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.

A bit of history on the Bone Church:

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

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!

Some Family Research in France

In late August we spent the weekend exploring Eastern France.  We had a specific goal in mind on this trip...to visit the sites where Tom's Grandma Sullivan's Uncle (his great great uncle?) fought and died during WWI.  A huge thanks to Tom's sister Katie for doing the genealogy research and finding the details for our trip.  

After arriving we drove to the city of Lille, France to meet our WWI expert guide.  Lille is right on the French/Belgium border.  We had passed along the research on Tom's family to our guide before our trip so that he could find all of the key places we wanted to see.  We learned that Tom's great great uncle, Thomas James Philps, was a British soldier who fought with a division called the Connaught Rangers.  This was a specialized division of professional fighters.  He had been a part of this division for a few years fighting in Northern Africa prior to coming over into France and fighting in WWI.  Sadly, Thomas was killed, likely by a sniper, shortly after beginning to fight in France.  He died at the young age of 22 and was buried in a military cemetery on the site of the battlefield.  We were able to visit this cemetery and even find his grave.  It was an incredibly moving experience and almost surreal to imagine him fighting in the same spot we were standing, decades before...fighting for his life and his country.  Wow!  

Our guide took us around the area and showed us the various battle lines and other military cemeteries.  We also learned that Hitler was fighting as a soldier in this exact same area at the same time as Thomas James.  We got to see the German bunker where Hitler's division fought from...incredible to think of how world history would have shifted had Hitler been killed during WWI.  It was also fascinating to learn about the warfare and tactics used during this war.  It was the first time trench warfare was used, instead of troops lining up and charging towards each other in battle.

We were so grateful to learn more about Tom's family history and set foot on the actual sites where he stood.  We now think of Thomas James often and Lille, France will always hold a place on our heart.

Such a beautiful and peaceful cemetery

The name of the cemetery where Thomas James is buried

Thomas James Philps gravestone - the Connaught Rangers symbol at the top

"Their name liveth for evermore"

One German grave in the cemetery...you can tell because it is pointed at the top, not rounded.  The soldiers honored and buried all of the fallen, even their enemies

Another military cemetery nearby

A memorial to those that fought

Walking out the the German bunker where Hitler fought

All German bunkers have a marking to identify which division built the bunker

The German bunker

Up to 20 men would stay in here and use it as a base for strategy and fighting.  The bunkers were typically the third line of defense -a bit removed from the frontlines

One man would be required to sit in here for hours

Boys will be boys - Tom checking out the bunker view from the top

The bunker is literally in the middle of cornfields - it was like this during the war too

Catching up!

We've fallen a bit behind the blog lately....so hoping to catch everyone up in the next few weeks on our fun filled summer!  Most recently, Tom spent the weekend in Southern Poland, near the mountains, for a team building event.  He had a great time and got to enjoy some fantastic scenery!

A Southern Poland Weekend....

Last weekend we decided to get out and explore more of Poland.  We headed a couple of hours south of Warsaw to an area with some cool castles.  We enjoyed the sun and getting away from the city for awhile. And, it was great to explore more of Poland!

A great family weekend!

Tom playing round with the interesting decor at the hotel