London

Katie at the Sherlock Holmes museum

Tons of people enjoying the nice day

The famous telephone booth

 We arrived in London around noon on Saturday. We were instantly overcome with the fact that everything was in English and we could read signs and understand conversations. It was a bit overwhelming coming from the Czech Republic where you can barely read anything or understand anyone. We felt the same way in Dublin. London is home to the oldest metro (subway) system in the world, called the Tube. It was quite easy finding our way to our hostel, simply because everything was in English. We were also used to metro travel by this point. Our hostel was another story. It was more of a large house with rented bedrooms. We had two bunk beds in our room and they were so close together that I had to walk sideways between them. We decided to spend as little time as possible in our room. So we dropped off our bags and headed to find some food. We spent that afternoon just hanging around the neighborhood of our hostel. The next day we headed out early to do all of our site seeing.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben and Parliament view from London Eye

The London Eye

Tower Bridge

 It was an unusually hot day in London and with all the walking we were doing I was quite warm. There was also a marathon going on that day so many of the main streets were blocked off for the runners. This was the end of our trip so we were all tired of spending money and London is awful expensive, so we just walked to all the sites and simply saw things instead of doing tours. We saw Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Sherlock Holmes museum and London Bridge. We packed in a lot that day. We did spend money on the London Eye, which is a giant Ferris wheel. The wheel is located on the edge of the Thames River and has a great view of London, specifically Big Ben and Parliament. I really enjoyed walking down to see Buckingham Palace and seeing where William and Kate were married and had their first kiss.

Dublin

Our exploring van!

Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Listening to some Irish music

 Oh Ireland, what a breathtaking place. The green, the rolling hills, the sheep, the coast, the castles, the list goes on and on. I loved everything about Ireland; I only wish I had time to see more of it. I spent my first day in Dublin, waiting in the airport for Katie and her parents to arrive. They decided to rent a car and drive down to the southern town of Cork. It was a great chance to see the Irish countryside and drive on the left side of the road! We stayed in a cozy bed and breakfast in Cork and then took off again the next day. We headed back to Dublin, but took a coastal route and got to see more of the smaller towns. We even stopped at a beach and admired the waves and water.

The coast

Enjoying a beer at the Guinness Factory

So green!

 Katie’s parents left the next day, so Alyshia, Katie and I had another two days to explore Dublin. We toured the Guinness factory, which was an amazingly well put together tour. The museum was very modern and new compared to the Budvar factory we had visited in the Czech Republic. We spent a great deal of time just walking around the city and taking pictures. We were lucky to have very nice weather and spent some time lounging in parks. Dublin was a lot of fun, expensive, but fun. After exploring the city for two days, we jetted off to London for a quick two day trip.

South Bohemia (Kutna Hora, Bone Church, Budvar factory, Český Krumlov)

Bone Church

 Our last trip as a group was to the region of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. On our way to the city of Kutna Hora, we stopped in the small town of Sedlec and visited a church decorated with human bones. The church contains thousands of skeletons from a mass grave that was created after the Plague struck Europe.

One of four mounds of skeletons

St. Barbara's Cathedral

 In Kutna Hora, we visited St. Barbara’s Cathedral which is the sister church to the cathedral in Prague.

Inside Barbara's

Budvar beer tasting

On our way to Český Krumlov, we stopped in another small town and toured the Budweiser Budvar factory. We had the best tour guide. You could tell she loved her job and loved people, of course I would love my job too if I got to drink beer with every tour group.   

Fairytale city of Český Krumlov

 Finally, we arrived in Český Krumlov, the town that looks like a fairytale. I loved exploring this little town and wandering the streets. The views of the castle were beautiful. We toured the castle and learned about the ruling family of the Rosenberg’s and their symbol of the rose and bear. Bears used to guard the castle and there are still a few bears there today. After the castle, we toured the theater. It is one of two theaters still standing today. All the others burned down or were otherwise destroyed. I loved seeing how the plays were put on and was astounded when we told the scenery on stage could be changed in ten seconds. Another favorite part of this town was walking through the castle gardens. They were absolutely huge and took you back in time. 

Dance moves at our last dinner as a group

Jan carrying Lisa's suitcase because the wheels fell off from the cobblestones...

I immensely enjoyed the trip to South Bohemia and cannot wait to have another chance to keep exploring the Czech.

May 10: Bouzov Castle

Bouzov Castle

View from Castle

Yesterday we took another field trip. This time we saw a castle that looked like a fairytale castle. There was a stone wall around the entire castle. There was also a draw bridge and dry moat! The castle was built to protect a trade route between Olomouc and Loštice. It was built for private use and remained in possession of families until the 19th century. It then became a tourist attraction. We saw several rooms within the castle and a hidden passageway. The view from the balcony was gorgeous. The hills were green and full of trees.

Statue of Saint Elizabeth

The courtyard had a well and several statues. One of the most common statues was of Saint Elizabeth. It was said they she always gave food to the poor. Her husband caught her one day and told her if she did it again he would kill her. She continued anyway. One day her husband caught her and told her to show him what was in her skirt. When she showed him, the food had miraculously become roses. For risking her life to feed the hungry, she was became a saint. It was a short trip, but I enjoyed seeing the quaint, little castle.

May 9: Kroměříž blog

Garden of the palace

Protective shoes we had to wear inside the palace

 Kroměříž: A small town near Olomouc that is the site of the Archbishop's Palace. We toured the palace and it's richly decorated rooms. The first residence on the site was built in 1497. The palace has been damaged and rebuilt several times. Today it stands in the Baroque style. After seeing the palace and its gardens, we went to see the Archbishop's wine cellar.

Wine cellar and oak barrel

Archbishop's private stash

 The cellars were built in the 12th century. We saw the oak wine barrels, most of which were around eighty years old. The largest barrels held almost 20,000 liters of wine. It was very cold and damp in the cellar. The walls were lined with a greenish foam-looking material, it was yeast. There were hundreds of coins pressed into the yeast, for good luck. We tasted several of the wines. The bottles they sold averaged around five dollars a bottle. I bought a couple of the white wines.

May 7: Auschwitz and Birkenau

Tribute to victims in Birkenau

 Monday morning we got on the bus and headed to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. We toured Birkenau first. Our group had our own tour guide. She told us her grandfather used to live near the two camps. When her mother was a young child, her grandfather took her close to the camps and told her to smell the air. He told her the smell and smoke she saw was from burning Jews and that she should never forget that smell. I can't imagine having her job. It would be miserable to have to talk about those horrors day after day. We saw the tracks that led into the camp, the partially destroyed gas chamber and crematorium, and the brick and wooden barracks. In Birkenau, there is a stone monument that was created in the 1960s. In front of the monument are many plaques with different languages on them. They all read these words: "For ever let these words be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children mainly Jews from various counties of Europe."

Nazis attempt at destroying a gas chamber

After Birkenau we went to tour Auschwitz. Our guide took us through the brick buildings that were offices and barracks for the prisoners. The living conditions in Birkenau were worse than those in Auschwitz in my opinion. They were several displays in the buildings. The most disturbing of these was an entire room of hair. Literally a 30x6 foot room piled with hair. Human hair that the Nazis cut from all prisoners to cut down on lice and use for other things. Our tour guide reiterated the fact that this place was a very efficient factory of death. The hair was used to make cloth and stuffed into mattresses. We saw rooms full of shoes, kitchen pots and pans, hair brushes, luggage, and eye glasses. Seeing the piles and piles of thousands of belongings makes the Holocaust real. It's difficult to imagine millions of people being murdered, but seeing their belongings makes it real. Too real. 

Replicated Crematorium oven in Auschwitz

We toured the gas chamber and crematorium last. The Nazis didn't have a change to destroy these before they abandoned the camp. When you walk into the gas chamber you see a small cement room, then you walk into a larger room. In several areas there are square holes in the ceiling. The holes are where the Zyklon B poison was dropped into the gas chamber. It took less than twenty minutes for the people inside to die. From the gas chamber you walk into another room with two reconstructed crematorium ovens. This is where they burnt the bodies. The smoke and ash was expelled from chimneys and fell over the entire camp. Our guide told us people could smell the stench of burning bodies up to twelve miles away. 

The gate millions entered, but only a couple hundred departed

   

That was the end of our tour.  Please click on this link to read more about the Holocaust: http://facts.randomhistory.com/holocaust-facts.html

May 4: Krakow

Going down to the salt mine....

 We left Friday morning for the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Our group had a tour guide and we began the tour by descending almost 600 stairs into the mine. Our guide took us around to several chambers. There were salt rock statues in several of the chambers. We were encouraged to put our finger on the wall and taste it. It was really salty! At the lowest point of the mine, probably 400 feet below ground, there was an absolutely huge chapel. It took years to finish. On certain Sundays they hold mass there. We took an elevator back up and I was happy to see daylight again.

Wall of the mine, it definitely tasted salty!

Krakow main square

 Unfortunately, I had been suffering from an allergic reaction since the previous weekend. It seems I walked through some sort of plant and reacted by developing a rash. My feet were swollen and extremely itchy. That evening (Friday) I went to the hospital for treatment. We waited almost three hours to see a doctor. I received a shot and had blood work done. It took another two hours to get the test results back, which were normal. Finally, I could leave. It was a rough night. The next day I stayed at the hostel while everyone else went to Wawel Castle. I went to dinner that evening but came back early to rest. By Sunday I was feeling much better. The swelling had gone down and my feet didn't itch as much. We went to the main square and a museum of pharmacy.

Cloth Hall that now houses souvenir and amber shops

 Afterwards I went to lunch with some of the girls and then shopped around in the old cloth hall. The cloth hall is a long building now full of little booths selling amber and souvenirs. Poland is known for its amber. There is a certain type of tree resin that hardens over hundreds of years and becomes fossilized. The resin is hard as stone and is called amber. There is the normal yellowish orange amber, but there are also many other colors. The amber is used for jewelry, medicine, and perfumes.  Our last night in Krakow was spent eating food. Of course. We dined at a traditional Polish restaurant. I had white borsch soup and a potato pancake. Our waiter also gave us complimentary Polish cherry vodka. The vodka is very smooth and you sip on it throughout dinner. We had a great time sitting in the garden, eating great food, and enjoying each other's company.  The next day we stopped at Auschwitz and Birkenau on our way back to Czech.