river levels.  Yup, they are  high between Nuremberg and Passau so we may not be able to board the boat at Nuremberg but at Passau instead.  We will have a choice of visiting Nuremberg by bus and then to Passau. It will be a long day and may not even happen but he is warning us so we have time to think about whether we want to take the bus to  Passau (4h rs) or Nuremberg and Passau (8hrs).  Time will tell what we will be doing if the river drops or not.
Breakfast was nice but the hotel is huge so there are lots of people all wanting to fill their plates at the same time.  No eggs for me today!  Angela, a retired English teacher  from the Southern US sat with us.  She uses a scooter and has a tour of the Jewish Quarter as well.  The Jewish Quarter was fascinating.   So much sad history, how on earth can we find anything to moan about?   We visited the Maisel Synagogue first.  There we found a very interesting history and exhibit that tells about the life of Jewish people in Czechoslovakia.  Hitler planned to turn this building into a museum  of the " extinct Jewish race".  Despicable man.
Once we had our history lesson we proceeded to Pinkas Synagogue where humankinds disregard for others brings you to dispair.  The names of 77,297 Czech Jews sent to gas chambers at Auschwitz  and other camps are handwritten on the walls.  More than 155,000 Jews passed through Terezin camp.  Most died.  Their names are written here.  The writing is tight, no spaces and covers every square inch of wall. Up a flight of stairs is an exhibit of the Terezin's children's art. Of the 8000 children sent to Terezin, only 240 survived.  The art and photos of the children is incredibly moving.  I didn't want to go to Terezin because I knew I couldn't handle it having read about the camp, but I was wrong.  We should have gone in memory and in tribute to those souls.

The old Jewish cemetery is outside the synagogue.   It is huge. Graves are 500 years and more old.

The Klaus Synagogue was next and is now a museum dedicated to  displays depicting Jewish life, holidays and rituals. Again, we'll worth the visit.

Wedged in between visits to synagogues was a trip to the market.  Your mind gets saturated after a bit in museums so we had a complete change of pace.  The beauty of Prague is that everything is so close.  A five minute walk puts you in a different zone.
Haveiska Market is a block long with stalls set up down the middle of the street.   They sell crafts, crap, fruit, vegetables you name it.  There has been a market here since the 13th century.  We had Chezh ham (me) for lunch and Roy had kobesha.  Unfortunately the sold they ham by the gram and I wound up with enough for a meal for 4.  It seemed you took what they gave you.   It was very tasty as was Roy's sausage.  Then we had to try the ice cream cones.  They make a pastry, roll it on a cylindar, cook it over heat on a spit until it is a light brown.  Then they cut it in about 4 inch segments, dip it in sugar and cinnamon and fill it with ice cream, drizzle chocolate on top. Yum!

We were back to our room for a rest and shower and then out to the Czech cultural and folk dinner with the cruise people.   It was interesting!  We met some of the people.  Most seem to be from the deep south, at least  most at our table were.  There are some from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and a few from Canada.  First we were given Becherovka, an old Czech liquor made of 27 herbs and reminds slightly of Akquavit.  They had long pipes they squirted the wine into your glass with and seemed to refill it after every sip.  The food was delicious and the entertainment fun.
The drive back into Prague took about 15 minutes.  Prague Castle looks beautiful lit up at night so Roy and I strolled back to the bridge to enjoy the view and take some photos.  Then off to bed...