A Fabulous Day, Here

Our gracious hosts, Caitlin Bonem and her boyfriend Petr, drove us through the countryside east of Prague to several notable places we would have never seen otherwise. For anyone going to Prague, though, we found there are tours to our first stop, the town of Kutna Hora, home of not only the Bone Church (Kostnice), but two other magnificent cathedrals, St. Barbara's and the Cathedral of the Assumption; the latter two are UNESCO Heritage sites.

 St. Barbara's

                                                       The Bone Church

The Bone Church is surprisingly spectactular--really, the bone arrangements are works of art. The story is ancient  bones were in a charnel house and a half-blind monk decided to arrange them as works of art; when he was finished, his sight was restored. And that's the miracle of the Bone Church. It's very small as opposed to St. Barbara's where there was a camera crew and a bunch of actors sitting around in costumes, apparently getting ready to film "A Man for All Seasons." As with any film experience, nothing happened during the time we were there.

After our adventures at the churches, we went to a castle in a town that I can't spell, that was renovated into a medieval restaurant. The staff are purposely rude to everyone but we didn't care because we don't speak the language.  After I paid the check, though, one waiter yelled, "She can't even say tanks," but of course, I had said "thank you."   We had duck with sauerkraut and bread dumplings which were flavored like stuffing. The food was outstanding which is usually not the case in theme restaurants, in my experience.

Across from the castle was a booth where you can buy gigantic decorated cookies that are not made to be eaten; instead, you hang them on your wall or somewhere to remember the occasion. Unfotunately, many people do not understand the tradition.

All this traveling had the makings of a perfect day until Lola got us lost in Old Towne, again. Our five minute walk to the Old Towne Square turned into over an hour where, more than once, we realized we had walked in a gigantic circle.  When I finally decided to ask someone, I asked the one guy working in a store who had no English. I think he thought I was asking where is Old Towne and he was trying to tell me we were already there.  I have been lost in every major city in Europe so it's nothing new to me but for years, Lola has made fun of me for never being able to find my way. She prides herself on her map skills and sense of direction. But no, she couldn't get us to our destination even with a map (in her defense, we took the map that didn't list all the streets, but still...) I am enjoying her humiliation. Don't anyone ever let her forget.