Tuesday was our last day in Prague. We spent the morning in the Jewish Quarter and saw the old cemetery and four synagogues that are now part of a museum complex. I picked up a book about the Golem mythology of Prague as well as a book that had photos of some of the places where picture taking wasn’t allowed. In one of the synagogues, for example, the names of Holocaust victims cover the walls and the sheer amount is overwhelming. I wanted to get pictures and other resources to use in case I go back to teaching history in the States.
We returned to the Castle complex to check out the gardens, mostly because they’re free. But the orangery costs a bit, like a dollar or something. It was very disappointing as I was expecting orange trees. Instead there were just flowers and some ficus. We still had time to kill before our train so we decided to go to the Alchemist Museum. It’s housed in the former residence of famous (apparently) alchemist Edward Kelley. [I had to pull out my flyer to look up his name, if that gives you any indication of his fame. That or I’m woefully (?) undereducated in the history of alchemy.] It is delightfully hokey and our guide was delightfully cute (not in a dateable way) in his nervousness at speaking English in front of us.