Wednesday June 3rd 2009

Yesterday we learned how to take a train. The language barrier did cause some trepidation, but we arrived at the train station early, bought our ticket, and waited. The building itself, a communist era structure, did not provide any comfort either. When our train's platform was announced, we headed down the long corridor, and was pleasantly surprised by the confortable train.

The hour long ride to Kutna Hora gave us the opportunity to survey the suburbs of Prague and the surrounding country side.




Our major objective for Kutna Hora was to visit the ossary of the small church of All Saints at Cedlec. This was originally a small chapel for the cemetary of the nearby Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady. As the plague ravaged the area, the cemetary was enlarged, and the Hussite wars added even more bodies to the cemetary. Years later, land was reclaimed, and the dug up bones where piled inside the Chapel in six pyramidal heaps.



Under the Emperor Josef II (c.1780's) the land was sold to a nobleman, whose landscaper restored the chapel and interior. He cleaned and bleached the bones, and decorated the interior of the church with the bones. A bone alter, chandelier, family coat of arms, and four pyramidal heaps of bones. It is estimated that 40 000 bodies of bones are in the ossary.



We took the local bus to get to the heart of Kutna Hora about 1 mile away. And though we did ask the bus driver, he was not of any help. The bus meandered about skirting most of the town, and he left us off, at the terminus about 1/2 mile away on the other side of town.

But taking things in stride, as we walked towards the heart of town, we came across an inviting pub. We sat inside the tobacco scented pub and perused their menu, as a few locals drank their beer.



Hera started with a cabbage salad that was garnished with sweet horse radish dressing. Such a delight, that we shall try it one day at home. Her main dish was called Serbian chicken, a semi-sweet and mildly spicey saucy chicken dish. Listed as hot, I could tell that Hera would have prefered it much hotter.



I started off with their mushroom soup. A very tasty and hearty soup livened up with chives. My main course was mushroom pork. A fillet of pork in a delicious mushroom sauce. Of course beer was part of our meal.



We had hoped to visit the Alchemy museum, but the owner who runs the show was not there that day. A pity, as this was the first museum dedicated to alchemy, and it sounded like fun.

Kutna Hora is quite a unique town. It made its mark with the discovery of silver, and it became very rich because of it, becoming the most significant town next to Prague. It was here that most of Europe's coins were minted. Large cathedrals were built, and the town thrived. Gothic and then Baroque were in vogue during these times. When the mine started to dry up in the 16th century, the town declined. But this declined, inadvertantly froze the town into the Medieval Gothic and Baroque town that we see today.

It is such a joy to walk around the cobbled streets, and imagine life duirng medieval times.

The Cathedral of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners, is such an example. A large Gothic cathedral very reminiscent of Notre Dame from the outside. Within the grand cathedral, one can see some of the original gothic murals that decorated the walls. We often forget today, looking at stark structures of the past, that they were usually covered in vibrant colours.



The Baroque era is also very evident in the main alter, as well as the alters in the chapels along the sides.



What really set the mood here, was the soft organ music that played as we enjoyed our visit.
Finding our way back to our bus was our next mini adventure, but we did make it to the train station with ample time. Only to be rewarded with our train being delayed.

Stepping out of the train station, and making our way onto our familiar Wenceslas Square, we felt we were "home," even though it is just over a week, it feels like home.

Our next adventure that we are planning is to go to Cesky Krumlov.

So today, we learned about their Metro system, and the bus depot. Language is always a bit of a struggle here, but we got the information that we hope is what we need.

We then made our way up to the Strahov Monastery, where we decided to get a bite to eat first. We entered the nearby Klasterni Pivovar, the monastery brewery which was founded by an abbot in 1628. One could smell the yeast in the air.

We were disappointed that their special beer was not available today, so we ordered an amber and a dark SvNorbert beer. Both were delicious. The amber beer had a delicious hoppy flavour, with a long after taste, while the dark beer was more malty with nutty and honey notes.



We started with an ample samplying of Bavarian and Moravian cheeses and breads, followed by their goulash accompanied by three different Czech dumplings. While not very refined, I could not resist using the ample bread to mop up the delicious sauce.






The Strahov Monastery itself is a sight to behold. The star attractions are its two large rooms holding its vast collection of books. One room is devoted to Philosophy, while the other room is dedicated to Theology. A third room, behind a locked door held the prohibited books, such as the French Encyclopedia. Only the abbot held the key.



Joining the two rooms is a corridor that holds the collections of the then new science of "natural history." Cases upon cases hold the well preserved dried specimens of various animals, including one of the Dodo bird that became extinct in the 17th century.





Happy with another satisfying day, we hopped onto a tram, and made our way back home.
As I write, I am enjoying a lovely chilled Slovakian Muscat, which has a very floral nose, full multi-layered fruity flavours, and a long sweet after taste.


Cheers,

Hera & Anthony