Prague, Czech Republic

The group I went with on a pub crawl the first night!

The first day we took a train out of Prague to Kutna Hora, home of the Sedlec Ossuary, or more commonly known as the Bone Church. As we settled in for the hour long ride, we all had a collective realization that we were sitting on a train somewhere in the middle of the Czech Republic! It was such a surreal feeling when it set in. We all agreed that a year ago we would never have believed that would happen to any of us...

The Sedlec Ossuary is a Gothic Roman Catholic Chapel built in 1400 in the center of a cemetery. It was used as an ossuary to store the bones exhumed from the graves to make room for more burials. In 1870, a woodcarver, Frantisek Rint was employed to put the bones of 40,000 people in order. He did so by decorating the small chapel with the bones...

The Sedlec Ossuary

The Schwarzenburg Family Crest made of bones, they were the owners who hired Rint.

The chandelier contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

This was creepy!!

Rint's signature, in bones...

I went to Kutna Hora today.... what'd you do??

Headed back to the train!

Back in Prague, we walked around the city and headed to Charles Bridge.

Vltava River

View from the top of a tower overlooking the Charles Bridge

Downtown Praha

Prague Castle in the background, the largest castle complex in the world

Grant, Eddie, me and Kaley

Bang!

The last day in Prague we took a walking tour through the city which started at the famous Astronomical Clock. Rumor has it that the man who built the clock was tortured by town officials who wanted Prague to be the only city with an Astronomical Clock. They cut out his tongue and blinded him to ensure he could never build another clock. In the end he got his revenge when he leapt into the clock works, which took his life, but also broke the clock. The clock was out of commission for a hundred years after.

The Old-New Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.

Statue of Franz Kafka

An Opera House

Locks on the Charles Bridge

On the Charles Bridge

The Wenceslas Square is sight of the Velvet Revolution protests of 

1989 which brought down Communist rule of Czechoslovakia.

 

We also went to an art museum in Prague featuring Salvador Dali and Czech native, Alphonse Mucha.

Mucha's depiction of the four seasons

Mucha also designed the currency 

Wine Tasting in Valpolicella

After a long month of working, I went on a wine tasting trip with the Pullman crew to the Valpolicella region in Northern Italy to celebrate the New Year. The region is famous for making Amarone, a red wine made from dried grapes. It is located just outside of the city of Verona. I was so impressed by the hospitality at the three different tasting rooms we visited. They all had tables spread with bread, cheese, salami, crackers and olive oil to enjoy with our tasting. And of course, the vino!

Tommasi was the first winery we visited.
They have the Guinness award for the world's largest barrel being used for production.

Traditionally the grapes dry on straw, they also use plastic crates

Shhhh.... the Amarone is aging. The wine has to aged for at least two years in barrels to be labeled Amarone.

Tommasi also makes their own olive oil, it was so good!

Cheers, Prost, Salud!

The spread at our second stop, Allegrini.

We rented a villa in the hills of Verona, it was so pretty!

The second day we visited Luigi Righetti, we sell their Amarone at Pullman.

These grapes were picked in September and were still drying.
The grapes are dried so that the flavors and sugars are concentrated, making a more robust wine.

We got to taste the grapes, the flesh was good, but the skin was so thick!

So many grapes, Corvina is the main grape used to make Amarone.

We almost ate that entire block of cheese!