September 19, 2014--Day 7--Friday: Kutna Hora

(Still Carly. My sisters don't have my same kind of patience for writing.)

We had a fantastic day today. We had Laurel all to ourselves again today, and there was a maid coming to clean the house at 9:00 AM, so we left the house at like 9:15, which was super early for us.  Laurel drove us out to this smaller town an hour away called Kutna Hora. It was such a cute little town, and so tranquil compared to downtown Prague--way fewer tourists, and way more trees.

Our first stop was the famous ossuary. It became a very popular burial ground at the height of the Black Plague, thanks to some priest who sprinkled the area with dirt from Jerusalem. So when the bones became overabundant and the ossuary became overcrowded, someone commissioned the ossuary church to be ornamented and decorated WITH PEOPLES' BONES!!! There were skulls stringed together like Christmas garland, huge goblets made of bones, a coat of arms made of bones, and a massive chandelier that apparently contains every bone you can find in the human body.

I love Wilson's face in this one. :)

It was...difficult to describe. The thought of going there was kind of revolting, but I was morbidly curious. Being there was fascinating but also super creepy. It was dark and dank inside, and just so far from the idea of a nice Christian cathedral. I can't imagine actually feeling peaceful enough to pray in there. And I kept thinking like, how was this ever an okay idea?? How did the creators not just squirm in terror, fearing vengeful spirits whose remains had been turned into freaking decorations?? I mean, those were all PEOPLE once. When the Resurrection happens, that place will just be a boring stone building again, I guess. Ugh, it was weird. But at the same time, I'm really glad we got to see it.

Laurel wanted to get that out of the way first so we could have a happy, un-creepy rest of our visit. So after that we went deeper into the town and explored. First we got lunch at a cute cafe next to a big imposing cathedral. Laurel had been there before, and it ended up being perfect. Since we were a large group (I forgot to mention that Wilson was with us, too--skipping school with his broken finger) we got to eat up on the covered roof by ourselves. It was private and sunny and breezy and we could hear the organ being played in the cathedral. It was nice. The food was good, too. Lots of meat and fried potatoes. And Laurel was so excited to show us the self-cleaning toilets in the women's room. It was adorable.

After that, we went shopping some more. First we found some more cute wooden toys for Jackson (and I now have a renewed appreciation for how spoiled I've been as the first grandchild, now that I see how much my parents think about him). Then we found an amazing pottery store (Ashley was in heaven) and I wanted to buy everything.

Then we headed to the Kutna Hora castle. The castle itself is kind of typical of any large European government building, but the location is beautiful, on top of rolling hills. It's such a quiet little town. When you walk by the castle, there's a part where you pass a bunch of statues, and all you can see is forest, castle, and statues. You can easily imagine that you're living in the 1400s.

But the crown jewel of this town was its castle cathedral. Okay, we thought the Prague Castle cathedral was gorgeous, but this one was like ten times better. Not only were there way fewer tourists, none of it was blocked off and we got an up-close look at the most amazing altars and stained glass I've yet seen. It was so much sunnier than Prague. So much more inviting. The stained glass wasn't as complex and impressive as Prague, but it was just as beautiful. An besides the stained glass and elaborate woodwork on the altars, the walls were painted with murals and even the ceiling had coats of arms painted there. You just have to see it. My descriptions and even our pictures don't do it justice. That's my favorite cathedral so far.

We took another million photos there, both of the interior and the exterior, with its impressive gargoyles and flying buttresses. The setting sun provided awesome lighting, and we got several great family photos there.

To wrap up our epic outing, we found a gelato shop for a quick dessert. Then we sadly started our drive home, and got back around dinnertime. We watched "Sound of Music" with George and Hyrum while James, Laurel, Dad, and Sarah grocery shopped.

When the adults got back home, Dad gave the McConkies a gift for being such great hosts--a beautiful blue jug from that pottery shop in town. Laurel had been eying it, and she loved it.

The parents then went out to dinner (so you'll have to ask them how that went), leaving us kids to fend for ourselves. So we all had waffles at the branch's/missionaries' Friday game night downstairs and stayed for a round or two of foosball. It was very fun.

And...that's about it. :)