(Date of this entry: 12/5/2023) It happens all the time without warning! We saw it lots over our time in Prague in chunks of snow fall off tall buildings. Thankfully nobody we saw has been hit or hurt by it. At least additionally it appears mostly like soft chunks of snow, not hardened ice. I had some rain down on me.

Anyways, today was a fun day out walking around the old town. We visited the main market again, but this time we also went to the nearby Havels Christmas Market. It was small but neat. This was followed by a walk to the also famous Wenceslas Market, which is set up along Wenceslas Square. Except it’s not a square, it’s a very long fancy upper-class fancy shopping street. It’s wonderfully decorated and the music playing down the street was great. Down far at the end is the huge Národní Muzeum – the museum of natural history. We didn’t visit but it’s neat to see even from the outside.

After that street, we made it back to the main town square. At this point my mom and I split up to wander around the main Christmas Market, while she went on a tour of the Prague’s Dark Underground Dungeon Tours.

Wait, no it was the other way around. I went on a city walk tour, where a few points we wandered with our guide underground into old peasant quarters under an old wealthy medieval family’s manor and down into the old Prague Torture chamber. You would never know where the entrance to these is walking down the street. The servant quarters was down a staicase in a simple and casual bar at the end of an alley, through a simple walkway that looks like nothing more than a utility closet.

I didn’t really get what the second underground part was, but we learned about the legend of the Golem of Prague, a great and powerful being made of clay by Rabbi Judah Loew in the 1500’s. He created it in order to protect the Jews and Ghetto of Prague from attacks and pogroms. After a long time on the job, and without a break from the Rabbi, the golem became enraged and then began attacking people indiscriminately, killing many!

Nearby this chamber was the ol’ torture chamber, where we learned about a famous medieval excutioner of Prague Jan Mydlar who at one point, did his deed for the city I think it was 17 times in 1 day. Ironically, he originally wanted to become a doctor to help people, and studied for five years. However, he ultimately failed his final test, leaving him with detailed knowledge of anatomy and bodily functions, and only other one idea of how he could use his skills.

After the tour was over we wandered around a bit more and again visited the famous astronomical clock of Prague, but this time we stayed to watch it tick. Interestingly, the little skeletal figure tugs on the bell as figues above spin around for a bit. Neato!

After that we made a nice walk a ways west to the incredible Charles Bridge, built by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. It has neat statues lining it all the way across Prague’s Vltava river, and gives awesome views of the iconic Prague Castle. Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel after dinner and another successful day.

Pictures to come as soon as possible! The internet is sucking hard so uploading them is impossible.