Blogs from Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic, Europe - page 3

Our flight from L A to The Windy City, Munich, then Prague, Czech Republic (April 17-18, 2011) was just the way we like it, uneventful, with the exception of the $25.00 baggage cart fee, but that's a story for another time. We arrived in Prague and were picked up by our son Justin. Unfortunately, we thought we were back in LA when three 18-wheelers traveling at a fast clip brutaly waffeled on a freeway not far outside the airport, we were not involved, but our trip to the small village where Justin and his family live, took over 3 hours instead of the usual 50 minutes. After leaving the main highway we wound down narrow, sinuous roads through a beautiful, lime-green valley speckled with the brilliant, white plum and cherry trees in full bloom, through several ... read more

This morning the train pulled out of the station at 08:43 and arrived at Cesky Sternberk about 10:30. The trip is only 74 Kilometers, but the train made 21 stops. No question about it, this was a local. We really appreciate the excellent public transportation system in the Czech Republic. It seems there is no village that is not served either by train or bus. This is great for us foreigners. We do not have to own or rent a car, just find out what bus or train to take and away we can go. The train station at Cesky Sternberk is simply a shelter where travelers can wait for the train, especially in rainy or snowy weather. Today was a sunny, hot day. For us the shade of the trees was a much more inviting ... read more

Surprisingly only half of us were hungover today, myself included. Had breakfast together and passed around the camera with all the pics that we took of each other last night. Got to one of Tomas where he is staring straight ahead looking expressionless and kind of like a bird. We all could not stop laughing. He just looked at it. Hung his head in shame and shook his head. Funniest thing I have seen in a while Nina and I got our stuff together as soon as we could so we could go and check out Kutna Hora for the day. Its about an hour east of Praha and kind of on the way back. One of those UNESCO world heritage towns. Checked out a couple of churches then had lunch in a typical pub which ... read more

Woke up this morning and had a nice breakfast of food bought the previous day, bagels, nutella, long lady finder like rolls with cheese and bacon baked on the top, coffee…and the yogrt we thought we bought turned out to be sour cream..i still had a nice helping of it as some dairy was good for breakfast. Packed up our stuff and out the hostle door by 9:00. Took the subway to the main train station, bought tickets to kutna hora and on the train by 9:30…very efficient and easy..love it. Train experience was awesome….nice clean train, if not kinda old and soviet era type…lots of molded green plastic and old metal….but nice….most comfortable seat ive had all week…the seats on the train were so comfortable and relaxing..watching the countryside go by…lots of old houses with ... read more

Kutna Hora We had seen come pics, Ewen had been there, it was now our turn... After an easy ride of 1 hour upon the Czech railway system we found ourselves in Kutna Hora. A picturesque town west of Praha, known for it's silver mining (circa 1700's) and following briefly by zinc mining (now non existent, as per silver)..Heinekin brought the brewery here and nothing has been the same (according to our driver!)...Communist, Socialist, Capitalist - this place has taken it all and survives...just! One thing now drives, or at least supports this town....BONES! No BOB's here (I am wrong as the pics will show, and we were unaware of St. Barbara's/ Barbaricus (I should pay more attention!) Church - but BONES keeps it afloat! The Kutnice Ossuary, or Church of Bones is a fascinating place, ... read more