untapped bohemia, day 11: on the train from Kutna Hora to Harrachov

Well here I am on the train (one of several I will be taking today) from Kutna Hora to Harrachov.

At the moment, we are stopped on the tracks for no apparent reason, and we are in the middle of a beautiful bohemian forest. No leaves on the trees to speak of, but no snow either – it’s shaping up to be another beautiful sunny day, which is a welcome change from yesterday’s cold rainy crappiness – although the weather yesterday was perfectly suited to the day’s main activity, which was visiting the Sedlec Ossuary (the Bone Church) and the cemetery right next door… as you can see from the photos below.

Anyway, so the bone church was basically as expected – cold, creepy, poorly lit, and full of bones. Lots and lots of bones. More than you’ve even seen in one place, and even if you have seen that many (maybe you’re a butcher?), I’m quite sure you’ve never seen them arranged in so many decorative ways… I mean, chandeliers, sconces, ceiling ornamentations, coats of arms – this place had ‘em all, and all made from the bones of approximately 40,000 victims of the plague a few hundred years ago. Pretty damn amazing, and definitely something you don’t see every day.

(Wow, we just passed a beautiful green field with one big tree in the middle and a few big rabbits just chilling out nearby… the landscape around here is just gorgeous… Now I am seeing a little village perched just on the other side of the river we are traveling alongside of. Good stuff, all around.)

However, in all honesty I must say that, beside the bone church, there was not much of interest in Kutna Hora – and in fact it was really not all that sweet of a place to be. Now, mind you, this may be partly due to the fact that I came here from Cesky Krumlov, which is easily one of the more beautiful places in the whole world I have visited, so the contrast between it and the very-average-Czech-city feel of KH was even more exaggerated.

Some of this may also have to do with my accommodations at U Kata, which were totally adequate but very generic. The place is located on a very run-down street that looked out onto a dirty alley, and was just generally WAY less sweet than the luxurious goodness of the Dilettante’s Hangout…

It’s also worth noting that the Bone Church itself is located in a really very unattractive part of town and is a bit of a hassle to get to – you take a train from KH Mesto to the main train station (only 6 minutes) and then it’s a rather depressing walk of a few hundred meters, past a huge Philip Morris factory, to the church, where there is really nothing else around… so you need to be sure to plan your visit around the return trains to the center, which run about once an hour.

Once back in the center, there are some more old churches and the usual cobblestone streets and old buildings, but really nothing worth going out of your way for. The cathedral of Santa Barbara is a pretty amazing place with spectacular architecture – very similar to the big cathedral at the Prague Castle, and with beautiful stained glass windows, etc., but ultimately, once you’ve seen a few of these big old churches around Europe, they kinda all look the same and are not hugely exciting…

But, to be fair, it was cold and rainy and depressing out, and I had just come from the bone church and still kinda mentally recovering from that, so my impressions of the place must be taken with that in mind – if you showed up on a nice sunny day and saw the old town first and THEN went to the bone church, you might walk away with a more positive view of Kutna Hora than I did…

Oh, and I should also mention that I went to the Daicicky pub that is recommended in Evan’s book and really does seem to be the closest thing to a decent pub in town, but it was totally empty and dead when I was there (around 2-3pm) — though they did have Primator wheat beer on tap in addition to the also-not-that-impressive local Kutna Hora beer, and they also serve a tasty goulash… I could see it being a good spot when it’s a bit more rocking…

So, what I think I am saying here is that while I might recommend KH as a day trip from Prague, I’m not so sure I would call it an essential part of an extended Bohemian journey. Especially if you are coming from Cesky Krumlov, where you need to go through Prague anyway to get there (and that leg takes about 4 ½ hours as it is, with KH being another hour more), I would say you’re probably better off staying in Prague and then thinking long and hard about how much you really like bones before deciding to plan a trip there…

Ok, I am tired of writing on the train and am missing out on some killer scenery here, so I will stop now & post this when I get to Harrachov…

Tags: beer, Bohemia, brewery, Czech beer, Czech Republic, microbrewery, pivo, Prague