1st Day

This morning Pastor Milan and his son Matthew (age 10) showed us around town a little.  The old part of town has a 700 year-old wall still partially intact, with several large watchtowers still in excellent condition.   The town sits in a large bowl surrounded by hills.  Our apartment is on one hill, the old town is near the center, and Pastor Milan's apartment sits on the opposite side.  Both apartments were built during the communist era.  The utilitarian communist architecture is very present in building facades throughout Tachov.  Inside both  apartments are nicely furnished and restored. We had a wonderful lunch with Milan and his family (wife Dana and children Matthew and Kate (14)), overlooking the town from their 4th floor apartment.

On another hillside sits a monument to John Huss, and the Hussite war.   You history buffs out there will recall that John Huss was a famous Czech preacher in the 1400's who spoke out against the abuses of the Catholic church (sort of an early version of Martin Luther).  At the time Prague had 30,000 inhabitants, and it is said that 10,000 came to hear him preach each Sunday.  Not surprisingly, he was not liked in Rome, and he was executed.  This touched off a war between the Czech Hussites and the Bavarian Catholics.  A major deciding battle occurred right here in Tachov. 

After lunch we went to a small regional heritage museum with old farm equipment on display.  There was also a town festival going on, and one of the church members gave us a blacksmith exhibition (Daniel and Phil both made nails, and Teresa - well we're not quite sure what she made - something like a snail.  Teresa calls it a swan.  The blacksmith spent a lot of time laughing and saying things in Czech).  Phil and Daniel both got lessons in archery (we hit the target occasionally), and we ate a langose (a Hungarian fried donut like thing with pizza sauce and cheese on it).  The boys liked it. 

Not a bad way to spend our 17th wedding anniversary!  Thank you, Teresa for your eternal patience!

Tomorrow we will be introduced at church, followed by a church potluck meal.  We've been asked to say a few words, so I will try to be good.