Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: Day trip to Kunta Hora and last view of Prague

What a difference a day makes - that is when it comes to weather in Prague. The last few days have been bitterly cold at times but today was a warm - a perfect way to end our visit to this magnificent city. After breakfast we took an hour train ride to a small town, Kutna Hora. This is the location of the well-known (to this area) Bone Church. It's hard to describe this place but it is literally a church that has been decorated with the bones of about 40,000 human bodies. During a great famine and war during the 1400’s, vast numbers of people died and a blind priest began assembling the bones into pyramids, later others stacked and used the bones to decorate the church. This was done to celebrate life not to be gruesome Halloween-like stunt.

After the church we walked around an old village set against a peaceful and beautiful hillside. A tobacco factory in the area has been there since the 1800’s. It probably kept the town folk employed for years. As we walked past the factory, the smell brought back the memory of fresh tobacco from our dads' cigarettes from days long ago. In addition to the factory, there were several magnificent buildings; a church built in 1300, another in 1400, a spectacular Jesuit College built in 1667. So much rich history here in this little town that none of us had ever heard of before this trip.

After returning to Prague, we ventured back to a few favorite spots for one last look. Another spin around the Old Town area and another to one of the main plazas for a street fair. All the vendors and stores close their shops at 6 p.m. The only thing that stays open are restaurants. Hungry, we located a restaurant in a courtyard off the beaten path and enjoyed some guitar and sax music as we dined. One thing we noticed, not only in Prague, but in a few other cities is a charge for bread and condiments. They bring out bread, like we are used to in many of our restaurants, but what we didn't realize is that they charge for this service. We were charged for parmesan cheese for our pizza too. While not horribly expensive, it just didn't feel right.

As the sun began to set and evening light made a new view of the City, we walked toward the Charles Bridge. After enjoying the view and got capturing a few pictures, we headed back to our hotel to gather our luggage. Booked on a late night train (in a sleeper car), we will be in Budapest in the morning.