In fact there are many stories about St. Bartholomew church which was in the center square of Plzen. On the spire, you can see .50 caliber bullet holes from Allied soldiers who were trying to take out a lone remaining Nazi sniper. Also you'll notice that people can climb the working bell tower for a spectacular view of Plzen. Well, in the spire picture you can see that there is a cage enclosing the walkway around the top of the tower. This was put up recently because two people committed suicide within a few weeks of each other by jumping from the bell tower. Apparently it's the tallest point in the city at 103m.

Another story about this church is that many years ago when the Executioner wanted to get married, he was not allowed to be wed in the church (because of his rather violent occupation). So in order for him to be married he had a stand-in in the church with his bride and the Executioner stood outside the church and held onto a decorative angel in the wrought iron behind the alter. Thus a tradition was born that the angel the Executioner held onto has become a "Wishing Angel" and the locals hold the angel, close their eyes, and make a wish. Over the next few hundred years and countless wishers the angel has been worn down to an almost unrecognizable shape.

For those of you who are drinkers of Pilsner Urquell, you'll recognize this gateway which marks the entrance to the brewery. The wedding reception was held just inside these gates. It was an awesome party with the freshest pivo (or beer) in town! The band (one of them looked like Donnie Osmond) played American songs sung in Czech. Our new friends Keith and Hana told us that the Communists didn't allow western music and they would censor songs on the radio. The censors weren't too knowledgeable about western music so Czech bands would cover western songs but sing them in Czech or change the words all together. We heard Stevie Wonder, AirSupply, Doobie Brothers, a song from Dirty Dancing, "Splish, Splash I Was Taking a Bath" all in Czech. Sometimes the Czechs would be singing in Czech, the Americans in English, and the Germans in German. It was great fun. Libusa's father, Miroslav, gave an interesting toast about how he (during Communist times) was trained to shoot down American helicopters but that he was glad his daughter was marrying Paddy, an American helicopter pilot. Cuba, the translator, was worried about how the American guests might take the speech but I think everyone was touched.

And now the wedding pics....