Let’s all hear it for … Kutna Hora

ok, currently in our hotel room in Vienna, continuing on from last entry.

So, yesterday we went to Kutna Hora. This tour was selected exclusively on the basis of price, and was some crowns cheaper than other companies running the same tour. We were picked up from our hotel in a minivan and taken to pick up more tourists (and our guide Ludmilla) from the company’s office at Wenceslavs Square. We then had another stop at another hotel for more attendees and then another stop at another hotel further out for more guests. This is where things started to go pear-shaped: the final guests weren’t at their hotel, but at the tour company’s office, where we’d just came from. A flurry of mobile phone conversations occurred between our tour guide and (we presume) her office, and it was explained that the last two guests were on their way back to the hotel in a taxi, and would be only a matter of moments.

Half an hour later, they still hadn’t arrived, and the compulsory American, and a bunch of Israelis were getting irritated and started complaining more loudly. The driver then made a decision that we would leave, and within seconds of this decision finally being made we were on the road again. The funniest part of this whole thing was a) the crazy American chick (who may’ve actually been slightly crazy) muttering to herself the whole time, and b) the tour guide trying to keep things interesting, by basically talking about whatever she could see: “on the left you will see a train. In czech Republic all trains are manufactured in Prague …” etc, which while a good attempt at keeping the peace, were pretty weak.

Yeah I’d say it took about an hour and a half to get to the Kutna Hora Ossuary, a church decorated with thousands of human bones, mostly from victims of the last plague, around 300 years ago. It was quite interesting, google it for pictures if you’re interested. (no photos were allowed) Along the way heard some interesting facts, average wage in Praha-4 (a suburb of Prague) is 25,000 crowns per month (14 crowns to the Aussie dollar) and the rent of an apartment there is 19,000 crowns per month. Purchasing a 2-3 bedroom apartment there is about 2 million crowns, in Wenceslas square, more like 5-10 million crowns. Interesting.

Then we went to some church, and toured it, the Kutna Hora mint and King’s palace, and then headed back to Prague. The American and the Israelis then protested the tour not dropping them back at their respective hotels, although in this at least Ludmilla was covered - the brochure specifically said that all tours ended at their office at Wenceslavs Square. Godfrey and I were wishing that they’d either shut up, or be let out to find their own way back, and most importantly, that we wouldn’t be recognized as fellow rabble-rousers.

We ate at the same Italian restaurant featured on a previous night’s dinner, and it again performed admirably, although we wer mortified somewhat to see the crazy American chick from the tour sitting on the other side of the restaurant. If she was actually crazy and paranoid, I’m afraid we wouldn’t've helped her there.

We walked home in drizzle, and today we caught the train to Vienna. It took about 4 hours, and unbelievably we had two Australians seated behind us. The trip went smoothly and we got our passports “czeched” by customs. Ba-doom-tish.

To get to the hotel in Vienna took a tram and another train from the train station, but we made it here fairly easily. We’ve just finished a quick walk around Stephansplatz, with it’s impressive Viennese buildings, but not much else going on. Actually we’re kinda wondering how to fill our day tomorrow in Vienna … we’ve kinda had our fill of cathedrals and old buildings. We’ll have to see. Tomorrow we’re on an overnight train to Florence, in a 1st Class couchette. That should be interesting. All we can hope is there are old Americans who want to talk loudly to each other all night in the upper bunks.