The Kostnice Ossuary.....

The first stop in Kutna Hora is an old cemetery ground called the Kostnice Ossuary. This cemetery must be about 1000 years old and due to neglect during some of the years the ground was rehabilitated into its present form. During the rehabilitation project, the thousands of skeletal remains were collected and were put up as pyramids, emblems, chandeliers etc inside a church located within the burial ground.

Out into the country....

Today we took a half day tour of Kutna Hora, a Unesco Heritage site located some 70 km out of the city. For the first time we joined an organised tour and had the benefit of a professional tourist guide to give a life commentary of the tour.

The Czech Republic came about after the fall of the previously communist country of Czechoslovakia. The communist state broke up into two independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The capital of Czech Republic is Prague and that of Slovakia is Bratislava. The Czech Republic is divided into two regions, Bohemia in the west with Prague as its capital and Moravia to the east with Brno as its capital.

Prague is an old city, currently with a population of 1.2 million people. The city is divided into 4 main districts, the Old Town, the New Town, the Lesser Town and the Hradcany where the Prague Castle complexes are located.

Prague was first established in the 8th century and ruled by its native population for a few hundred years until the royal family of Luxembourg took over followed by the Polish royal family and finally the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg royal finally. It was essentially a Catholic country, at one time the reformist Huss started an uprising resulting in the Hussite war between the Catholics and the Protestants. Today it is still a majority Catholic country ( 45 percent) with another 5 percent Protestants and 1 percent made up of the other denominations. Almost 50 percent of the population do not belong to any religious grouping.

Our drive to Kutna Hora first took the motorway towards Brno for about 20 km after which we turned into a country road for another 50 km. The rolling countryside was completely covered in white snow.....

Prague by Night...

By the time we finished dinner, it was almost 8 pm at night. It was freezing cold and pakdokter's nose and ears were becoming numb. As we walked back to our hotel at the Republic Square, we managed to stop and take some night shots of the different parts of the city.

the Charles Bridge...

the Old Town from the Charles Bridge...

the tower at the Old Town end of the Charles Bridge..

the Charles Bridge Tower at the Old Town end....

the Old Town Hall and the Old Town Clock Tower..

the Tyn Church Tower at the Old Town Square...

the Palladium Mall at Republic Square...

Dinner at Pod Vezi Restaurant again...

We spent almost 2 hours at the Kafka Museum. We had a late but heavy breakfast and replaced lunch with just cakes and coffee at the Prague Castle. So we were naturally feeling hungry at around 6 pm when we left the Kafka Museum.

Pakdokter's partner was very impressed by the confit of duck she had for lunch at the Pod Vezi Restaurant at the castle end of the Charles Bridge yesterday, so we decided to go back there for our dinner since we would be passing the restaurant on our way back anyway.

Pakdokter ordered a plate of carpaccio of deer meat for the starter which turned out to be fantastic! Pakdokter's partner ordered another round of confit of duck while pakdokter ordered a plate of breast of duck grilled to perfect tenderness. We helped ourselves to a bottle of a 2007 Merlot from the eastern region of Bohemia which was awarded a gold medal in that year's exhibition. It was fruity with mild tannin and long finish which went down smoothly with our dinner.

Chateau Dowina 2007 from Eastern Bohemia...

the carpaccio of deer meat was so tender...

it reminded pakdokter of the horse-meat shasimi in Matsumoto...

pakdokter's plate of duck breast....

pakdokter's partner's plate of confit of duck

the skin was crispy and the meat melts in the mouth...

it was served with dumpling ( like the 'pau').

Kafka Museum..

We descended the Prague Castle from the opposite side of the hill and came down towards the Vltava River to the west of the Charles Bridge. We walked back along the banks of the Vltava River towards the Charles Bridge and came across the Kafka Museum.

Pakdokter must admit that pakdokter has not read any of Kafka's works despite being aware of who he is. We both decided to go in to see if we could learn anything from the museum.

It was an interesting museum. Pakdokter learnt about Kafka's life, growing up as a child under the care of a nurse and a very strict, religious and temperamental father. The exhibits on Kafka's life was very much like a psychiatric personal history taking exercise. He appeared to have an unresolved conflict with his father and even his attempt at delving into the depths of the Jewish faith did not help bridge the gap between him and his father. The absence of much report on his mother was probably a reason why he was not very successful in relationships with women. And he finally died of TB at a very young age.

His works were interestingly presented in movie-documentary forms. Watching the movies pakdokter came out feeling that Kafka was somewhat paranoid bordering on mild psychosis. Yet he is acclaimed as a great writer.

Well, pakdokter will have to make an effort to read his work.

some parts of the city was covered in snow...

a part of Kafka Museum...

the courtyard of the museum...

a sculture in the museum courtyard....

two men 'pissing'....

The Lobkowcitz Cafe with a view...

By the time we finished touring 3 of the 4 sites within the Prague Castle, we were running out of time and feeling quite cold and somewhat hungry, we decided to go into the Lobkowicz Palace Cafe for coffee and cakes. The Lobkowicz Palace is not part of the Prague Castle. It has its own tour itinerary and at lunch time everyday, there is a lunch and concert performance in the palace.

We were not in time for the concert and settled down for cafe latte and a chocolate cake and an apple strudel in place of lunch.

The balcony/terrace of the cafe offered a panoramic view of the city of Prague.

a panorama of Prague from the balcony of Prague Castle...

a chocolate cake for pakdokter and

an apple strudel for pakdokter's partner..

The Royal Palace, The Old Church, .....

Pakdokter was running late as the visiting time of the Prague Castle was up to 4 pm only. So we settled for a short tour that allowed entry to two parts of the Castle namely the Royal Palace and the Gentlewomen's Quarters, an old church and the Powder Tower. We were not allowed to take photographs in the Royal Palace but the exhibits there gave a summary of the history of the different dynasties which ruled Bohemia. The Gentlewomen Quarters was a convent for girls from the royal household.

The pictures below were of the church/chapel we were allowed to visit on the quick-tour ticket. This looked like a very old church constructed probably even before the massive St Vitus Cathedral. We did not manage to visit the Powder Tower as it was in a far corner of the castle complex.