In the area a few kilometres north of my home in Stará Oleška, are a whole series of border fortifications, which date from period 1935–1938. They were built in response to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, as I explained in greater detail over four years ago, in a post about similar fortifications in the Orlické hory.
Soon after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he started making demands for the incorporation of German minorities into a ‘Greater Germany’, in particular the Sudetendeutsche residing in Sudetenland – that part of Czechoslovakia containing a majority ethnic German population. This alarmed the Czechoslovak government who began to make defensive plans to counteract any future Nazi invasion attempt. These concrete bunkers are the result of those plans.
As I explained in that earlier blog post, the whole issue of Sudetenland and the Sudetendeutsche, came to a head at the Munich Conference, held at the end of September 1938. In an effort to appease Hitler and avoid conflict, the then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, along with his French counterpart Édouard Daladier, signed the infamous ‘Munich Agreement’, giving Hitler control of the Sudetenland. All this was done without the Czechoslovak government being consulted or represented at the conference.
As a result, all these border fortifications were never used for the purpose for which they were built. Despite Hitler promising that the the annexation of the Sudetenland would be the end of German territorial expansion, six months later, his forces occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
This display board explains all about these structures, in Czech and German, including a plan of one of the bunkers, together with a map showing where they were constructed, across Czechoslovakia.
Below are photographs of three more bunkers that I’ve passed whilst walking through this area.
For a week during early August, it was open every day to visitors. The young couple who were camping alongside it and welcoming anyone who came to visit, got quite a surprise when I, an English-speaker, turned up 🙂
This is a photograph I was able to take of the rather cramped interior. Below is a display of period weapons laid out on the ground outside of the bunker.
I promised back in May that, having moved from Prague to Stará Oleška, I would now write and reflect on my new life in North Bohemia. So here is a post about some of the practical aspects of village life, often in stark contrast to my experience during the previous eight and a half years of living in Prague.
Public transport
Stará Oleška lies on the 436 bus route which provides a service from the village, into the centre of Decín, terminating at the main railway station – Decín hl.n. In the opposite direction, it is possible to travel further into the hills to Jetrichovice and occasionally slightly further, to Vysoká Lípa.
In typical Czech fashion, the first bus of the day arrives in Stará Oleška at 04.43 and will deliver any passengers into Decín some thirty minutes later. The Czech Republic still has a culture of starting work very early in the morning which this service is clearly designed to meet. How well used it is I do not know as I’ve never been up at that ungodly hour to see 😉 However, I have heard it pass my house more than once – from my bed 🙂
Then throughout the day, there are regular services, allowing people to go shopping in Decín and return home an hour or two later. But unfortunately, you cannot have a night out on the town and get back to Stará Oleška by public transport. The last bus of the day leaves Decín at 18.43. And the fare for Stará Oleška – Decín? CZK 21, slightly less than one euro..
A nice touch that I have observed, in marked contrast to the UK, is the willingness of bus drivers to drop passengers off at the most convenient point, not necessarily an official bus stop. There is a home for adults with learning disabilities here in Stará Oleška and some of the residents travel into Decín for sheltered employment, returning on the bus in the early afternoon. The bus always stops to drop them off at the top of the driveway to the home, rather than taking them on round the corner, to the next stop. Likewise, when I was travelling on the bus through the neighbouring village of Nová Oleška, the driver stopped a couple of times to drop returning schoolchildren, directly in front of their homes.
On some services, clearly indicated on the timetable, provision is made for the transport of bicycles in the form of this trailer, towed behind the bus. It allows people to go biking in the hills without having to cycle all the way back to return to civilisation!
Stará Oleška does not have its own railway station, but there is one, two kilometres from the village centre, provided you are prepared to walk 🙂 It takes a lot longer to get there by road. Taking the blue waymarked route, alongside the large lake, Olešský rybnik, and continuing up the hill, on the footpath, through the forest, will bring you to Veselé pod Rabštejnem station. For the train to pick you up, you have to stand on the platform and put your hand out. If you want to get off, press the buzzer on-board to tell the driver to stop.
As in Prague, there is postal delivery here in Stará Oleška, once a day, Monday to Friday. But that is where the similarity ends!
Living in the Chaplaincy Flat in Prague, I would frequently get a chit in our mail box on the ground floor of our block, saying that there was an item that needed to be signed for, or a package that was too big for our mail box, that I had to go to the Post Office to collect. The chit always stated that our post lady had tried to deliver the item but there was no one at home to receive it when she called. This of course, was a complete lie. Usually one or both of us were at home, but the post lady chose not to bother to try and deliver the item as it was much easier not to carry it and instead, just put a note in the mail box.
The contrast here in Stará Oleška could not be greater. If there is an item to be signed for, when the post lady arrives outside the front gate in her Ceská pošta van, she gives a couple of blasts on the horn. When I reach the front gate, she is there with her clip board, indicating where I have to sign. Once signed, the item is handed over with a smile. Only when I genuinely have not been at home, has a chit been left in my mail box. The post lady also dresses in typical Czech fashion, wearing her blue and yellow pin striped Ceská pošta polo shirt, teamed with a matching blue mini skirt 🙂
Even when I do have to go to the Post Office, there is a great contrast. In Prague, after taking a numbered ticket, I frequently had to wait up to thirty minutes before being served. Whilst here, I do have a slightly longer journey to the Post Office in Markvartice, once arrived, there is rarely more than one person in front of me and collection is completed in a few minutes.
My grey wheelie bin for household rubbish, is emptied weekly, late each Wednesday afternoon. But as the refuse truck passes along my street, it first has to stop at Bar-Restaurace U Soni, ostensibly to collect their rubbish. The truck is driven around the back to where the bins are, but is then parked up there for at least the next half hour.
As far as I can observe, the three-man crew are then duly fed and watered at what I would describe as the Stammtisch (German), Stammstul (Czech), a table set up around the back of the premises, where the male half of the couple who own the business, often sits in the evening, having a few beers with his close friends. Whether the refuse truck crew are fed and watered free-of-charge, or in return for certain favours such as collecting commercial refuse and deeming it household waste, I do not know. But it could really only happen in a small village 🙂
A few weeks ago, I took the bus northwards from Stará Oleška, through Srbská Kamenice, to the southern edge of Jetrichovice. From there, I made my way back to Srbská Kamenice, first following the blue and then the green waymarked routes.
The blue waymarked route leaves the road on the left, shortly after the bus stop, where the road goes to the right, zigzagging down to the centre of Jetrichovice. Initially it follows a gravel track which gives vehicular access to several houses, before becoming a footpath, heading into the forest.
After about one and a half kilometres, there is this wayside shrine or Calvary. It has recently been restored – the little plaque on the tree giving more details, but only in Czech 🙂
All along the route, the towering peak of Ružovský vrch is nearly always visible, seen here soon after the route crosses the road through the village and begins ascending the hills on the other side.
Slightly further along the path is this First World War memorial, declaring ‘Die Heimat ihren Söhnen‘ – a reminder that until 1918, this area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and predominantly German-speaking. All of those commemorated have Germanic surnames.
After passing the village cemetery, the blue waymarked route heads into the forest once again, alongside towering sandstone rock outcrops of which this is one of the best examples.
At Pod Borovinou, I finally left the blue waymarked route and turned right onto the green waymarked route, seen here passing through grassland on the edge of the forest.
Along this path are two concrete bunkers, built by the Czechoslovak government in the late 1930s, as defences against possible Nazi invasion. I’m planning another blog post with more photographs and background about these structures. However, I have previously written about similar fortifications in the Orlické hory which you can read here.
My walk was completed by walking along the road to the centre of Srbská Kamenice where on this occasion, I patronised the bar-restaurant of Pension Vesna. This was my meal ahead of it being consumed 🙂 Best wishes for the enjoyment of my meal were expressed on the neighbouring window, in the two languages spoken by nearly all visitors.
This blog post is an invitation from me for you to join me on one of my favourite walks through the CHKO Labské Pískovce, the landscape protected area in which my new home is situated.
Leaving my front door and heading to the crossroads in the centre of Stará Oleška…..
Partway alongside the lake, the yellow waymarked route, heads off into the forest, following the valley of the Olešnicka, the stream that flows from the two lakes.
…….before joining the road at the edge of the village of Janská. On the right of this photograph are some former industrial buildings which are being converted into homes by private individuals. No doubt an inexpensive way to become a homeowner 🙂
Reaching Pod Strážištem, at 396m, the highest point on the walk, the yellow waymarked route heads downhill. Unfortunately, you cannot properly read the sign in this photograph as it is partly obscured by leaves 😉
The decent is steep! This photograph doesn’t fully convey how steep it is. I always make sure I have my trekking pole with me before taking this route.
Near the bottom of the decent, by taking a slight detour to the right, you reach a wonderful viewpoint with the village of Srbská Kamenice spread out before you. To the left is this view with Kostel sv Václava above the village on the far side of the valley.
Straight ahead is this view of the village with Ružovský vrch beyond. The yellow waymarked route reaches the centre of Srbská Kamenice, directly opposite the yellow building with a car parked in front of it, which you can see in the bottom left of the photograph. This houses the Tourist Information Centre which has lots of helpful literature, but only in Czech and German. Likewise, the staff only speak Czech or German.
I usually reward myself at the end of my walk with a beer or two and a meal at Ve starém kráme, seen here from the path that leads up to Kostel sv Václava. Whilst there is a shorter and more direct green waymarked route back to Stará Oleška, I normally make sure I’ve finished eating and drinking in time to catch the last bus of the day, back to my front door.
Three doors down the road from my new home in Stará Oleška, is Bar-Restaurace U Soni. It has been a real find and an absolute godsend since moving here. But if you go online, you will be hard-pushed to find any reference to it at all. It doesn’t have its own website. The building does not appear as a bar-restaurant on any online map.
The one reference I could find, gave the address incorrectly as Stará Oleška 76 when it it should be Stará Oleška 86. Putting the incorrect address into an online map will send you to the completely wrong location. To find the correct location, click on this link.
This blog post is therefore my small attempt to rectify the lack of information about Bar-Restaurace U Soni and give it a bit of publicity that it so richly deserves!
Let’s start with the beer. The one in the photograph on the left is the first on the list below – for my UK readers that is £0.74 for 0.5l, which is very slightly less than a pint. Even the most expensive offering is still less than £1.00 a pint!
As for the food – the photograph below was taken on either our first or second visit, a few days after arriving in the village, and shows both our meals. Total cost CZK 310 – £10.00. As you can see, each dish comes decorated with raw vegetables and fruit, a far healthier offering than in most Czech restaurants 🙂 And the portions are copious!
As my cooking facilities in the house are quite limited, until I get the kitchen refitted which will hopefully happen in July, I have become a regular at U Soni. As a reward for my patronage, I have recently twice been presented with a free dessert. Below is the second of these from two nights ago.
