Monastery & Jazz Cub in One Day

 After dinner in Postloprty we were picked up by Marketa Kittrelova who drove us to her village of Knovic. The routine here is that we just show up places, meet people we don't know (but who find us somehow) and see what adventures await. The Krittrelova family is unique here in that they have 5 kids and one more on the way. Czech families usually have 1 or 2 kids and both parents work. Marketa's family lived in one room for 5 years until they built a big addition, which is where we were so graciously accommodated. Hanging out with the fam below...

Driving around in their tractor/trailer and berry picking.

Spent the afternoon with in the nearby village of Slany with hostess Alžbeta Kubrová.

Please indulge me for a minute while I share about The Church of Holy Trinity and Monastery that we saw in Slany. Since I just finished a church history course this whole monastery thing fascinates me.

We met a Carmelite friar who told us that the monastery was built in the 16th century and later was decorated in the Baroque style.

There is this strange boxy structure built right in the middle of the chapel that some royal person wanted to have built there as a replica of the same thing that is in a church in Rome that allegedly houses the Nazarene home of Jesus Christ.

Okay, so we move on to the "Jazz Cafe Jany". Rob takes a few minutes to have a meeting with our Slany road managers (see meeting below).

Sound check starts...

Where's Carrie??? On the phone AGAIN with the přítel (Czech for boyfriend).

Awesome show...

This is the club owner, Jany from Slany. 

He loves us and invites us back for a big festival!

Back at home...Marketa's mom had never seen a ukulele so Carrie gave her a private concert.

Sunday morning Greg & I sing at the Metodisticka Cirkev (Methodist Church), pictured here with Jana Daneckova, the pastor. Most people here are post-communist atheists so her congregation of 12 people is kind of big (?). 

You're welcome, rest of the HythaFamBand, for letting you sleep in.

Goodbye Slany...

Zatec, Where Beer is Literally Cheaper Than Water

Before I get into the water/beer thing, I want to show you the town square, a view from the highest tower. Here's the sad story. There were lots of Germans who grew up in this town of Zatec, Czechoslovakia. They lived there as friends and neighbors of the Czechs all their lives. Right after WWII, German residents were forced to leave forever with just 30 lbs of their belongings. As the Germans were leaving their town over the bridges that day, the Czechs, as an act of revenge, slaughtered hundreds, if not thousands, of their German townspeople who were later found in mass graves. What is WRONG with this world??

Ok, so here is one of their reasons...The yellow building is the local synagogue that had been the worship center for Jews for hundreds of years before the war.

This is what it looked like inside (from a sketch).

This is what it looks like now, never repaired since the Germans set the inside on fire 

and took all the Jews away.

Our wonderful tour guide, Lenka Fritschova (a Czech English teacher in Zatec), took us up a forbidden tower (Hytha style) to see this inscription (a heart with 2 names inside) inscribed there is 1811. Really, really old graffiti!

Now here's the beer part. This is hops that grows in the middle of town (sort of as a novelty). There is a "Temple of Hops & Beer" here in town. We didn't have time to visit that temple. 

Oh well

However, we did go to dinner (ask us about the home made plum dumplings when we see you later) at Lenka's house in Postloprty. She lives across the street from a pub. She said to us, just go across the street with the pitcher and they will fill it up for you. They know my pitcher. 

And, yes, it is half the price of bottled water!

That was easy.

After dinner we visited Lenka's (in black) husband and son at "War Camp". Yeah this is a little weird, and just to be clear, we are saluting no one in particular.

Chris Meets Fellow Pilots

There is little tourism interest in the city of Most (since the old town was destroyed), so they are establishing themselves as a sports town.  These American stunt pilots from Eagle Sport Aviation, while getting lunch at McDonalds, heard our English speaking and said "Hey, you did you guys get lost? Why would American's be here?" (although they were here too...) 

There are doing air shows/stunt flying in the region. I hope Christopher never does that... :(

Most With Mirka

The blonde on your left who looks like she could be a member of the HythaFamBand 

is actually a native of the town of Most, which translates as "Bridge". 

Mirka is our contact here, and having been given some 

cryptic (self destructing) instructions, we finally found each other on Thursday morning

(and, yes, it did have a Mission Impossible feel to it).

So here's the crazy story of this town, as perfectly described to us by Mirka (who works for the tourist agency here).  There was a beautiful little historic village here that unfortunately had lots of coal underneath it. So in 1975 the Soviets (who took the country over in 1968) blew the whole friggin town up (we watched the movie film of the explosions), the coal was mined and today there is a huge lake where the original town used to be (the Hytha historic renovators did not like this). Although, Mirka said that the communists appeased the residents by providing shiny new apartment flats with central heat and modern amenities. So the new town is "modern" (as of 40 years ago) with thousands of living cubicles. 

You can see the apartment buildings in this view from the castle.

So they blew up everything but this 10,000 ton church (Gothic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary), not for religious reasons, but because it was beautiful inside and historic. How to preserve the church? Move it. Yes, it took five years to sure it up for the move, then in one month (2 cm a minute) the church moved on a track to a new location. Here is what we saw...

This is a picture of a picture of the church on the move, 

the heaviest structure ever to be moved on wheels.

How did they keep all this in tact?

The Hytha's are giants here!

We ended the day with a bit of a mountain climb to the Hněvín Castle. 

The Man in the Blue Van - Who Is He?

The adventure continues as Christoph drives us a couple of hours further east in Germany to a McDonalds where we meet a very kind Czech man and his little son in a big blue van. 

The man speaks not word of English, but we quick grab some burgers, load our stuff into the blue van and head to the Czech Republic. Greg shares his fries with the man in the blue van and after a few hours he pulls up to an apartment building in the Czech town of Most (to which we have a key), unloads our stuff and drives away! An hour later we hear a voice from 4 floors down. It's Andrea Miklisova. She is a former intern with Atlantic Bridge and was a fabulous hostess from Most(est) and vital interpreter for the evening. Thanks Andy! 

Danke Schoen & Auf Wiedersehen to Deutschland!

Danke Schoen to Christoph, Tabs and Tara Buskies for your incredible hospitality!!

We are now friends forever and hope that you visit the USA soon 

(or we'll come back to Deutschland!).

Concert in Greifenstein

We had a really great time having dinner with the locals at a 

youth center in Greifenstein followed by a concert. 

This is Carrie singing her original song about a 4th of July in America.

The flag was custom made by this group to show American/Germany friendship.

And now we have lots of friends in Germany!