Prague Jewish Quarter
Now that we figured out where the good breakfast is, life was easier. We filled up, after semi-sleeping in until 8:30, and by 10:00 or so, we were on the way.
Today was the long awaited (for Dad) day of the Jewish Cemetery and Jewish Quarter. Our day was also to include two hours for shopping; also Cheri’s visit to the Internet, also Tesco, a folk show, and later roundevous with Fritz at night.
Our plan was somewhat thrown off kilter as we no more than left our hotel (Cloister Inn) and found “the gift” for Todd that we had been searching for all along. It was a beautiful and unique (probably one of a kind, we hadn’t seen it before) crystal with gold trim vase.
Mom also found gifts for Jeff and Inez and herself; only to the dismay from unpleasant salespeople that they didn’t ship. They did not offer any other help or solutions until prodded, then one clerk suggested a crystal shop “50 meters down the street on the left.” We did locate this huge glitzy crystal emporium, shining in the oasis that was once a barer Prague cobblestone desert. Yes, they shipped, there was a sign on the door and they were practically a factory themselves.
We found nice (inexpensive, but not near as cheap as they were nine years ago or in Kosice!) crystal lead and hand cut unique pieces for ourselves and gifts. Dad insisted that they (he and mom) buy some liquor glasses for themselves and also some wine glasses for the upcoming fifth wheeler days.
He also ventured back to the other shop, in the meantime, to buy the sought after vase for Todd; which he convinced the people at the emporium to ship with our other purchases. They did so agreeably. Mom also bought a heavy lead-cut crystal vase with her gold trimmed glasses and the Art Nuveau vase for Jeff and Inez. I selected a matching set of six liquor glasses to go with the wine and Champagne sets I bought in Košice, a gold and matte glass bon-non bowl with cover (which I still love), a pretty vase gold-trimmed and partially frosted, and an elegant blue and gold small vase for Todd.
My damage was about $40. Mom’s was almost double, plus shipping was 3,000 CK or almost $100 for 17 kilos. Not too bad.
Thursday 27, May 1999
