We took ourselves on another day trip. This time we traveled an hour out of town to Kutna Hora, a mining town that peaked in the 15th century.
First stop, another ossuary. This one was an entire church decorated with bones of plague and Hussite War victims. Highlight was this coat of arms. Love the Raven pecking at the eye of an Ottoman invader.
Best tour of the day was the guide down into a silver mine. 20,000+ tons of silver were mined here, starting in the 1400s. Check out these ladders; anyone want to go 12 stories underground via these bad boys?
It was very narrow and very short down there. (I was walking sideways and hunched over during many parts.) And very dark. (We turned off all the headlamps at one point. Wooo-ee. Couldn’t see your hand touching your nose.) They made 2.5cm of distance down a shaft per day with their hands tools, and we walked more than 250m in these limestone labyrinths. Talk about perseverance!
The town is full of all sorts of Gothic delights, like this water tower that had to be built for piped-in water after the toxic mining water couldn’t be drunk.
And the cathedral (half its planned size) with flying buttresses and gargoyles galore.
Of course we also found a playground. Best (aka, mom’s scariest) zipline so far!
Magrilless 
Thank you for giving our grandchildren such a wonderful education.
There have been a lot of anatomy lessons: that hole in the bottom of the skull is where the spinal cord attaches, this is called the tail bone because humans used to have tails, fibia and tibia stack just like Lincoln logs.
Europe seems beautiful everywhere…. and giggles & playgrounds seem so normal
Wow! Amazing how much the girls have learned and they haven’t even started school yet over there 😉
Here’s a question for you – did you have all this planned out before you left the states or are you just winging it each day? Or a little bit of both? 😂
Well, yes and no. We had a skeleton plan of accommodations (reservations were made for apartments and travel days last seeing) and vague ideas of things to do in those places. Then when we got there, we took advice from hosts, from fellow travelers, from guide books and websites, and from maps and wanderings. So far, the only place I wish we’d had more of a plan was Paris. (We were too tired to make the best improv decisions, I think.)