U Ruze Hotel Kutna Hora

... br>Also, it has an "infamous" bone osuary. It's this small church/chapel location with thousands upon thousands of bones that the monks put together in a variety of arrangements, including a fantastic chandelier, and huge piles of bones. It was really impressive and quite macabre.<br><br>We then walked the other mile or so into town, walked around a bit, and made up to the fantaaaastic cathedral (oh, by the way both entrance fees were 50 Czech Krowns or 30 ...

... a couple minutes away. An Ossuary is used to collect bones when graves are in short supply as was the case here during the plague. The church is full of them including all of the decorations which are made from human bones including crosses, chalices and a coat of arms for the Schwarzenberg family. Freaky but fascinating. <br><br>30 minute walk further we arrive in the town. It is a quaint town, largely restored to the early 1800s. In the distance we ...

... stone bridge with views across the country. Once again the trip getting there and back was just as interesting as being there. Amazing, beautiful countryside. The hike up the mountain was fun &#8211; about 1.5hours to get up. When we got to the top the views were magnificent. My pictures really don't do justice to the views or the landscape:<br><br>http://www.facebook.c om/album ...

... inside here: the ceiling painted with the crests of the different silver-working guilds, and statues of miners aplenty. The English information sheet here was actually pretty concise and well-written, and the organ was massive. After visiting Old Church #789234, you may think that they are all variations on the same thing (fair enough, sure). But this one was certainly worth the entrance fee. <br><br>The other reason ...

... year... they were all buried in the sacred ground along side the generations of miners, warriors, peasants, and pretty much every one who had kicked the bucket. Over time the church and surrounding abbey burned down a few times and diss-membered and re-built by various invaders until all that remained was the shell of todays church (or ossuary). This was re-built by several generations and eventually became what we have today ...

... that it was, exactly that, a church filled with human bones. Everything in there was made of bones: the chandelier, the coat of arms, stuff on the wall, there were bones everywhere. There was also just stacks of bones piled up in pyramids. I have to say, it was a little creepy. So, why were all these bones there? Well, some time ago, a guy came back from the ...

... There were strings of skulls and bones on the walls and the roof. There is also a family crest made out of the bones. It was quite creepy but really interesting to see at the same time. Had some ice cream while heading towards town, the summer sun is deffinatley starting to shine now! I got a little lost and made it to the edge of old town just as it was time to head back to the station to catch my train back to Prague. I guess this way it is another ...

... about 15 minutes. Even though I'd seen it all before, it was just as incredible to witness as the first time. The rest of Kutná Hora is small, so we whipped through it in under two hours. The bizarre cathedral with its three naves was unfortunately mostly under scaffolding, but most of the rest of the town was looking spic-and-span and decked out in pastels. Apart from the cathedral and its approach past the long Jesuit College and its line of ...

... monks decided that this simply wouldn't do and chose instead to use the bones to decorate the interior of the chapel. Who wouldn't, after all? Its the natural thing to do with the bones of 40,000 people. The chapel is interesting and disturbing in roughly equal measure. Once I got over the natural combination of morbid fascination and dark comedy that were my first impressions, my recurring thoughts as I walked around were of human (and in particular my own ...

... Czech Republic is famous for their Pilzen beer. Give it a try and if you like it then you just discovered yourself a budget "drink" option as beer is often cheaper than a coke or a cup of coffee. Etiquette This might sound strange, but it's considered rude if you hold the door for a woman. A gentleman in the Czech Republic is supposed to first check the place out to make sure it's ...