Dem Bones, Dem Bones

 

The plan today was a bit of acclimatising and trying to stay off feet as much as possible. Perhaps not as restful as would have been ideal, with sleep being shortened through late arrival and one hour added to the clock.  Plus Chrissi says 13000 step count well exceeded.

Breakfast included on this trip which was a surprise at check in, but of course ensured we were up to catch the tail end of it at 10am. Chrissi was overwhelmed with the choice which is quite a statement as we have stayed in a few pretty serious places when it comes to breakfast. In keeping with the theme of yesterday, I found another station, no longer hot dogs, but this time eggs. A lovely omlette with tomatoes and mushroom that I garnished with a 'sprig' of bacon! That was the main event for sure, and gave us time to get our bearings, download travel apps and make some plans for the day ahead.  72 hour city transport app seemed the way to go.

Having been to Prague a couple of previous times we decided that an out of town trip needed to feature, so we decided to head briefly for the UNESCO heritage site of Kutna Hora. As it turned out we didn't see it in all its glory, but it seemed to feature on the main daytrips out of here, so we decided to see our own as I wanted to take a look at something that had been trailed as the bone church.  And do the cheap, and shortened version.

Began to familiarise ourselves with the trams, heading firstly in the wrong direction .. all to get our bearings see!  When we got back on track we made our way to main station with a lovely little walk past the Jerusalem synagogue.  Police outside reminding us of the state of the world we live in.

The main station itself a very modern outfit, a lot changed since Chrissi called in when doing an Eastern Europe jaunt from Belarus back in the 90s.  Everything super smart and super sharp, you even have to pay for the toilets. Which as it turned out, is the case everywhere. Grabbed a Costa Pronto whilst we waited, seemed appropriate to give Bryns employers a couple of pennies to keep him in pocket money whilst at Uni.

And then boarded some slightly older clunky rolling stock to take our daytrip. All in a little compartment with others, 1940s Britain, famous 5 esque, just expecting a bit of choo chooing, but it was all motorised you'll be glad to know. Took in some of the rolling countryside and some of the more industrial countryside before rocking up in our destination, which looked more modern industry than old timey.

We followed the directions to the Bone Church, passed a large tobacco manufacturer with a distinctly un Czech name. And then on arriving at the church, took some photos and then were directed to a nearby office to get a ticket to have a nose inside. A few quirky other elements in nearby streets including a lego museum and more paid for toilets!

Wasn't sure what to expect in the church but was a work of bone artistry. From pyramid sculptures, to chandeliers with every bone of the human body, to altars, coats of arms to even the artist signatory, Frantisek Rint, all bones. No bloody pictures allowed so use your imagination or look here.  It turns out the bones were piling up as everyone wanted to get buried here from the 13th century onwards due to some holy soil or some such story, and when they ran out of grave plots back in the day, throw in a plague or 2 and so much raw material for Rint to work with.  Hadn't realised though that it was all about to start imploding and so massive restoration project going on to strip out, clean, and reconstruct on firmer boney foundations, to assure it doesn't all collapse. Very much some macabre art this, and I found the whole experience fascinating, every one of the thousands of skulls a former person, a reminder of the generations who came before us. We also popped into the nearby cathedral but that was a lot less fascinating.

It was pretty much a flying visit as would have been a lot more walking to go to the old town and we also had some half marathon related admin to attend to. So it was back to Prague through the Bohemia countryside, about an hour on a much more modern train, with wifi. On passing through Kolin I noted hundreds of Toyota cars stacked on train transports, assume they won't be heading to the US now! And then trammed it over to the Expo to collect our race numbers.

Having picked up the race numbers we ran into a number of lliswerry running buds, and so got some photos and chance to catch up as we wandered around the exhibition centre, picking up the odd freebie, mainly iced coffees.  It was then on the tram back to the hotel to get changed and think about a fairly sedate evening out.

As many of you will know food can be a bit hit or miss on these trips due to our unplanned approach, But Chrissi got on the tinternet, and found a vegetarian restaurant that had many things that interested her. So we got changed, and using trams and our feet ended up at Maitrea In a very quiet side street, but with an ornate interior, small fountains, lovely personal layout, and an interesting menu.  Chrissi went for traditional czech food vegetarian style, dumplings, gravy and no beef protein. I had some fantastic noodles, spring onions, tempeh, ginger and a range of other zingy flavours that led to a very full belly. Especially as we'd had some nachos with guacamole, mushroom pate, and fake foi gras. Went down well with our lashings of ginger beer, just to bring another famous 5 reference into the narrative.

And that, for a quiet day, was that ... need a few hours respite before hitting the cobbles of Prague.