Prague and Terezin

Hello, we are back in Spain for a few days, but I will post more from Prague.... Jeff said Prague is his favorite city so far, so I am glad we visited for his birthday!

We visited some more churches, the royal garden, and we saw so many beautiful buildings, here are a few photos




Then we went to Terezin, outside of Prague, near the border of Germany. Terezin was a fortress originally, then a camp for political prisoners in WW1. But it is most famous as a prison/concentration camp/ghetto in WW2. Though it was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz, 30,000 of the 150,000 people who came through Terezin died there due to starvation, crowding and disease, and most of the 90,000 who were later sent to extermination camps also perished.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but here is the entrance to the camp, with the motto "work sets you free"
We went into one of the rooms, about 30x30, that housed 100 people. The bunks were still there, hard to fathom the suffering that they experienced.
In the ghetto, conditions were a bit "better", and Terezin is known for the art and literature it produced, including an underground magazine produced by adolescent boys. It is also where the Nazis filmed the propaganda film shown to the International Red Cross that showed the people playing soccer, watching plays, eating full meals, etc. This film fulfilled its purpose, as the Red Cross concluded that things weren't so bad there. They filmed it with recently arrived (and therefore not emaciated) people, who were then shipped off to Auschwitz.
While obviously a very sad, solemn place, I am very glad we went. We also visited the crematorium and columbarium with many commemorative plaques, including this one that spoke to me:
I think the famous quote is "those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it." The story of the rise of Nazism and their ruthlessness is an important lesson.
Whew.
..............................

A few more pictures from a dinner cruise we took in Prague:


No, it's not fire, it's a sunset!

The evening after we got back to Spain, we were considering going up to the observatory for star viewing, but concluded it wouldn't be great viewing due to the full moon. Little did we know there was a total lunar eclipse, which would probably have been amazing up there! I just happened to look outside around 11, and noticed the moon looked very dark and red. I thought maybe a cloud was in front of it, but it didn't go away, and finally I saw a white crescent appearing on one side. This was apparently the longest lunar eclipse of this century, lasting nearly 4 hours with about 90 minutes of totality! Only Amonte and I got to see it, everyone else was asleep.
It was hard to get a good photo, but here is a blurry one, with a very bright Mars in the lower right.


We have a few more days in Spain, then off to Morocco!
About three more weeks left, still going strong. 
XO Kristi

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