Saturday, September 28, 2013

An interesting site...

We were super excited for our BIG family vacation in August!  We met my parents and Aunt and Uncle to explore the Danube River and celebrate my dad's retirement - Go dad!  We met my parents in Prague for the start of the big trip. Before heading off, Tom and I spent the a day outside of Prague checking out the famous Bone Church in Kutna Hora.  I have to say, I've never seen anything quite like it...sort of creepy but incredibly intriguing. We also explored the adorable town of Kutna Hora and the ride through the Czech countryside was so pretty.
The well-known story of the Bone Church(‘Ossuary’ to be more correct or ‘Kostnice’ in Czech) in Kutná Hora is that, in the 13th century, Jindřich, the abbot of Sedlec monastery, returned from a visit to Palestine with a pocketful of soil and sprinkled it on the cemetery surrounding the Chapel of All Saints.
This direct association with the holy land led to the graveyard becoming a sought after burial site among the aristocracy of Central Europe. At the time of the thirty years’ war in the 17th century, the number of burials outgrew the space available, the older remains began to be exhumed and stored in the chapel, and it’s estimated that the chapel now contains the bones of up to 40,000 people.
On our drive


Outside the Bone Church




Inside the Church











Exploring Kutna Hora


Tom playing around on the drive back to Prague

Thursday, September 26, 2013

France Part Deux

After learning about Tom's family history we were off on the second part of our trip.  Tom surprised me by treating me to a stay at a Chateau outside of Paris.  It was a fabulous stay and super relaxing!  We got to spend a day exploring Paris, one of my favorite cities.  It was a super rainy day, but somehow it just added to the charm...and it was quite nice that there weren't so many tourists out. Neither Tom nor I had been to Paris in a number of years so we decided to view the sites via the standard bus tour.  From there, we headed to the top of the Eiffel Tower - so much fun!  And, finished are day strolling along the rainy streets of Paris and enjoying some yummy french snacks!  A fantastic time in a fantastic city with the most fantastic company!

The gorgeous chateau


Chilling and relaxing!

Feeling super relaxed after a trip to the spa



Touring Paris in the rain!

So much fun


We made it all the way to the top- a little scary



How can you not celebrate love in the city of love!