Path: Eric’s Site / Eric / Travel / Europe 2010 / 2010-10-14

Europe 2010

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Introduction. October 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. Home.

2010-10-14: See Praha

In the morning, I went to the Pinkas Synagogue for the exhibit Children’s Drawings from Terezín. These are drawings made by children, many around 11-13 years old, who were held in Terezín during World War II. Various drawings show where the children lived previously, where they were living then, armed guards, where the children wanted to be, and visions of returning home. Many of the drawings are labeled with the artist’s dates of birth, transport to an extermination camp, and death.

I had lunch at Country Life, which is a vegetarian buffet-style cafeteria priced by weight, very much like Country Life in Keene, New Hampshire. I was also surprised to see a branch of my former bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, in Praha. That is a bit like seeing the Bank of New Hampshire in Paris.

I took a walking tour of the city. On the Charles Bridge, the tour guide talked about two plaques accompanying one of the statues. One of the plaques shows a priest who was tortured and thrown into the river for refusing to tell the king what the queen had confessed to the priest. The priest is shiny because people rub the plaque, either to keep a secret from coming out or to benefit from the priest’s endurance. The other plaque depicts a soldier and a dog, and the dog is shiny. According to the tour guide, the dog is shiny because college students came out one night and polished it, resulting in tourists rubbing it ever after.