19 Sep 2021, Sunday

 19 Sep 2021, Sunday

Prioritized Daily Tasks 

It was an all-night flight to Amsterdam, Holland.  We landed about 7:40 AM and went through customs and waited until about 9:40 AM before taking off on Delta Flt 9235 for Prague.

Day 1, arrive in Prague at 11:05 AM.  We were met by a Viking guide and taken by bus to check-in Hotel Coritin.  We are staying in 6021.  

At 2 PM Celeste arranged a room for us to have a church meeting. Chris Monson a young Stake President from West Idaho Falls conducted the meeting without the sacrament. He and his wife, Charise, have 3 children attending BYU.

We went with some of our group for a walk in the old part of town.  I took a picture of Debbie in front of a statue of a Duke of Bohemia who after his death was promoted to King Wenceslas; the statue is in front of the Narodai Muzeum (National Museum) on Wenceslas Square, the location of the Czech Spring of 1968.  There is a Christmas Carol, The Good King Wenceslas.  

Debbie and I are not buying anything today in an effort to keep the Sabbath Day holy as we can.

                                                           Debbie in front of Hotel Coritin

Notes from Debbie's information to the family:  We landed in Amsterdam from Salt Lake about 7:40 Sunday morning.  It took 2 hours to get through customs and then we went to our gate for our journey to Prague.  We landed in Prague about 11:00 Sunday morning.  We got our bags and met our tour leader.  Because of covid they got 2 buses to take our group of about 52 of us.  Most are from Idaho Falls, Idaho, two couples from Utah and 4- sister group from Wisconsin.  They are all really nice and lots of fun.  Most of them know each other from other tours they have been on.

After we checked in and got ourselves in our rooms we had an hour to freshen up and then we met in a room to have Sunday Service.  We have Bishops and a Stake President in our group and they conducted our meeting.  We learned about the early church in the Czech Republic and how they had to smuggle church materials in during the communist era.  Fascinating.  One of the men's dad's worked with President Monson to get items across the border to the members here.

We then went as a group and toured some of the city.  We made our way to Wenceslas Square-the New Town created in the 14th century by the king.  It is a long cobblestone pedestrian area with shops, musicians, and restaurants.  There is a statue of  Good King Wenceslas (there is a Christmas song about him).  He is actually a wise and benevolent 10th century duke.  His name was Vaclav and united the Czech people  when this land was known as Bohemia.  He Christianized and lifted the culture.  He was murdered in 929 and canonized as a saint. He became a symbol of Czech nationalism and kings would kneel before his tomb to be crowned.

This square has been the site of much history-1918 crowds gathered to celebrate the end of World War I, during WWII it was the scene of the Nazi occupation and then the rioting Czechs who drove the nazis out, in 1968 they gathered to protest against the communist soviests-soon Soviet tanks rolled into the square. and in 1989, more than 300,000 Czechs and Slovaks converged here to proclaim their freedom again.