Sep 7 – Olomouc advertises itself as the place that has everything that Prague has, except the crowds. It has a huge historical central square. The Czech word for square is Namesti, so wherever we go, we are reminded that the light in me honors the light in you (this is a yoga joke).
There are so many things to see here!
Sep 5 – Time for a Nice Person story. Today is a travel day as we set out for the city of Olomouc (OH lo mootz) about three hours away. Google Maps has been giving us fits, telling us to walk 5 minutes to the bus stop, then changing it to 15 minutes. As Jim and I sat side by side this morning, it gave us totally different routes!
Following one of Google’s suggestions, we walked not to a bus stop, but to an old train station we didn’t even know was there. We bought tickets to the next town, where we could get a train to Olomouc. Waiting with us in the nearly deserted station was a young woman named Klara, who was going to Olomouc as well. What luck! We rode with her to the main station at Kolin.
Klara showed us where to buy tickets at the big station, then told us she’d be waiting up on Track 2. The ticket seller had no English, but wrote on a piece of paper 2 – 11:32. We thanked her and went up the stairs to sit with Klara at Track 2. A minute later the ticket seller rushed up the stairs, waving another piece of paper on which she had written 2 – 11:38. It turns out that the 11:32 train was going to Poland, and she was afraid we’d get on the wrong train! Two Nice People of Czechia in one day!
We rode in fine style in our half-price-for-old-people seats and enjoyed the spicy chicken sandwiches we had purchased for our lunch. When we got off the train in Olomouc, Klara found us again, handing us a piece of paper containing the trolley number and the name of the stop closest to our hotel. Thank you Klara and train lady!
So now we are in Olomouc, staying at the historic Lafayette Hotel (yes, our Lafayette, from the Revolutionary War, and, of course, Hamilton!)
Sep 3 – Today we bade farewell to our modern apartment in Prague, and set out to see more of Czechia.
About an hour’s train ride east of Prague is the lovely village of Kutna Hora. We are only here for a short time, and we are here to see one thing: the Sedlec Ossuary, otherwise known as the Church of the Bones.
Legend says that in the 1100s, a monk brought back some soil from Golgotha in the Holy Land, and spread the soil in the church cemetery. That made this cemetery a very desirable place to be buried, and people brought their family corpses from all over Europe to be buried here.
During the Black Death and the Hussite Wars of the 1400s, the church was overwhelmed with bodies, and devised an ossuary system of temporarily burying, then exhuming and stacking up the bones. It is estimated that between 40,000 to 70,000 bodies were interred here.
In the 1600s a monk was tasked with finding creative uses for the bones. Hence, the Church of All Saints became the Church of the Bones.
Sep 2 – For our last day in Prague, we treated ourselves to a quiet day at the botanical gardens, the Botanicka Zahrada Praha.
Sep 1 – No trip to Prague is complete without a visit to the Dancing House, a modern construct erected in 1996 on the site of a building destroyed by US bombing in 1945.
Aug 31 – When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into an monstrous cockroach in his bed.
I start today with the opening line from Kafka’s Metamorphosis, as today we will see the head of Franz Kafka. Spinning. Slowly.
Aug 30 – Today we walked over to check out the Prague National Museum, just down the road from our apartment.
Aug 29 – Another beautiful morning. The weather so far has been lovely, with highs in the 70s – perfect for walking.
Today we will journey to Prague Castle to see the actual window where the Defenestration of Prague took place in 1618, leading to the 30 Years War.
In case you don’t recall the details, the Catholics and the Protestants were sparring over which religion should rule the people. When the argument got heated, the Protestants threw two Catholic regents and a secretary out the window, presuming they would fall to their deaths. (Defenestration means getting thrown out the window.)
All three survived the fall, with the Catholics saying the regents had been caught up by angels, and the Protestants maintaining that their fall had been softened by their landing in the dung heap. Divine intervention? You decide!
Aug 28 – After a good night’s sleep, some espresso and an egg breakfast, we are ready to face the day’s adventures.
When Jim told me that Prague had a Lennon Wall, I had visions of Russian Marx and Lenin, but no! After his assassination in 1980, someone painted a mural of John Lennon on a downtown wall. People added song lyrics, poems, signatures and graffiti until the image of John was completely covered over. Every time the government painted over the images, the next day a new mural would begin.
Over the years there were images of short-haired John, long-haired John, bearded John, Yoko and John, and John with kaleidoscope eyes. Today, John was not to be seen, as his face was totally covered with graffiti.
Aug 27 – Easy travels today, from Norfolk to Philly, then a straight shot into Prague. No delays, no drama. The hardest part was trying to convince myself after landing that it was 8am, when my brain knew very well that it was only 2am and I hadn’t had hardly enough sleep. The entry system into Czechia was easy peasy – kiosk for passport, fingerprints and photo, and practically no line for an entry stamp. Good job, Czechia!
Google Maps gave us detailed directions on how to get to our apartment – the #59 bus from the airport to the metro station, then the A train for 7 stops to get us within a few blocks of our place. Our usual concern is how to purchase transit tickets, but with this country’s “old folks ride free” policy, we just hopped aboard!
We were concerned that we were arriving way earlier than the stated check-in time, but thought perhaps we could ask to stash our packs for the morning. Fortunately, the receptionist was there early and let us right in. We dropped gratefully onto our comfy bed for a catch up nap.
We roused ourselves to find some lunch and sunshine (the best way to counteract jet lag). After some burgers and our first local beers, we walked into the Old Town to see what we could see.
Taking Our Time 