Slept in a little this morning as it is our last day and we have a long journey ahead of us. We arranged to meet Garry and Betty at 10am where we walked to Old Town square and purchased tickets for a boat cruise with lunch. We had a walking tour to the boat cruise going through the Jewish section. The Jewish Quarter in Prague, known as Josefov, is located between the Old Town Square and the Vltava River. Its torrid history dates back to the 13th century, when the Jewish community in Prague were ordered to vacate their disparate homes and settle in one area.

Over the centuries more and more people were crowded into the area, as Jews were banned from living anywhere else. Restrictions on their movements and the trades they were allowed to conduct underwent constant change.

The Jewish Quarter, or the Prague Jewish Ghetto as it was later to become known, also endured a lot of structural changes, the latest of which was a vast redevelopment of the area between 1893-1913. Its present appearance dates mainly from this period, although most of the significant buildings from previous eras were saved, a living testimony to the history of Prague Jews, spanning many centuries.

These buildings form the best preserved complex of Jewish historical monuments in the whole of Europe. Six synagogues remain, including the Old-New Synagogue and the Spanish Synagogue plus the Jewish Town Hall and the Old Jewish Cemetery, which is the most remarkable of its kind in Europe.

Most historical sights in the Jewish Quarter come under the auspices of the Jewish Museum.

On March 14, 1939, Slovakia declared independence from Prague and signed the Treaty of Protection with Nazi Germany. The next day, Germany occupied Czech lands. At the outbreak of World War II, over 92,000 Jews lived in Prague, almost 20 percent of the city's population. Prague was one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. At least two-thirds of the Jewish population of Prague perished in the Holocaust.

We boarded our boat and cruised along the Vltava River. Lunch was a buffet which was really nice. Just when we thought we had been through all the locks on our trip we went through one here, although it was only a few metres high. After the cruise finished we walked back to Republique square and walked through the local markets then back to the hotel to start our journey home. First leg was Prague to Frankfurt, then to Singapore and then Melbourne, should be home Thursday at 6.20am.

Betty and Garry were held up in Prague because there was a problem with their aircraft. They left a day after us and flew home with Emirates, Business Class all the way........................