Back in March 2024, I wrote a post entitled, ‘House renovation – the next stage‘, in which I outlined how I wanted a staircase installed to give decent access to the two rooms in the roof space which were then only accessible by a drop-down loft ladder into my study bedroom. Karel junior of K & K renovace nemovitostí Decín, had assured me previously that he doesn’t know anything that isn’t feasible. So on Monday 16th December 2024, he and Karel senior, came to look at what I wanted.
They said that to insert a staircase in the little un-renovated room, as I outlined in my March 2024 post, would involve making alterations to the roof and would be very expensive. Instead, they suggested completely dismantling the tall double cupboard just outside that room, (which I had installed back in May 2018), and reassembling it in the little room and installing a staircase in the space vacated by the cupboard. This would involve no external alterations. So I accepted their suggestion and work commenced on Monday 6th January 2025. I’ll let the photographs do the talking.
I was expecting that K & K would then install the new stairs. But they told me that they wouldn’t do that until they had completely renovated the two rooms in the roof space as they wanted the stairs to abut the floor of those rooms at exactly the correct height. So whilst they worked, they used their own ladder in the newly created hole to get up and down.
Over the following couple of weeks, K & K lined the sloping sides, the narrow central strip of ceiling, the triangular walls at either end and the dividing wall between the two rooms.
Only once this was done, together with removing the old drop-down ladder and new floorboards being laid over the resultant hole, could the final task of laying a new wood laminate floor be carried out.
I’ll let the following photos speak for themselves to show what has been achieved and the high quality of K & Ks workmanship.
So after living here in my retirement home in Stará Oleška for eight years, I finally have the ability to host guests. My son Phillip has already asked when the Airbnb listing is going to happen 😉 It isn’t – the two renovated and accessible rooms will be purely for visiting friends and family. And I’m pleased to say I’ve already had my first guest 🙂
Kralupy nad Vltavou is a city with a population of around 20,000, situated on the Vltava river, sixteen kilometres north of Prague. On 22nd March 1945, it was subject to a devastating bombing attack by USAF planes. The two reasons given for the attack were the presence of an important oil refinery and the city being a key railway hub. The aim was to disrupt the ongoing Nazi war effort.
The first wave of bombers successfully hit the refinery, setting an oil storage tank on fire, from which erupted a very large cloud of thick black smoke. This left the follow-up wave of bombers with very poor visibility to see their targets. As a result, further bombs were dropped fairly randomly, hitting residential areas of the city.
Of the 1,884 buildings in the city at that time, 117 were completely destroyed and another 993 were seriously damaged. 248 people lost their lives in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of whom 145 were Czechs. The remaining victims were mainly German soldiers. The devastation was so great that Kralupy earned the nickname of ‘Little Dresden’. The allied bombing of Dresden, with the massive destruction of its central area including the Frauenkirche, and the death of around 25,000 people, had taken place only five weeks earlier on 13th – 14th February 1945.
In January this year, the director of the city museum in Kralupy, wrote to the director of the city museum in Dresden, with what he admitted was a somewhat unusual request. He was planning a commemorative ceremony on 22nd March to mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Kralupy. He wrote that since a large number of German citizens also lost their lives in those bombings, he planned that a large candle—an Easter candle—be lit for all the victims during the ceremony. He wanted the candle to be donated by a German city that had suffered a similar fate, hence his request to the city of Dresden. This would be an act of reconciliation and shared remembrance.
The director of the Dresden city museum sought the help of the Frauenkirche who arranged for the production of the requested candle. Then, just over a week before the commemorative ceremony, I got an email from Maria Noth, the Geschäftsführerin / CEO of the Stiftung, the charitable foundation that runs the Frauenkirche, asking whether I would be willing to travel to Kralupy, representing the Frauenkirche, and present the candle on their behalf. Her reasoning for doing so was because of my strong ties to the Frauenkirche, (her words, not mine), because I live in the Czech Republic, and because of originally coming from Coventry & its experience of aerial bombing.
Fortunately, I was at the Frauenkirche on Sunday 16th March, conducting my regular monthly English-language Anglican service of Evening Prayer. I was therefore able to pick up the heavily packaged candle from the vestry that evening, together with my black cassock which normally lives there, and carry them both to my car following the service, ready for onward transportation to Kralupy, on Saturday 22nd March.
At the request of the Kralupy museum director, Maria Noth sent the following message to accompany the candle, which I reproduce here in full. A Czech translation of it was printed in the programme for the Commemorative Ceremony.
‘Kralupy nad Vltavou was severely damaged on March 22, 1945 – just over a month after the City of Dresden, Germany, and the Frauenkirche, located in the heart of our city, were also devastated by Allied bombers. By commemorating the destruction of Kralupy and acknowledging the shared experiences of pain and loss in both our cities, the peace candle the Frauenkirche Dresden Foundation is dedicating to Kralupy today symbolizes the power of reconciliation and healing across nations and generations. At the same time, we remember the victims of World War II on all sides, as well as those who continue to suffer from wars in Europe and around the world today.
Furthermore, we in Dresden and Germany humbly remind ourselves that the war that led to the destruction of both Kralupy and Dresden was initiated by Germany and a dictatorial regime. The Frauenkirche in Dresden was painstakingly rebuilt between 1994 and 2005, and today it stands as a strong symbol of reconciliation, a beacon of hope, and a place where we advocate for an open and democratic society. The candle serves to unite our two cities in friendship and their shared quest for peace. It will be handed over by Reverend Ricky Yates, an Anglican priest with strong ties to the Frauenkirche in Dresden, who originally comes from Coventry – the first English city to be heavily damaged by German bombs in 1940. His presence at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kralupy’s destruction delivers a message of unity, humility, and collective hope for a peaceful future.’
The Commemorative Ceremony took place in the Roman Catholic Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a sv. Václava, amazingly one of the few historic buildings not destroyed in the bombing. The ceremony began with the sounding of a siren followed by the playing and singing of ‘Kde domov muj?’, the Czech National Anthem, which I managed to sing completely 🙂 Then I was invited to light the candle, assisted by Hana Matoušková, a ninety years old survivor of the bombing.
The ceremony continued with a speech from the mayor, the singing of the song ‘To Místo’, which had been especially composed for the occasion, and prayers led by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Plsen. There was a poetry reading and an interview with the artist Martin Frind, who had produced a painting entitled Rekviem/Requiem, containing all of the victims names.
Rekviem/Requiem by Martin Frind
For me, one of the most moving parts of the ceremony was the reading by two local teenage girls, of all the names of the victims. Several times, the same name was repeated twice and occasionally three times. Many Czech men have the same name as their father and Czech ladies, the same name as their mother. A reminder that whole families were eliminated – two, or even three generations. The reading of the names was then followed by a one minute silence.
We were then invited to go outside and lay flowers or lighted candles below the memorial on the south wall of the Church. Here, I was spoken to by numerous people either in Czech, German or English. Each one expressed their grateful thanks that I had come and participated in the ceremony and the expression of peace and reconciliation conveyed by the candle. Throughout the day, if I did have any Czech language difficulties, I was accompanied by the friendly and helpful fluent English-speaking Hana Bozdechová, the wife of the Deputy Mayor.
In conclusion, I have to say that I felt very honoured to be asked to take part in this Commemorative Ceremony, representing the Dresden Frauenkirche. On my emails, I sign myself as ‘Coordinator of English-language Anglican worship in Dresden’, because that is what I do. But it isn’t an official position at the Frauenkirche or within the EKD. Likewise in the Church of England, I function purely by holding ‘Bishop’s Permission to Officiate’ (PTO). My Archdeacon kindly says that he regards me as the Chaplain of Dresden, but I’m not, as Dresden isn’t a Chaplaincy.
However, my involvement with the life and ministry of the Frauenkirche during these past nine and a bit years, albeit in an unofficial capacity, has been extremely meaningful to me. Taking part in last Saturday’s ceremony was one additional moving experience.
At the end of my previous post, I said that I hoped to go up into the mountains surrounding Zermatt and that there would be more photos. A little belatedly, here are the promised photos and a further blog post.
On Friday 27th December, my plan was to head to the mountains, once I’d successfully banked the collections from my Christmas services. But, by the time I had approved and responded to numerous, most welcome comments on my previous post and answered a couple of emails, it was just after midday when I reached the post office.
When I did get there, I discovered it had just closed for a rather lengthy lunch break that didn’t end until 13.45. Then, when I returned, just before 14.00, the lady at the counter kindly informed me that the paying in slip that I had was only for Euros. I needed another with a different QR code for my Swiss francs. By the time I had once more been up and down the hill to the Chaplain’s flat, found the correct form on the laptop computer and printed it off and then returned to the post office, it was too late to think of setting out into the mountains, allowing for the short hours of daylight in late December.
Therefore on Saturday 28th December, which had to be my last full day in Zermatt, I set off from the flat, straight after breakfast, and walked to the station from where the cable cars or gondolas leave. To get there, I had to cross the Vispa river. A young couple, who were busy taking photos of each other with the Matterhorn in the background, kindly offered to take a similar one of me 🙂
The first stage of my cable car journey took me from Zermatt (1620m), to Trockener Steg (2939m). Here there is a restaurant and a viewing platform from where you can see the Matterhorn at closer quarters.
Out on the viewing platform, I got talking to three young American ladies who were in Zermatt for a skiing holiday but had decided just to go sightseeing that day. They were busy taking photos of each other and one of them kindly took this one of me and the Matterhorn.
The second stage of my cable car journey took me to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. At 3883m above sea level, it is the highest cable car station in Europe. A Swiss couple from Basel with whom I spoke on the way up to Trockener Steg, warned me that because the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is so high, the air is thinner. I certainly did struggle a bit to breathe but that was a minor discomfort to endure. The amazing views made it more than worthwhile to suffer a little bit of breathlessness 😉
For the first part of my return journey, I had a cable car all to myself. This enabled me to get this photograph of the Theodul Glacier with its deep crevasses, as I travelled above it.
After conducting a wonderful service of Nine Lesson & Carols in the Frauen-kirche, Dresden on the evening of Sunday 8th December, I was planning on spending a quiet Christmas at home in Stará Oleška. My Christmas worship was going to be attending a service on Christmas Eve, in German, at the Lutheran Church in Obercunnersdorf, led by my good friend and colleague, Andrew Allen. I’m not due to officiate again at the Frauenkirche, until Thursday 2nd January 2025.
Then, early in the afternoon of Thursday 19th December, an email dropped into my Inbox. It came from Jim Perryman, who oversees what is known as ‘Seasonal Mission’ for the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS). ICS are the C of E mission society who supported me when in Prague and continue to prayerfully support my ministry in Dresden.
ICS owns a Church, dating from the late nineteenth century, in the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt, for which they recruit chaplains to serve, each for a period of two weeks, during the main summer and winter holiday seasons. The email explained that, due to ‘a sudden family tragedy’, the Chaplain who was meant to arrive in Zermatt on Tuesday 17th December, open everything up for the winter season, and then serve through to New Year’s Eve, was no longer able to be there. The email was a cri de cœur, asking if anyone knew a priest who would be able to travel to Zermatt and at least cover the planned and advertised services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Jim Perryman acknowledged that with Christmas Church and family commitments, it was unlikely anyone would be available at such short notice – he entitled the email ‘LONG SHOT’ 😉 As well as being able and willing to travel, there was also the additional requirement that the priest needed to hold Bishop’s permission to officiate (PTO) in the Diocese in Europe.
I sat and read, and then re-read the email several times, over a period of thirty minutes. I realised that realistically, I could do it. I had no commitments during the time period. I hold PTO because of my ongoing ministry in Dresden. So an hour after I received the email, I wrote a reply to Jim saying, ‘I may be able to help you.’ Before I sent it, I realised it might be good to have a phone conversation, to answer the many questions that were coming into my mind. So I tried phoning the ICS office only to get the message that no one was available.
About thirty minutes after sending my email, back came a reply from Jim. He apologised for the phone silence – the ICS office staff were having their Christmas Lunch! But he said, ‘Your potential offer sounds wonderful and I will be delighted to chat with you later.’ Therefore, after a most helpful video conversation on WhatsApp, I agreed to spend Christmas in Zermatt, the first Christmas I’ve been working for eight years.
The only realistic way for me to get to Zermatt, at such short notice, was to drive there, or at least as far as Täsch, as cars and trucks are banned from entering Zermatt. It had to be a two-day drive, not helped by the short hours of daylight in mid-winter. So on the morning of Saturday 21st December, I drove from my home in Stará Oleška, to Sankt Margrethen which is in Switzerland, just over the border from Germany and Austria, where the three countries meet. There I stayed in a very nice hotel, overnight.
I’m very glad I studied the traffic map on mapy.cz before setting out the next morning as I discovered that the route I was planning to take was impassable because of winter snow. So it was onto the Autobahn around St Gallen, Zürich, Bern, and down to Vevey and Montreux. Then, as I set out into the mountains on Autoroute 9, the rain which had been falling most of the day, turned to snow. Autoroute/Autobahn 9, as you cross the French/German language divide 😉 peters out. But after several more kilometres of ordinary road, I eventually reached the town of Visp.
From Visp, there followed a twenty-eight kilometre drive, up a twisty mountain road, with heavy snow falling, before I reached Täsch. The best description of that journey would be ‘interesting’. I heard later, that shortly after my journey, the authorities closed the road so snow ploughs could operate, without cars being in the way.
Once I had parked my car in an expensive, covered, car park in Täsch, I then had to load all my luggage onto a trolley. Photographic evidence herewith. Then, I wheeled it to the railway station platform for the shuttle service to Zermatt. The trains are designed so you can wheel your trolley on in Täsch and off again in Zermatt.
My instructions, (thirty-seven pages of them 😉 ), said that it was possible to wheel the trolley out of the station and up the hill to the Chaplain’s Flat. But with the amount of snow that had fallen and with it still snowing, that wasn’t on. Instead, I set out carrying everything.
I had not gone far when I stopped for a breather, outside a hotel. Two workmen from the hotel who were busy shovelling snow, suggested I go into the hotel lobby and take a rest. I misunderstood what they also said, thinking they would come and shortly help me. When they didn’t reappear, the hotel manageress came to my aid. Saying that I was the new English Church Chaplain helped and she summoned one of the guys I’d spoken to earlier, and told him to take me up the hill in one of hotel’s electric taxis. That manageress and her employee, were two of my Christmas angels 🙂
At least when I got into the Chaplain’s flat, everything was fine. The heating was on, the last occupants had left it in good order and there were a few non-perishable goodies in the kitchen cupboards. After unloading my bags, I set off through the snow, to see St Peter’s Church from the outside.
However, when I got to the Church next day, to open it for 09.30, as required, some local authority workers had already cleared the path to the Church door and one of the set of steps leading down to the main street. All I had to do was brush the snow off the two front steps.
All of Monday 23rd and the daylight hours of Christmas Eve, were spent reading the instructions and trying to find and make work, everything relating to the Church – lights, heating, sound system, access to, and what was in the vestry. I had to also make a couple of strategic visits – to the Tourist Office to pick up some posters and make myself known, and to the supermarket to get some supplies.
It was during all of this that I received a phone call on the Chaplain’s mobile, which fortunately I had recharged overnight, as the battery was completely flat. It came from a lovely lady called Christine from North Yorkshire, who became my third Christmas Angel. ‘Do you have anyone to play the organ for your services’, she said. ‘I’ve been here before and have played the organ previously.’ I met her at the Church on Monday afternoon, and as a result, she played for three of my four services.
The first of these was a service of Lessons and Carols, starting at 17.00 on Christmas Eve. In 2023, that same service had been packed out with all pews occupied and with people standing at the back. Therefore this year, the plan was to have a second service of Lesson and Carols, starting later at 19.30, to try and spread out the numbers. However, by the time my 17.00 service was to start, all pews were occupied with an additional twenty or so, standing at the back.
I had no designated readers for either of these services. I was told just to try and nab people from the congregation to see if they were willing to read. During the daytime on Christmas Eve, I met a couple of men who came by the Church to check up on the times of services, both of whom volunteered for the 17.00 service. And as the people arrived, I recruited three more, all men.
But I had one lesson without a reader. So before commencing the service, I asked the congregation if I could have one more volunteer reader, preferably female. A hand shot up from the second row from the front. It was a young lady who was quite short and who I guessed was probably no more than twelve or thirteen years old. I accepted her offer, delighted that it was a quite short and appropriate reading, Luke 2. v1 & 3-7 describing the birth of Jesus.
The lectern, from where all the other readers read, is quite high so, when it came the time for the young lady to read, I took the other microphone from in front of my stall and held it in my hand whilst she stood up at the front and read. She read well and clearly. Shaking hands with the congregation at the door as they were leaving, this young lady, from New York City as she told me in answer to my question, personally thanked me for allowing her to read. I have to say that was for me, the most memorable part of the service which ran smoothly and was very well appreciated. I got many expressions of thanks at the door.
The one service that Christine couldn’t play for was the 19.30 Lessons & Carols. Within my thirty-seven pages of instructions was an explanation of how to play recorded organ tunes of hymns and carols through the Church sound system, using the laptop in the Chaplain’s Flat. This was one item of technology that I decided not to even start to understand, once I’d met Christine and her willingness to play for me. The problem she had with the 19.30 service was that it clashed with the time of a special Christmas Eve dinner, being provided by the hotel where she and her husband Chris and several other family members, were staying. As Christine said to me, ‘I do need to be fed’ 🙂
So, having a strong singing voice, though it did start to crack up, I told the congregation numbering eight-five, that it was going to be a DIY Carol Service. We would sing unaccompanied or a cappella. And so we did, singing eight Christmas carols interspersed by seven Bible lessons and a short sermon.
On Christmas Day morning, I received an email from someone called Dominic. He had found this blog and gained my email address from it. Dominic wrote,
‘What a lovely service last night in Zermatt! I thought the unaccompanied singing worked especially well, albeit in large part thanks to your tuneful leadership. It was much better than singing along to a recording, as I recall having done one previous Christmas Eve in that chapel.’
As well as taking the compliment, receiving Dominic’s email was very reassuring to me of the decision I’d taken.
My third service on Christmas Eve, was a Midnight Eucharist starting at 23.30. I had a very appreciative and responsive congregation numbering forty. At this service, as I’d also had at the two previous services, I received many expressions of appreciation and thanks for being so willing to travel all the way to Zermatt meaning that the services could take place. Several people had seen the earlier notification on the ICS website, that Christmas services would probably not now take place because of the absence of a Chaplain. But it was updated, immediately after I agreed to travel and be there.
After relatively few hours of sleep, my final service was on Christmas Day morning – an informal short Service of the Word, including singing four more Christmas carols. The smallest of my congregations with twenty adults and a couple of children. After this service was over, my wonderful organist Christine, took this photo of me in front of the chancel apse of the Church.
Afterwards, I then went back to the flat to cook my own Christmas Dinner. During the afternoon, I had difficulty not falling asleep as I was so worn out and tired. But I managed to stay awake until 20.00, the time in the evening when I was expected to lock the Church. I then went to bed at 20.30 and slept soundly for ten hours.
Tomorrow morning, I have to go down to the Post Office and bank the proceeds of the collections taken at the four services. I’ve already counted it all and filled in an online financial report. There are five different currencies, Swiss francs, Euros, Sterling, US dollars and Hong Kong dollars 😉 That is what you get with international congregations 🙂 After that, I hope to go up into the mountains and enjoy the view. One bonus of being a Chaplain in Zermatt is the provision of a free ski pass for all the ski lifts and gondolas. There will be more photos.
Two & a half months ago at the end of my post entitled ‘A Blogpost about my Blog‘, I declared that I had a couple of future posts that I intended to write. The first, about how I became a hymn book smuggler into the EU, I published a month later. However, I am unsure whether anyone has ever read it as it has attracted zero comments 🙁 Despite that, here finally, is the second promised post.
In late August/early September this year, I travelled from my home in the Czech Republic, to South-west France, for a ten-day holiday. As part of that trip, I explored the course of a river I had first discovered some thirty-eight years earlier – the River Adour. This was a further expression of my continued love of canals and inland waterways of which I have most recently written about here.
The River Adour from the Bay of Biscay to Urt
The Adour is usually navigable for some seventy kilometres from the Bay of Biscay to the city of Dax. But it has no connection to the substantial network of canals and inland waterways in the rest of France. It no longer carries commercial traffic but is used by a variety of pleasure craft. There are no locks and river levels are affected by the rise and fall of the tides.
Six kilometres inland from the Atlantic coast where the Adour enters the sea, lies the city of Bayonne. Here the river is bridged for the first time by the fairly recent Pont Henri Grenet.
After passing under another road bridge, a railway bridge and further bridge carrying the Autoroute 63, it then follows a straight and wide course eastwards, inland for sixteen kilometres, to the village of Urt.
At Urt, the Adour is once more bridged and shortly afterwards, the River Aran, itself navigable for six kilometres, enters the Adour on the right bank.
Two kilometres further on from the confluence with the River Bidouze is Bec du Gave. Here the Adour swings northward to the left, whilst on the right, continuing eastwards, is Les Gaves Réunis, navigable for nearly ten kilometres to just past the town of Peyrehorde.
En route to Peyrehorde, Les Gaves Réunis passes the bastide village of Hastingues from where there is a lovely view down to the river, if you ignore the truck parked in the middle of the road 😉
After one further bridge at Josse, the Adour reaches Saubusse where it is crossed by this historic bridge on which only one-way traffic is allowed and with a serious weight limit.
This road sign is a reminder that commercial traffic once used to load and unload here in Saubusse.
In dry summers, Saubusse can sometimes be the limit of navigation. But when water levels are normal, the Adour should be navigable for a further sixteen kilometres to the town of Dax. When I was there in early September, the water level seemed fine though I didn’t see a boat moving on the river above Saubusse.
I would love to be able to cruise the River Adour and its connected waterways. But to do so, one would either need to bring a trail-able craft and launch it at a slipway. Or enter from the Bay of Biscay in a seagoing craft. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to either 🙁 There are no hire-craft, unlike on the rest of the French canal and river network. Maybe a business opportunity that someone is missing 😉
