Prague Free Tour

My whole trip to Prague is here.

There’s a tour company that gives free tours in cities around Europe…they’re AWESOME.  I cannot recommend the free tours enough.  The guides live in the city and you tip them at the end based on how you enjoyed the tour…this means they’re attentive and usually give you incredible bits of information.

So we started with the astronomical clock which I already told you about.  Every hour between 9 am and 9 pm, the clock has a special ring.  However, after being voted one of the most disappointing places of interests (it's ranked #3 in Prague behind the Castle and Church of Tyn), Prague decided to add a guy and a trumpet.  He places from all four sides of the tower walls.

One of the best parts of the walking tour is just being able to see all of the incredible architecture in Prague, famous for the Art Nouveau architecture style of the late 1800s and early 1900s (pictured on the left).

On the right, is an example of Cubist architecture and fittingly, home of the Cubism museum.  This is the art style made famous by Picasso!

Here's another picture of the amazing weather we had.  It made for pretty pictures, but MISERABLE feet.

The tour also took us through the Jewish part of town, which I really appreciated because often times tours skip the Jewish neighborhoods and fail to mention the hardships this group has faced in Eastern Europe.

On the left is the Old-New Synagogue completed in 1270.  It is said that the body of Golem (created by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel) lies in the attic. A legend is told of a Nazi agent during World War II breaking into the synagogue, but who perished instead. In the event, the Gestapo apparently did not enter the attic during the war, and the building was spared during the Nazis' destruction of synagogues

The Spanish Synagogue is much more recent, completed in the late 1860s. 

The synagogue is remarkable because it is covered in elaborate Islamic-style patterns, some painted and some carved and some covered with gold.

Along with all the sites, our tour guide Rachel imparted a vast amount of information about the creation of the Czech Republic and the history of its citizens, focusing a lot on the times of Nazi and Soviet occupation.