Where We're Going

Where We're Going

Friday 18 July 2008

The Bone Church & a Bubble-Wrapped Jesus

A good night's sleep was had by all, despite a guy in the middle of the room snoring like a pig, and we woke at 8am to a cloudy, but dry, Prague. We broke our fast with cereal and then left to get our train to Kutna Hora. There were lots of cleaners at the station, and one of them had a small child with her in a uniform also sweeping. We wondered if it was Take Your Child To Work Day or if the child labour laws here are just really slack. We boarded a double-decker "City Elefant" train and left the city. We didn't see much on the two hour trip, me especially as I slept for half of it, and there was more grey sky when we reached our destination. The first place we wanted to go to was the famous "Bone Church". I memorised loads of interesting facts about it, but if you read the link you'll get all the info there :) The ossuary was amazing, if a little macabre, and John had no idea it even existed, despite it being pretty famous, so he enjoyed it there and was very snap-happy. We left the church, passing a souvenir shop with the most incredible thing I've seen in a while: a Holy Infant snowstorm!!!! I had searched all over Prague and they didn't have any anywhere! It was hideous. I immediately loved it and had to have it.

We walked to the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist, which was being done up inside (internal scaffolding!) so there were plastic sheets over the famous and precious 18th Century paintings and on the altar. There wasn't much to see, apart from a drunk-looking Jesus on a cross, and we walked the 3km to Kutna Hora, which I recently discovered to be twinned with Stamford in the UK and Eger in Hungary where we were only weeks ago. Since 1995 the "city centre" has been a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it really is a pretty little place. I had a very weird coloured Tutti Frutti icecream (peach and turquoise swirled together) and we walked to St. Barbara Church, passing an estate agents window with local houses costing under 50,000 pounds. The church (or cathedral as they call it) was partly under scaffolding, but we weren't disappointed as the views over the town from the hill on which it stands were wonderful.

The rain got too much so we went to an Albert and picnicked on our purchases under an umbrella near the ossuary. We caught a fast train back to Prague, where the sun was shining! We came back to the hostel and, after having heard the UK Eurovision entry on the radio for the second time that day, spent the next 5 hours chatting with Ben about his first day at "school", music, comedy (again), his family, the state of the education system in the UK and America, the monarchy, the bone church, nuns, hedgehogs and other stuff too. We ate pasta and soup (a speciality Ben had not tried before) and then went to bed knackered after our very long day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What's next for Jixie? Ha Ha, best trip ever, eh guys?