Today is the last proper day of this trip as tomorrow we commence the long trip home. Interestingly, today was the only day for the whole thrip where I got caught out in the rain, so can’t really complain. The morning was cloudy as we made our way to the railway station for a trip to Kutna Hora. One of the things I’ve noticed it that the railway system here is quite de-centralised, which means there is often no direct train to wherever you want to go, apart from the major cities, and the quality of the train can vary a lot as well. It took us two trains to get to Kutna Hora and there to get back. When we arrived, we ended up having a bit of a walk through the modern neighbourhoods, which seemed to feature a good portion of Soviet style apartments, but now with colours, the odd church and one impressive mural.
Kutná Hora is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. The history of Kutná Hora is linked to silver mining, which made it a rich and rapidly developing town. The old city of Kutná Hora was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 because of its outstanding architecture and its influence on subsequent architectural developments in other Central European city centres. The historic town centre is also protected as an urban monument reservation, the fourth largest in the Czech Republic. In addition to tourism, the town’s economy also includes industry, which is represented by production of tobacco products and the electrical engineering industry.
A prominent building is the Church of Saint James the Great, located next to the Italian Court. It was built in the Gothic style in 1300–1370 and modified during the reconstructions at the end of the 19th century and in 1941–1946. It is a monumental church with an 80.5 m (264 ft) high tower. Today it serves mainly for cultural purposes. The interior is well-balanced between austerity and opulence.
Next to the cathedral is the Museum of Modern Art. Again this building provided a wonderful space and although modern art is usually not my genre of choice this museum was quite good. It included some strong visual displays and some larger scale sculptures.
The last place to visit was the Italian Court which offers great view of the valey below and the rest of the town, including the vineyards where Pinot Noir is produced.
From there we walked back down the hill to the train station, to commence our journey back to Prague. The train station also features some disused carriages that were once used by the US Army. The blue one, though is the current day train back to the main line!
Once back in Prague we had on last dinner with our friends. They are off on other adventures tomorrow and we start our journey home. With this in mind, it is time to close off the blog for this trip, but not before our top threes:
Deb:
Prague – so many beautiful buildings
Budapest – especially seeing the buildings lit up at night from the river
Travelling by riverboat – it was so great not having to pack and unpack, seeing castles and towns from the river and walking off the boat, straight into some very pretty little towns.
And the weather was amazing.
Rob:
The beautiful city of Prague – Everyone said we would love it … and we did
Delft in The Netherlands – Amazing medieval city
The Rhine Valley – Photographing the castles and churches was special.
And catching up with my friend in Prague was amazing too!
Ok so that’s all for this blog. A big thank you to all of you who followed along. I hope you’ll join us for the next one!
Until then!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 