The Eastern European Chapter Begins

Quite a few hours elapsed from the time we left Karen, Jahna and Joe at the Anchorage Airport until we finally arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, where we picked up a brand new Peugeot and headed for the Czech border.  Before we crossed the border, Carolyn thought we should stop and get a bite of good German food.  We stopped in a small town named Waidburg, ate lunch and listened to an organist practicing at the church.  We both enjoyed Buxtehude; only Carolyn enjoyed the lunch.  It was sausage and kraut, however the sausage was large and liver!  I ate the sauerkraut.  We arrived at our pension in the late afternoon.  It was located in a rural setting on a lake about half way between Cesky Krumlov and Cesky Budejovice.  These are two incredibly medieval cities with lots to see.  We split our time between the two cities and the very small villages in the countryside surrounding us.  After two days we headed for Kutna Hora which is about 50 miles east of Prague.  The history of these Czech cities reflects years of religious conflict.  The tyrany of the early Roman Catholic Church, the Hussite wars, the Reformation and the counter Reformation have all left their marks on what is currently the Czech Republic.  While the country is heavily Roman Catholic, there is a small confessing Lutheran body, but in truth, according to government figures, less than 10% of the Czechs attend any church today.  So, sadly, many of these beautiful monuments to the faith are found empty on Sunday morning.  Nevertheless, the sight of the cross of Jesus soaring above a beautiful church edifice, is still able to lift a believer's heart.

Church of St. Vitus, Cesky Krumlov

A picture is worth a thousand words......

Diesel, 34 Cz crowns/liter

Special of the day

The Round Tower of the Krumlov Castle

The Black Tower stands beside the 13th century cathedral of St. Nicholas

A village in the country

Kutna Hora is a magnificantly preserved city east of Prague.  It has a number of incredible UNESCO World Heritage sites, among them the three that we chose to visit.  The adventures today reflect the mental abilities of the two travelers.  We purchased a ticket to visit three sites.  The first site was the Sedlec ossuary, a huge pile of bones and skeletal remains housed in a beautiful chapel, surrounded by a lovely graveyard,  next to our hotel and visible out the window of our room!  The second site, St. Barbara Cathedral, is 3.5 miles from our hotel.  We walked there.  We inquired at the information center as to the location of the third site we planned to visit, the Church of the Assumption.  We were about two blocks from St. Barbara, 3.5 miles from our hotel.  The young man at the info center told us the Church of the Assumption is about 3.5 miles "that way" and pointed east.  As it turns out, the Church of the Assumption is located across the street from our hotel, and in fact can be viewed out the other window of our room.  Now to heap even more ineptness on to the two travelers, the post office which we had searched for in our journey to St. Barbara, turns out to be two doors from our hotel.  I think one refers to it as "chagrined".  Anyway, this is what we saw today.

Carolyn made no bones about the fact that she did not like this place!

Home of the bones, out our window.  It is said there are the remains of 40,000 people who died in The Plague that find their final resting place in this building.

The Cathedral of St. Barbara was begun in 1380, a truly magnificent structure supported by some of the most elegant flying buttresses in existence.  The real distinguishing feature of this cathedral is the triple-tented roof supported by ribbed vaulting.



The Church of the Assumption is a recently renovated gothic beauty with a soaring nave and a totally understated altar.  I was able to go up into this building between the roof and the exterior walls and actually see how this church was built from the inside (see photo below).

Tomorrow we head to Simonik country.