Day 6-In the Beginning

Today started out quietly as I had the morning to myself to get caught up on various chores of picture review, map review and what I might see in the next few days. I also had a chance to do some laundry and get all my things tidied up.
I seem to have created a bit of a hurricane of stuff that I have found or been graciously given while I've been here. Books, pictures, post cards and you name it. Yes, I think it will all fit in my suitcase.

After a nice lunch with Vlasta we headed out with Milena to various part of Prague that they had researched about my father.

The first home he lived in was the beginning.
It is now a nursery school and when we stopped and spoke with one of the ladies there and it was explaned to her what we were doing there she let us in! It was quite a thrill to see the home that was my father's for the first 6 years of his life.
The rooms were spacious and though a school now it isn't hard to imagine how it would have looked then. The floors were original and of a large parquee type. Just beautiful.
Milena mentioned that Dad was born here too. Wow, that was something to learn.
The lower floor of the home is unusable for the most part as it was built on a creek and still every year at times the creek flows through the basement. The outside of the house is built with a bit of a moat around it and though dry right now it is helping to divert the water from the house itself. I thought having a damp basement was a challenge.

Milena stading outside gate of Dad's first home. The apartment was the first window on the lower level.

After the home, we toured to Dad and Milena's next apartment. Milena was born in this next one. Then we went to the schools that dad attended and they are still schools today. It was nice to see children coming out of them and I thought it would have been an easy walk for Dad and Milena to go to school from their other apartment. This second apartment was in poor shape, likely as the owner does not have the money to fix it up. This is very common in the Czech Republic.
The schools were all very well kept and the children coming out of them looked like school children in any country!

The next apartment that we saw, we actually saw on my first day here. It is near the river Vltava and has a nice view of the river. The reason they moved is because the second apartment never saw the sunshine. This is something else that happens too. The buildings are built in such a way that some of them never have sun shining in the windows. This would drive me nuts.
The owner of this building has done a marvelous job fixing it up. It is the last place that Dad lived in before he left the Czech Republic.

Other sights we saw on this day included the Communist Arena that was built for the meetings of all members every 4 years. It used to hold 100,000 people and is even visible from the apartment here. It is now a crumbling ruin and only a few soccer clubs use it for practices. It is a very good monument for what was and now what is in the Czech Republic. The arena stands dirty, graffittied and literally crumbling. No one wants to take it down because taking it apart would mean trying to find somewhere to put all the concrete and materials. It would cost too much to fix it up and singers and acts don't want to use it because it's in such poor shape. There is another arena sponsored by a local telecommunications company and is called the 02. It is well used and smaller that the Strahov Arena.
From this arena site there was another type of view of the city of Prague. Again. Lovely! I don't think there's a bad place to look at Prague and the city looks lovely from any view.

Another stop we made was to the cemetary to visit the family plot. As Easter approaches so does the increase in decorations on places of significance. Cemetaries are beautifully decorated and there are ribbons and baskets of flowers everywhere. The plots are so different here and some even have the urns of cremains in little glass compartments on the plot. Strange for me but ususal for here. We paid our respects and I noted how busy the place was for a week day. This is normal too. Interesting.

As our tour wound up we arrived at Milena's apartment and met Tomas there. He had been preparing tour books for our time together on Thursday to go to Terezin and on the weekend to South Bohemia to the cottage. He was very proud of his work and I was very grateful for it! All in English and all explaining what I will see.

At this time I was presented with some of the most beautiful gifts imaginable. Milena had told me many years ago that she had some things of my father's that I would have to come to Prague to get. Well, now was the time that I would receive them. I was overwhelmed to say the least.

Dad's army helmet and his medals, beautifully displayed were there waiting for me. These were gifts from Milena and I know that this was a very special and also very hard time for her as he had these momentos from her brother as she would never see him again after he left in 1948. This was a very emotional moment for all of us as we knew the pieces were going from one generation to the next. I was speechless (unimaginable for some to believe). I will forever be indebted to Milena for not only keeping these things but also for giving them to me.

Fatigue had definately set in and Vlasta and I headed home for some rest. I was overwhelmed with the sights I had seen, the emotion of receiving the gifts (which included a beautiful Bohemian crystal bud vase) from Milena, and how beautiful this city is.
Day 7 awaits!