June 17

I left you after breakfast, it was pouring rain outside.  By the time we got outside it had pretty well stopped raining.   Hooray!
We visited Wenceslas Square.   Be proud of us, we didn't sing Good King Wenceslas once.  I'm not sure why except that it was dreary outside so we didn't feel exuberant enough to burst into song.  Wenceslas actually was a benevolent duke and  not a king.  he was literate, and we'll educated and he Christianized and lifted the culture.  He was murdered in  929 and was canonized.  Wenceslas became a symbol of Czech nationalism.
The Square which is really a Boulevard is topped by the National Museum. It's facade is under tarps while they restore it. Apparently the facade is the part to see and the inside is rather uninteresting.   That saved some time.  Further down the Square is a memorial to two lads who decided the best way to stand up for the independenc and .freedom of Czechs was to set themselves on fire.    That was in 1969.  Twenty years later in 1989 their independence from Communism was finally achieved.
The architecture covers everything from Neo Gothic to Art Nouveau and is spectacular to see.
We left the Square and headed for the Old Town Square and the Astrological Clock.  We were there for 10:00 and had good viewing spots.  I was to video with  the new camera and Roy would take stills.  I held that camera valiantly aloft in the rain for the entire ringing of the chimes which is all if thirty seconds.  Did I get a good video of the event?  Did I get any video of the event. Nope, nothing.  Roy had tested it out at home and it worked but not in Prague.
We had to have an early lunch because we were taking a tour to Kuna Hora so we went to the French restaurant next to our hotel.  About a month before the trip I met Susan Taylor from my Fraserview days and she told me about a French restaurant that she thought was near our hotel in Prague. She had eaten there and thought it very good.  We'll it was next door and is very good!  Thanks for the tip.
Kutna Hora
Kutna Hora once boasted Europe'so largest silver min and was Bohemia'so second largest city after Prague.   Most of Europe's coins were minted there and the king got 12 % of every penny.  The siver mines were depleted by the late 1700's and the city  gradually died. We visited an ossuary.  Not tops on my list any day but it was part of the tour.  It is certainly  the most unusual ossuary we have ever visited.  The Select Bone Church is filled with bones.  Bones from 40,000 people.  The bones are stacked  into 20 foot pyramids.  Skulls every few rows with tibias and femur in between with just the ends sticking out.  There are also skull pyramids with each skull holding a femur in it's lower jaw. It did seem rather grisly.  Now, the graveyard got over full and there was no one to pay the rent on their burial place so the monks had to get creative .  They wanted to remind people that in order to live well one had to constantly remember death and that the church is a community of the living and the dead.  Been there...
After that we  visited St. Barbara's Church.  A Gothic structure was funded by silver mining and is named for the patron saint of miners.
We had a walk about the town and saw the stone well which was built to give the miner's families clean drinking water.
The scenery between Prague and Kuna Hora reminded us of Saskatchewan, right down to the wind, which seemed to be blowing constantly.
We were first to be picked up, the second couple to get on the bus were also from Canada, the Windsor area this time.

By the time we got to the church the sky had cleared and when we came out it was a pleasant temperature.   We returned to a sunny Prague.   As we were close to the Astronomical clock when they dropped us off we went back for another try.  On the way we stopped to listen to two street violinists  (can you say violinist ?).  They were amazing.  We tried making a video on the new camera but no luck.  Again we got a good position at the clock and Roy video taped it on the old camera.  Someone jostled his arm at the end but otherwise it was good.  After that we checked out some garnet earrings and I got a pair. Probably paid too much but they are an excellent souvenir for me and they don't take up room in the suitcase!  Then, though we had planned to go back to the Chef Marcel where we had lunch, we decided we liked the action on the streets near the Square.  After much menu reading we were back at Ungat Square and the Dubbliner.  It definitely wasn't Czech tradional but it was a lot of fun.  In order to use the WC you had to go inside, down a flight of stairs, down a few more stairs and in the bar, through a mob of  young men with a skin full beer of watching the football  (they parted for me as though I was the queen), then up a flight of stairs past more happy, noisy young men watching football on an even bigger TV screen and into a beautifully clean washroom.  I was in the third stall.  Young girl in stall number 2 asks if girl in stall #1 has seen someone's new apartment.  This is in the broadest Irish accents I have ever heard, even in Ireland.   The conversation continues and girls #1 says"sure  and isn't the flat right old fashioned? "  I loved it.  Back through the sea of cheering young men. Thank goodness no one cheered as I passed through or I might have been injured.  Meanwhile our meal has arrived (I know, I don't want to know what everyone ate but just this time).  Roy had the best looking fish and chips and my salad with Norwegian smoked salmon was on good, especially the mango dressing. Back to our home away from hom. We walked over 12 km today.  Too tired to figure out how to post pictures.  Maybe tomorrow, it's late now.