CHRISTMAS TRIP #3

We arrived in Prague via fast train. This baby fairly zipped along.
It's great sitting on a train watching the scenery through the big windows. Much better than by plane, bus or car.

Prague is an old and beautiful city like Vienna but a bit more faded. It escaped bombing in WW2 so there is a great cross section of architecture over the last millennium. Virtually all styles are represented.
The Soviets are gone although there is a slight presence still there - maybe adding to that 'faded' image.
We had to show our passports at the hotel and you could imagine the old women sitting in the corridors recording the comings and goings of the guests.

The Czechs were always a bit feisty and non-compliant to both the Germans and the Russians through their successive occupations. When the Russkies put a T34 tank on display after the war in a central square the locals kept painting it pink. The Russkies would paint it green again and the locals would paint it pink. Eventually the Russkies gave up and put it in a museum.
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) was formed after WW1 with sovereignty that was blatantly ignored and abused by Hitler's Germany and the major powers in the 1930's. Their ageing president was duped by Hitler against the wishes of the people. It was never going to be a happy state of affairs.
Hitler created a Protectorate and put in as 'protector' this bastard:

Heydrich. Number 3 in the Nazi hierarchy, Hitler's protege and a right psychopathic bastard.
He drafted the final solution' activity from gas trucks to gas chambers and concentration camps and formed the Einsatzgruppen - see here: THE KINDLY ONES
Heydrich was all the more scary because while he was a monster he was also very well educated. He had a wife and children, university degrees, played violin and was interested in arts, literature and music (Aryan of course).

Heydrich set about repressing the Czechs and exterminating the Jews. His position as #3 obviously attracted the attention of the British and they sent a group of Czech/British paratroopers to wipe him out.

The exercise was slightly botched but resulted in Heydrich dying from his wounds.
The Nazis however retaliated gruesomely. Enraged Hitler wanted to murder one in ten Czechs but his advisers calmed him a bit (they needed Czech labour for armaments production and agriculture) so they razed two towns - Lezaky and Lidice instead. It is estimated that up to 5,000 people - men, women and children were directly murdered or subsequently died in concentration camps.

Put that in perspective to the outcry over the deaths in the Twin Towers in NYC.

Anyway, why I mention this is because it is still a raw nerve in Prague. We went on a fascinating walking tour concerned with Czech resistance activity in occupied Prague.

We went underground where partisans hid from the Jerries, stored arms, food and ammunition and ran hospitals for their wounded. I feel that by doing this trip and visiting the Jewish Quarter we expiated ourselves from our fraternisation with the Austrian Nazis in the previous 3 days.

We took a tram tour of Prague and got a bit of a history lesson.

It's pretty nice but I don't think I'd want to live there even if the castle up on the hill above the river (Blue) Danube is magnificent.

So after 2 days and nights  it was off to London for New Year's Eve, flying by way of (Wonderful, wonderful) Copenhagen.

We went to Vienna and Prague for Christmas as we wanted to experience a white Christmas. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the weather was excellent - blue skies and sunshine, a bit cool down to 1 degrees but definitely fine.

Two years ago when we were living in Toronto we left just before Christmas to spend Christmas and New Year in Scotland where it was grey and rainy. While we were away Toronto experienced a 'Polar Vortex' bring the coldest weather that they'd had for generations.

Everything snap-froze so tree branches, poles, squirrels etc simply froze and snapped in half.