One more Day in Rome

Very early on Saturday morning we flew to Rome and had one more great day in the city. We toured the inside of the Colloseum. This is where some christians were martyred but it was mostly used to hold all day entertainment where real wild animals were hunted in elaborate stage sets and killed in front of huge audiences. Cabellas may have thought of ressssurecting this kind of a thing but the animal activists would have really been upset to know that about 5000 animals were killed in just the opening festivities of the c olloseum. After the hunts the gladiators would come out and kill each other as the crowds cheered them on. It sounds pretty barberic but these were the same people who killed Jesus. Even though we don't have sport killings in our society we do have plenty of movies that show people killed designed for our entertainment and so I guess we haven't come to far in this regard. Here are some pics from inside the Colloseum.

Our original plan was to drive back to Prague the next day and catch our morning flight to Rome. We recieved an email that the morning flight on Smart Wings airline had been cancelled. They offered us an afternoon flight but Dave was depressed because that would mean that we would miss our anticipated last day in Rome. we decided to buy a ticket for Dave and I from Vienna to Rome and we let Joe drive the car back to Prague where they stayed that evening. This gave us a date in Vienna and so we went to dinner at the hotel and tried some typical food from Vienna. I had Weiner Schnitzle and Dave had a vegetable souffle. Dave thought the Weiner Schnitzle would be some kind of hot dog but it was veal pounded thin and breaded and fried or baked. It was a great meal topped off with apple Strudel served with pudding and whipped cream.

St Stephen's Cathedral

From the top of our hotel we could see a large gothic cathedral and so we set out to find that . It was the St. Stephen cathedral. Here are pics of that.

Schoenbrunn Castle

In the rnorning we went about a mile from our hotel and and toured the Schoenbrunn Castle and gardens. It was beautiful and where Marie Antoinette was raised. Here are some pictures of the castle.

Vienna Austria

After a great evening in Zlin we drove to Vienna, Austria. As we drove into the city late at night the buildings had a beautiful golden gleam to them as we drove down the streets searching for our hotel. The next morning we saw things in the daylight and could see why the shadows on the buildings were so charming. Here are some pics of vieneese buldings. Classy is a good word to describe the tall buildings with carvings, statues and ornaments at every turn. Vienna is a beautiful city.

Zlin

We traveled to Zlin (pronounced z-lean) and saw the town which was started as factories for Bata shoes. The man who started the company was a great man who even built houses for his workers and was good to them. He is remembered with great fondness. After hearing about him we went to support the cause and Devin got some new shoes.

That evening we met at the church building with members from the branch there who love Joe. It was a great experience to see and hear how he touched their lives as a missionary.

CZ Easter tradition

This cute little store all decorated for Spring reminded me of an Easter tradition that Joe told us about. On the Monday after Easter the kids go from house to house to people they know with willow branches and hit the women on the backside in exchange for eggs and candy. They don't really hurt the ladies but it is supposed to give them fertility and good luck. They sing a little song that basically says "give me eggs."