Ricky – Page 32

The Ökumenische Pilgerweg, Vacha and the Inner German Border

Here Germany & Europe were divided until 08.00, 12th November 1989 © Ricky Yates

Observant readers of this blog may have noticed that my wife Sybille, has not had a mention in any of my recent posts. This is because on Maundy Thursday 2^nd April, Sybille travelled by train from Prague to Görlitz, a town lying in the south-eastern corner of the former East Germany on the border with Poland. Then on Good Friday morning, she set out to walk from Görlitz, 470 km along Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg, to the small town of Vacha, which lies on the former Inner German Border.

Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg was established in 2002-3, almost solely by the efforts of one lady, Esther Zeiher. It follows the line of the ancient Via Regia passing through Leipzig, Erfurt and Eisenach. Simple pilgrim accommodation is available along the way at quite reasonable cost, provided by both the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.

Sybille’s original plan was to complete her pilgrimage and be back in Prague, before I left for the ICS Chaplains Conference in the Netherlands on Monday 27^th April. But a slight problem with her knee just over two weeks into her journey, caused a delay in her anticipated schedule. Fortunately, ‘Aunty Karen’ agreed to have Šárek the cat whilst I was to be away, allowing Sybille to complete her pilgrimage, which she did by successfully, arriving in Vacha on Wednesday 29^th April. She was then able to stay on in Vacha for another night, allowing me to pick her up on my return journey to Prague from the Netherlands, on Friday 1^st May.

So after breakfast on Friday 1^st May, I set off from the Mennorode Conference Centre, driving back into Germany and soon afterwards headed south towards Dortmund and then east towards Kassel, the city where Sybille was born. Then it was south again and around Bad Hersfeld, before leaving the autobahn for the final 20 km into Vacha. I had promised Sybille that I would reach her between 14.00 and 14.30, so I was pleased to drive into the town square of Vacha at 14.15, to be greeted by Sybille, seeking to attract my attention by waving my walking pole at me!

Vacha, pronounced by the locals ‘Facher‘ – native English-speakers beware 🙂 – lies within the former East Germany, adjacent to the Inner German Border with the former West Germany. These days, the Inner German Border is simply the boundary between the Bundesland of Thüringen and the Bundesland of Hessen. But there remains on the edge of the town, both evidence of recent past history, together with artwork celebrating the end, in November 1989, of the post-Second World War internal division of Germany.

Remains of the former dividing wall outside Vacha © Ricky Yates

The remains of the dividing wall between East and West.

In freedom. Wall opening 12.11.1989 © Ricky Yates

Decoration of an electricity sub station, adjacent to the dividing wall.

East German watchtower under renovation! © Sybille Yates

Overlooking both the sub station and the dividing wall, was this watchtower, surrounded by scaffolding as it is undergoing restoration! I forgot to photograph it but fortunately, Sybille did!. But it does raise the question that I’ve written about previously on this blog, as to what structures and memorials from past unpleasant history do you preserve, and what do you demolish or destroy?

Deciding that I was too tired to drive all the way back to Prague that day, we headed eastwards and eventually turned off the autobahn to the town of Apolda where we stayed in a B and B overnight. In the centre of Apolda was a large red brick Protestant Church with an early reminder of the forthcoming five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther and the German Reformation to be marked and celebrated in two years time.

Poster on the tower of the Protestant Church in Apolda © Ricky Yates

ICS Chaplains Conference 2015

Mennorode Conference Centre © Ricky Yates

I spent Monday 27^th April-Friday 1^st May, attending the annual Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Chaplains Conference, which this year took place at the Mennorode Conference Centre, Elspeet, in the Netherlands. As I mentioned in my first post of 2015, this has resulted in an addition to the number of countries I have visited, having never previously set foot in the Netherlands until two weeks ago today.

To get to the Conference Centre involved a drive from the Czech Republic, right across Germany, which eventually took ten hours – from 07.00 when I left Prague, until 17.00 when I finally got to Elspeet. This was somewhat longer than I had anticipated, almost entirely due to Baustellen/road works on the German Autobahn and associated Stau/traffic jams. Signs telling me whilst stuck in slow moving or stationary traffic that, ‘Wir bauen für Sie’, engendered the same frustration that I used to feel seeing signs for the ‘Cones hotline’, when stuck on British motorways in past years 🙁

My journey took me first through the former East Germany, passing around Dresden, Leipzig, Halle and Magdeburg. Heading westwards on Autobahn 2 towards Hannover, I crossed from the Bundesland of Sachsen Anhalt, into the Bundesland of Niedersachsen and in doing so, crossed into the former West Germany. Between 1^st July 1945 and 30^th June 1990, this was the location of Border Checkpoint Helmstedt-Marienborn, controlling traffic and goods passing between West Germany and West Berlin. It was also the busiest of the small number of crossing points on the former inner German border because it provided the shortest route across East Germany, (only 170 km), between West Germany and West Berlin.

These days, traffic passes at considerable speed where once vehicles could be held up for several hours. There is a sign that indicates that this is where the former inner German border used to be, together with a disused watchtower overlooking the site. But twenty-five years after German reunification, I could still notice visual differences as I passed from East to West.

I drove on around Hannover and Osnabruck, finally entering the Netherlands near the Dutch town of Hengelo. That evening, I told several of my fellow Chaplains that it was my first time in the country. ‘What were my first impressions?’ I was asked. ‘It’s rather flat’, was my reply. The other immediate observation I made is that Dutch petrol is more expensive than the German variety, something I made note of for my return journey at the end of the conference.

As in previous years, the conference struck a nice balance between prayer, worship and teaching with some free time each afternoon, to explore the immediate surrounding area. The highlight for me were three Bible expositions on the Jacob narrative from the Book of Genesis, led by my colleague, Rev’d Dr Paul Vrolijk, currently Chaplain in Aquitaine, France, but about to become Senior Chaplain in Brussels this coming summer. His talks were based on his doctoral thesis and gave great insight into the Hebrew literary structure of the narrative & the wider structure of Genesis. He also brought out some of the many plays on words in the Hebrew text, which are inevitably ‘lost in translation’.

As so often with conferences of this nature, some of the most valuable time was spent talking informally with colleagues over coffee or on occasions, something a little stronger 🙂 , such as the excellent but rather strong Belgian beer that was on tap at the Conference Centre bar. All of us work in somewhat isolated situations, I in a very isolated one, with rarely any opportunity to meet with each other except at this annual gathering.

Historic building in the centre of Deventer © Ricky Yates

Deciding on Thursday afternoon, that I did want to see a little more of the Netherlands than the inside of a very comfortable and well-equipped conference centre, I set off in the car, to visit the nearby historic Hanseatic city of Deventer. I hope the photographs that follow will give a flavour of what I saw during my all too-brief visit.

It being the Netherlands, there were inevitably bicycles everywhere!

The Mountain Church dedicated to St Nicholas/Bergkerk Sint-Nicolaas © Ricky Yates

The Mountain Church dedicated to St Nicholas/Bergkerk Sint-Nicolaas. It is no doubt called the Mountain Church because it is situated at the top of a small hill, which is a mountain by Dutch standards 😉 Dating from around 1200, it is now used as a gallery and concert venue.

Beautiful Dutch brick architecture © Ricky Yates

Beautiful Dutch brick architecture. The building next door was being completely renovated, hence the crane.

St Libuinus Church/Lebuïnuskerk © Ricky Yates

St Libuinus Church/Lebuïnuskerk is the most famous city landmark

Interior of St Libuinus Church/Lebuïnuskerk © Ricky Yates

Originally Roman Catholic, it was taken over by the Calvinists in 1580 who completely eliminated the interior decoration. This is how the interior looks now.

Fresco of Jesus carrying his cross © Ricky Yates

However, this fresco showing Jesus carrying his cross, has survived situated in the Church porch.

The British General Election – a view from the Czech Republic

Marshall Ivan Konev, surrounded by floral tributes © Ricky Yates

Today, I have been struck by the irony of David Cameron and his Conservative Party, ‘winning’ the UK General Election by over 63% of the electorate NOT voting Conservative, coinciding with the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War – VE Day. The reason for the Conservatives ‘winning’ the election by gaining less than 37% of the vote, is because of the antiquated, absurd and completely undemocratic ‘first-past-the-post’ (FPTP) electoral system under which the election was conducted. The irony of this I’ll explain shortly.

Although I live in the Czech Republic, as a British citizen, I had the right to register to vote in this election but I chose not to do so. My reason for not participating was purely the FPTP electoral system. If I had chosen to register to vote, I would have been registered in the parliamentary constituency in which I last lived in the UK. In that constituency, even if the Conservative Party had put up a blue monkey as their candidate, s/he would have been elected. My vote would have been meaningless.

I’m sure many British politicians, particularly those in the governing party at any time, wonder why they are not held in very high esteem by the British public. There are many reasons, but one important one is that, as in yesterdays election, nearly two thirds of those who voted, have ended up with a government they didn’t vote for. David Cameron will claim that he has a mandate to govern the UK for the next five years. The reality is that he hasn’t.

Sadly, I see no likelihood of change in the foreseeable future. The Conservative Party in particular, but also the bulk of the Labour Party too, do not want to abandon the FPTP system because it makes it much easier to, sooner or later, be elected with a parliamentary majority enabling it to form a government, with only needing to persuade 35-36% of the electorate to vote for them. Both parties believe in what is proverbially known as ‘Buggins Turn’. Basically, neither party believes in real democracy.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, today is also the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War – VE Day. It has been marked in ceremonies all across Europe, including one in London attended by David Cameron, as well as by two, now ex-party leaders 🙁 Here in the Czech Republic, it is a public holiday. My photograph taken this evening, once more shows the statue of Marshall Ivan Konev, surrounded by recently laid floral tributes. His Soviet Red Army troops liberated two thirds of what is now the Czech Republic, in April and May 1945.

However, just under thirteen years earlier, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, gained just over 33% of the vote in the German Election held in November 1932. But despite only having the support of one third of the German electorate at the time, he was made Chancellor a few months later. We all know far too well, the consequences that followed.

Whilst not suggesting that David Cameron will be like Hitler, the similarity of their respective levels of support is striking. When only around a third of the electorate actually votes for you, pushing through your favourite policies which are not supported by two-thirds of the electorate, is a recipe for trouble. Witness Margaret Thatcher and the poll tax.

Four years after the end of the Second World War, in 1949, the Western allies – France, the United Kingdom and the United States, returned what became West Germany, to self-rule. But they imposed a strict form of proportional representation into the electoral system, in order to prevent a recurrence of a minority imposing its will on the majority, as Hitler and the Nazi Party had done. There are plenty of other examples of the UK in particular, imposing truly democratic systems of proportional representation on former colonies, before granting them independence. The one I’m most familiar with is that used in Australia since becoming independent in 1901.

The truly democratic systems enforced on Germany post-1945, judging by its recovery from war damage and the strength of its economy today, have done it no harm but instead, an awful lot of good. But successive UK governments, be they Conservative or Labour, react in horror at the thought of adopting an electoral system such as that used in Germany. Why – is the question I ask?

One inevitable consequence of the General Election result today, is that in two years time, there will be an in/out referendum on whether the UK remains part of the European Union. If the UK were to withdraw from the EU, the economic consequences would be disastrous. But it would also affect my position as a British citizen, freely living and working in another EU member country as I do at present.

In 2007, when Sybille had major battles with German bureaucracy, trying to renew her passport as Sybille Yates, after our marriage in October 2005, she threatened to become British, before next needing to renew her passport again. However, if Cameron and his supporters, aided by UKIP, take the UK out of the EU, I may just have to consider becoming German!!!

All in the month of April

Oh dear! April is gone and I haven’t written or posted anything here for nearly a month. So finally, an update, explaining what I’ve been up to.

Worship

The first few days of April were the latter days of Holy Week, leading to Easter Sunday. As I’ve previously written, Easter Day is the Sunday when we normally have the biggest congregation of the year. However, 2015 proved exceptional with a total attendance of 136, (121 adults and 15 children), the largest ever during my seven Easters in Prague.

The additional encouraging thing is that a higher level of numbers attending worship has been maintained post-Easter. Low Sunday, (the Sunday after Easter Day), was far from being ‘low’ and on the following Sunday 19^th April, the congregation numbered 74, nearly 50% up on our Sunday average for the year, of around fifty.

Besides being thankful for this rise in numbers, I’ve obviously asked myself what has brought this about. I think the answer is that our core congregation has slightly increased in size and is putting in a higher regularity of attendance. This has combined with an increase in visitors to Prague, joining us for worship. Well over half of our Easter Day congregation were visitors. Nearly all of these find us via our Church website which I constantly seek to keep up-to-date. I recently read some research which indicates that having a Church website that is not up-to-date, is a sure way of discouraging people from attending your Church.

Weather

Despite writing in early March, that Spring seems to be arriving, winter has been somewhat reluctant to release its grip. There were several occasions during the last week of March and the first week of April, when Prague experienced heavy snow showers, most notably on Maundy Thursday when I took this picture from the balcony of the Chaplaincy Flat. Much to the amusement of the congregation, I did say at the beginning of our service that evening, in view of the weather I was tempted to change the opening hymn to ‘In the bleak midwinter’ 🙂

However, since the Easter weekend, the weather has been much improved. It was pleasantly fine for our mini-pilgrimage on Holy Saturday and positively warm when I went walking to further explore Ceský Ráj.

Dentist

Earlier this year, I was forced to visit the dentist for the first time for a few years, when one of my front teeth just fell out. Actually, it was a crown dating back nearly thirty years, which had come adrift because the tooth root to which it was attached, had died. A root canal filling and a new crown restored my good looks 😉

However, whilst fixing my front tooth, my dentist did point out that the rest of my mouth was a bit of a mess. So in late March, I decided to bite the bullet – please forgive the obvious pun – and get some further dental work done. Several visits later, on Friday 10^th April, I had three new crowns fitted to the top left side of my mouth, into the large gap left by bits of tooth and filling falling out over previous years.

Whilst I’m very pleased with the end result, my three new crowns have inevitably cost me many Czech crowns – CZK13,500, (£400 at current exchange rates), to be precise 🙁 , making a serious hole in my bank account. My only consolation is knowing that having similar work done in the UK, would probably have cost twice as much!

Annual Church Meeting

At our Annual Church Meeting on Sunday 19^th April, we did all the usual things such as receiving the 2014 accounts and electing the Churchwardens and Church Council for the next twelve months. But as well as looking back over the previous year, I took the opportunity to look forward.

I pointed out that in less than two years time, I would turn sixty-five, and that my current bishop’s licence as Anglican Chaplain in the Czech Republic, expires on 30^th April 2017. Further to that, somewhere between my sixty-fifth birthday and the expiry date of my bishop’s licence, I intend to retire. Ahead lies an interesting two years as the Chaplaincy begins to prepare for finding my successor and as Sybille and I begin to sort out where we are going to retire to. Keep reading this blog if you want to know more!

The 'Carly' at the STK testing station © Ricky Yates — The ‘Carly’ at the STK testing station © Ricky Yates

Tyres and STK for the ‘Carly’

As in many continental European countries, in the Czech Republic it is a requirement to have winter tyres fitted on cars, when driving in severe weather conditions. This realistically means between November and March each year. So on Friday 24^th April, I drove to Nepomuk to visit my friend Adrian Blank, in order to change from winter back to summer tyres. Adrian’s in-laws truck and car servicing business, kindly store the set of tyres I’m not using at any given time.

As I’ve previously explained, once every two years in the Czech Republic, a car also has to pass STK, the equivalent of a British MOT test. Although my current STK is valid until 20^th June 2015, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity of needing to be in Nepomuk for the tyre change, to also get the ‘Carly’ through STK slightly earlier than required.

As well as changing the tyres, I asked Adrian and his mechanic colleague, to check if anything else needed doing to ensure the ‘Carly’ would pass STK. Fortunately, the only thing wrong was that one light over the back number plate was not working, because the bulb was kaput.

After this, Adrian and I set off to the nearby town of Horažd’ovice, where the STK testing station is located. Conveniently, Adrian had another car that had been left with him by the owner, in order to get it through STK, so he drove that car and I followed in mine. I am pleased to report that the ‘Carly’ passed with flying colours, costing me only CZK1125 for the test and CZK9 for a new light bulb 🙂 Afterwards, Adrian and I had lunch together which I did also pay for as a ‘thank you’ for his continued help in keeping the ‘Carly’ legally on Czech roads.

Ceský Ráj revisted

Last Friday, during my post-Easter break, I explored the Hruboskalsko, another part of Ceský Ráj, a beautiful area of sandstone rocks and forests lying between 70-100 kilometres north east of Prague. Having parked my car in a designated parking area near the village of Pelešany, I made my way to join the red waymarked trail. This trail is designated the Zlatá Stezka or ‘Golden Trail’, so called because if you were to walk the whole of it, you would see all the best sights within Ceský Ráj.

After an initial climb, the trail brought me to this rock tower at Hlavatice. In the early years of the twentieth century, the local walking club erected a spiral iron staircase consisting of thirty-six steps, which allows access to the top of the tower……

…….from where there is this splendid view of the nearby town of Turnov.

Turnov as seen from the top of the Hlavatice rock tower © Ricky Yates

A further two kilometre walk brought me to Hrad Valdštejn/Valdštejn Castle, originally built to take full advantage of the defensive qualities provided by the rocky outcrop on which it is situated.

Hrad Valdštejn/Valdštejn Castle © Ricky Yates

Hrad Valdštejn/Valdštejn Castle from below © Ricky Yates

During April, the castle is only open to the public on weekends, so being Friday, it was closed. However fortunately, the neighbouring Hospoda was open!

'The Castle Pub!' © Ricky Yates — ‘The Castle Pub!’ © Ricky Yates

Pive?ko © Ricky Yates — Pivecko © Ricky Yates

Following liquid refreshment, I walked on through the beautifully forested landscape with some spectacular views of amazing rock towers. I’ll let the photographs do the talking.

Still more amazing rock towers © Ricky Yates

I eventually reached Hrubá Skála, where there is a large hotel, built onto the remains of an earlier castle.

There is an access road up to the hotel from the valley below. Two large German tourist buses were parked outside the hotel and a third pulled up a couple of minutes later. Clearly the hotel gets good business from elderly German tourists, revisiting the Heimat 🙂 I beat a hasty retreat!

I made my return journey along the yellow waymarked route from where there are further views of more rock pillars. This one on the left I thought was particularly spectacular whilst those in the photograph below, look very dramatic in the early evening light.

Rock towers in the early evening light © Ricky Yates