Breakfast was notable not because of its quality or anything (although it was quite nice) but because this was actually the only day that we didn't either eat where we were staying or just buy stuff at the grocery store and end p eating it in a parking lot or park somewhere. Believe me, after a couple weeks you can get really tired of having an apple and a roll for breakfast.
But on to the actually interesting bit. The Great Synagogue Tour! We ended up going to around 5 different synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, or Josefstadt (Joseph's City, named after Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II), most of which were museums dedicated Jewish life during various periods in Prague. Among the highlights were the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Old-New Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue and the Spanish Synagogue. The Cemetery was founded in 1478 and for over 3 years it was the only permitted burial ground for Jews. There are over 12,000 gravestones today but around 100,000 people are thought to have been buried here in layers up to 12 deep. The grave of Rabbi Low (with a trema over the o, in my guidebook but Loew on wikipedia) is also here and visitors place pebbles and wishes on his grave as a mark of respect. I also saw a few coins. According to some legends, the Rabbi constructed a golem out of clay to protect the ghetto from ant-Semitic attacks and pogroms. The golem soon became violent attacking gentiles and in some stories turning on its creator and attacking Jews as well. The Holy Roman Emperor begged the Rabbi to deactivate the golem promising to stop persecuting Jews and eventually the Rabbi did so by rubbing out first letter of the word "emet" (truth or reality) from the golem's forehead leaving the word "met" (dead). The golem's body was then stored in the attic of the Old-New synagogue where some legends say its remains. While we did visit the Old-New Synagogue the attic is not open so I was unable to confirm this. Which is probably for the better.
CemeteryThe Old-New Synagogue was original just called the New synagogue back in 1270 and before another synagogue (now destroyed) was built nearby. It is one of the earliest Gothic buildings in Prague but more impressively it is also the oldest synagogue in Europe.
Windows onto a hall that is part of the 18th Century extension built to allow women a view of the service.
Rabbi Low's chair (16th century?)
Windows onto a hall that is part of the 18th Century extension built to allow women a view of the service. 
Rabbi Low's chair (16th century?)
The Pinkas Synagogue boarders the Cemetery and was founded in 1479. It now serves as a moving memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia imprisoned at Terezin and who's names are inscribed on the walls of the main nave and adjoining areas.. It was originally designed and executed in the 1950s and later restored after the fall of the Communist regime and reopened in 1996.
No pics inside , i found this online
The Spanish Synagogue was built much much later in 1868 on the site of the oldest Prague Jewish house of prayer. It was designed in a Moorish style and was just really pretty and cool looking. Here's a sneaky (no pics allowed) picture of a window.
I haveAfter a full morning of Synagogues and lunch at subway, which I was not entirely happy with (I felt like a bad tourist and have disliked Subway since a particular road trip which the parental unit probably recalls better than I), we headed back to the Old Town Square to go into the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. It was begun in 1365, was the main Hussite church from the early 15th century to 1620 and has really awesome Gothic steeples.
super cool Gothic steeples!
Then it was off to the Museum of Communism, which we had discounts for from the hostel and was really a lot better than I expected from a museum tucked away next to a casino (in the same building really). I won't go much into the Communism Museum since I suspect many people reading this actually were alive during that era. But, it was good and interesting. We also ran into some people making candy along the way and that was fun to watch.
No pics inside , i found this onlineThe Spanish Synagogue was built much much later in 1868 on the site of the oldest Prague Jewish house of prayer. It was designed in a Moorish style and was just really pretty and cool looking. Here's a sneaky (no pics allowed) picture of a window.
I haveAfter a full morning of Synagogues and lunch at subway, which I was not entirely happy with (I felt like a bad tourist and have disliked Subway since a particular road trip which the parental unit probably recalls better than I), we headed back to the Old Town Square to go into the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. It was begun in 1365, was the main Hussite church from the early 15th century to 1620 and has really awesome Gothic steeples.
super cool Gothic steeples!Then it was off to the Museum of Communism, which we had discounts for from the hostel and was really a lot better than I expected from a museum tucked away next to a casino (in the same building really). I won't go much into the Communism Museum since I suspect many people reading this actually were alive during that era. But, it was good and interesting. We also ran into some people making candy along the way and that was fun to watch.
Finally we headed back to the hostel to have dinner and try some definitely Czech beer. We had a lot of time to kill before our night train. Fortunately, the hostel was having a movie night so we watched the Big Lebowski in English with Czech subtitles and took advantage of the free popcorn before collecting our luggage from storage and heading off to catch our 0:04 train to Wien (Vienna). One thing about the train, we did not have sleeper bunks or even couchettes because these were more expensive so we (three) sat in our six person little cabin with two strangers all night trying to sleep. Yeah, trains are fun. At some point in the early morning a girl came by wanting to know if we'd seen anyone go past because someone had stolen her computer. So, I guess we were pretty lucky with the train situation. I really really like Prague and kept thinking I'd have to come back sometime, but how much of that was real and how much was just excitement because it was the first city of our trip I'm not entirely sure. Sill, Prague was pretty great.
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