By Ricky, on May 21st, 2025
Drop-down loft ladder February 2024 © Ricky Yates
In the last few weeks, the eighth anniversary of my retirement as Priest-in-charge/Chaplain of St Clement’s, Prague (30/04/2017), and of moving into my new home in Stará Oleška (15/05/2017), have both passed. And I am delighted to be able to say that, just in advance of those anniversaries, I have finally managed to see the completion of the renovation of the interior of Stará Oleška 44. 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 . . . → Read More: After Eight Years
By Ricky, on March 28th, 2025
The candle with ‘Peace be with you’ in German & Czech © Ricky Yates
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, . . . → Read More: Commemorative Ceremony in Kralupy nad Vltavou
By Ricky, on January 30th, 2025
The Matterhorn, as seen from Zermatt with the aid of the zoom feature on my camera © Ricky Yates
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 . . . → Read More: A cable car journey up into the Alps
By Ricky, on December 27th, 2024
St Peter’s Church, Zermatt © Ricky Yates
After conducting a wonderful service of Nine Lesson & Carols in the Frauenkirche, 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 . . . → Read More: Christmas in Zermatt
By Ricky, on November 24th, 2024
Les Gaves Réunis, a tributary of the River Adour, at Hastingues © Ricky Yates
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 . . . → Read More: Exploring the River Adour in South-west France
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