The Duck Was Found In Kutna Hora

Prague is a very busy city with people scurrying across streets to catch a tram or underground train with cars, trucks, and trams crossing the street in front of you also. We like most people here live in an apartment with little space to move and groove, so we like most Czech families have found it very pleasurable to get out into the country or small villages for at least part of the weekend. Here we see part of the countryside with farms, grain fields(corn, rye, and sunflower) besides seeing trees, rivers, and forests. To get away from the cramped quarters, busy sounds, and smoggy city air is a treat.

This weekend we traveled to Kutna Hora by train with our friend, Rebecca, a fellow teacher at the school. The historical grandeur of the churches is amazing. We chose not to visit one of the tourists sites that has human skeletal bones decorating the sanctuary. There is even a chandelier made of bones. Check out this website if you are interested.

http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm

The air was chilly, so our first stop was for a “kaffe” latte. We enjoyed the warmth and coziness of the little coffee shop.

We walked around town stepping into various shops to find something warmer to wear as I, Liz did not dress appropriately for the cool temperatures and windy conditions. I purchased a sweater, two scarves to tie around my neck, and gloves for my hands. I had a small temperature gauge attached to my bag and saw that it was 50 degrees, but quite a windchill when the wind came whipping through the narrow cobblestone streets. Below left shows the quaintness and beauty of a typical residential street in Kutna Hora.

Yes, we did find duck in Kutna Hora. Rebecca and I shared an order of roasted duck with bread dumpings and red cabbage. We enjoyed a glass of fine dark Czech beer as well, but added a hot garlic soup to the dinner for added warming up. John had some curried chicken dish which he enjoyed. This made up for the duck we missed in Tabor three weeks ago. Rebecca had her Czech down pat and the duck arrived as hoped for.

We stepped into several small ceramic shops to see local pottery. And I even made a purchase there to buy some ceramic angels which I plan to give as gifts to my fellow elementary teachers who have been angels to help me get started here at CISP. They are all returning from last year, however, not to return next year, so a whole new crop of teachers need to be found for this school. Leslie Johnson, our director is returning to the States in October for a recruiting trip. I think she will be in Chicago at North Park College.

While we were strolling around Kutna Hora walking JJ, our little dog who accompanies us on our travels, we came across the Travelocity Gnome. JJ got very excited and conveyed by his barking that he wanted an autograph and a picture taken with the Gnome. The Gnome was happy to accomodate JJ and posed with him and Liz.

A second highlight of Saturday was our first truly successful batch of chocolate chip cookies. We obtained some molasses from a pharmacy - you can not get it from a grocery store. And you absolutely, positively can not get brown sugar here. Why molasses? If you meticulously mold the molasses into white sugar, you can come up with a reasonable substitute for brown sugar. As you can see, it took three of us to make the cookies. John created the brown sugar. Rachel mixed the batter up quite professionally. And Liz minded the oven and turned the baking sheet

around after approximately four to five minutes in our mini-oven.

We took the cookies to church this morning as there was a pot-luck fellowship welcoming lunch right after church at the International Church of Prague. Needless to say after the pot-lock there were no cookies left, but we ate plenty of other people's food to make up for the sacrifice of the cookies!