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Nový Carly

Nearly ten years ago, I drove from the North Oxfordshire countryside to Prague, in order to begin my new life here in the Czech Republic. I drove in my right-hand drive Renault Scenic, first registered in March 2000, which has belonged to me since February 2004. I explained my reasons for bringing my car with the steering wheel on the ‘wrong’ side, to the Czech Republic, in this blog post from June 2009. Then there is a further post asking you to ‘Check this Czech car out!‘ 🙂

The ‘Carly’, as the Renault Scenic has become proverbially known, took Sybille and I all the way to Turkey and back in October 2009. In October 2015, it took us all around Poland. In between those trips, there have been various visits to Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as to many different places within the Czech Republic.

The ‘Carly’ has also taken me back to the UK on three occasions, the first of which I wrote about here, explaining all that is involved in a drive across five countries to Dunkerque on the French side of the English Channel. The last time I undertook the trip was in December 2017, in order to spend Christmas with my children and grandchildren, the first Christmas in 28 years when I wasn’t working!

However, despite my strong affection for the ‘Carly’, back in June, I came to the sad conclusion that the time had come to part with it and buy another car. There were three main reasons for this. Firstly, it has 217,826 miles / 350,000 kilometres on the clock. Secondly, the bodywork is beginning to go in several places, especially around the rear wheel arches. Thirdly and most significantly, various parts of the ‘Carly’s brain’ are no longer functioning. Whilst it would, at considerable expense, be possible to replace the ‘brain’, the Renault dealer in Prague told me that there would be no guarantee that a new ‘brain’ would talk to other parts of the ‘Carly’ and would thus render it immovable!

Having many times driven past Gregi Auta in Ústí nad Labem and seen their wide range of second-hand cars, I decided it was the place to start looking for another car. I visited on the afternoon of Tuesday 19^th June and two hours later, I had become the owner of the blue Volkswagen Golf that you see in the photograph at the beginning of this post and below.

Whilst it is sixteen years old, it had only 140,000 km on the clock and the bodywork is in excellent condition. Likewise the engine seems fine. Buying it hasn’t put a major dent in my bank account so, if it lasts the next three to four years, I shall be more than happy. Interestingly, it had been imported from Germany, the previous owner being a resident of the Spreewald area, south of Berlin. Therefore two days after I purchased the car, I had to visit the town council offices in Decín and apply for a Czech registration document and number plates.

On a couple of occasions when in France, I have previously hired a left-hand drive car, therefore driving one is not a totally new experience. But it does still take some getting used to. Even now, nearly three months after purchasing it, I still sometimes open the wrong door to get in to drive. I also often look over the incorrect shoulder to find my seat belt. And I have, more than once, tried to change gear with the door handle 🙂

When I posted a photograph of my new VW Golf on Facebook, I did raise the question of what it should be called. I had a few suggestions and my favourite was ‘Nový Carly’ which is the one I’ve adopted.

I also have one other problem – how do I dispose of an eighteen year old, right-hand drive Renault Scenic, in the Czech Republic?

The old ‘Carly’ in Prague, in the snow 🙂 © Ricky Yates

A very hot summer and a visit to the UK

The dry stream bed of Olešnicka © Ricky Yates

I need to start this post with a sincere apology to those who regularly visit and follow my blog, for the very long gap between my post about further progress with the house and garden in early June, and my post about walking above Kanon Labe, published ten days ago. As a result of my blogging inactivity, July 2018 became the first month in the nine-and-a-half years of my blog’s existence, in which I did not publish a post 🙁

My main excuse for my lack of blogging over this summer has been the weather. For the past three months, the Czech Republic, along with much of Central Europe, has experienced a heatwave with daytime temperatures well in excess of 30°C and virtually no rain. These conditions have not been conducive to me sitting down and writing coherently. They have also not been conducive to making much further progress either with the house or the garden.

The photograph on the left shows the course of Olešnicka, the stream that runs through Stará Oleška. As you can see, it is completely dry! The only consolation is that the grass at the side of the stream bed is still green, unlike my front and back lawns which are completely yellow and rock hard 🙁

Some relief finally arrived two days ago when I was woken at 07.30 by the crash of thunder and a heavy downpour of rain. We then had further rain off-and-on during that day and yesterday. But we still need plenty more! However, what there has been is a most welcome drop in temperature with the day time high today being only 18°C and the forecast saying that it will only rise into the low 20s°C in the coming few days.

This improvement in the weather has made me determined to get my blog going again and start posting regularly here once more. I have plenty of things to write about, but for this post, I’ll confine myself to the week I spent in the UK, Monday 25^th June – Monday 2^nd July, which at the time, was also experiencing a heatwave.

I flew from Prague to East Midlands Airport (EMA), with Jet2.com, who now regularly fly the route twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. I have to say I was impressed, with both flights leaving on time and arriving early, a considerable improvement on my previous flying experiences with Wizz Air between Prague to Luton.

From Monday night until the morning of Saturday 30^th June, I stayed with my son Phillip and daughter-in-law Lisa at their home in Nottingham. And of course, I got to spend time with my granddaughter Pearl 🙂

Here she is with her Dad!

Whilst this is Granddad’s favourite photograph of his granddaughter, taken during his visit.

On the afternoon of Friday 29^th June, I also travelled down to Daventry to visit my daughter Christa, son-in-law Ian, and my grandson Finley. Here I am with Finley on his bike. Grateful thanks to Ian for the photograph.

I spent the weekend in Sheffield, in order to attend and take part in the ordination as priest, of my Czech friend Dagmar Wilkinson, whose ordination as deacon I attended on Sunday 2^nd July 2017. The ordination service took place in Sheffield Cathedral on the afternoon of Saturday 30^th June, presided over by the new Bishop of Sheffield, Rt Rev’d Dr Pete Wilcox.

Standing between Rev’d Frances Eccleston & Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson © Ricky Yates

Here I am once more, standing in-between two ordained ladies – the newly ordained Dagmar on the right and her training incumbent Rev’d Frances Eccleston on the left. Frances and her husband Steve, kindly hosted me over the weekend as Dagmar had her parents and other friends and relatives staying with her.

Here is Dagmar, standing between her proud parents, following the ordination service.

With Dagmar, following her first celebration of the Eucharist © Ricky Yates

On the morning of Sunday 1^st July, I was privileged to be present at the Parish Church of All Saints, Aston cum Aughton, as Dagmar celebrated the Eucharist for the first time. Here she is with me, fully robed!

Following worship, there was an excellent parish lunch, held in the adjoining Church Hall, at the end of which we all got to share in a piece of this cake, especially made by one of the parishioners to mark the occasion.

A walk above Kanon Labe

The Labe river flowing towards Germany, where it becomes the Elbe © Ricky Yates

On Saturday 1^st September, a group from my former congregation at St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague, are travelling by train to Decín, for me to take them on a guided walk through the Labské pískovce Protected Landscape Area where I now live. This post is both an account of my research for that walk and is also aimed at giving the prospective participants, a taster of what they can look forward to experiencing 🙂

The walk starts in the village of Ludvíkovice, which lies between Decín and Stará Oleška. From outside the Post Office, where I parked my car, I then walked into the forest a short way, to join the red waymarked route that comes up from Decín and is part of the E3 European long distance path. Heading north and climbing steadily for about 1.5km, the path arrives at the first spectacular viewpoint, Vyhlídkové místo.

This is the view looking north with the Labe river flowing towards Germany, where it becomes the Elbe.

The view looking south, back towards Decín © Ricky Yates

Whilst this is the view looking south, back towards Decín.

View from Vyhlídkové místo © Ricky Yates

Slightly further on, there is second viewpoint, also called Vyhlídkové místo 😉 , from where the full extent of the forest lying below the cliffs and stretching down to the valley floor, can be seen.

From Vyhlídkové místo, there is a shallow valley to be crossed, followed by a short climb up a zigzag path to Ružová vyhlídka, at 433m above sea level, the highest point on the route.

The view south from Ružová vyhlídka © Ricky Yates

This is the view south from Ružová vyhlídka. Decín in the far distance, stands at 135m above sea level which means that Kanon Labe is nearly 300 metres deep.

The view north from Ružová vyhlídka © Ricky Yates

And the view north.

The green waymarked route through the forest © Ricky Yates

From Ružová vyhlídka, the red waymarked route is followed for a further kilometre before turning off onto the green waymarked route, heading back south through the forest.

The path then passes this fascinating geological feature, Slunecná brána, a small sandstone rock arch formation. As you can see, there is a seat provided if you need to rest your weary legs 🙂

The village of Ludvíkovice © Ricky Yates

The path then undulates through the forest, with glimpses of the village of Ludvíkovice through the trees, completing a circular walk and rejoining the red waymarked route.

Retracing my earlier steps for about 0.5km, rather than then walk back into Ludvíkovice, I continued along the red waymarked route, in the direction of Decín. This leads to two further viewpoints.

Sandstone pavilion at Vyhlídka Labská stráž © Ricky Yates

The first of these is Vyhlídka Labská stráž where there is this sandstone pavilion, originally built in the late nineteenth century. As you can probably see in the photograph, the safety barriers have been recently repaired. The stonework has also been re-pointed, restoring the building to its former glory.

The view from Vyhlídka Labská stráž © Ricky Yates

From the pavilion there is this splendid view. On the west/left bank of the Labe is the Prague-Decín-Dresden railway, whilst on the east/right bank, is the main road from Decín to Dresden.

Decín, as viewed from Císarský výhled © Ricky Yates

A further kilometre on from Vyhlídka Labská stráž, is Císarský výhled, which provides expansive views across Decín.

From Císarský výhled, the red waymarked route then descends down this zigzag path to a bus stop opposite Decín hospital. There is a local bus from here, directly to the main railway station. On the day of my exploration, I had to walk to another stop to get a bus back to my parked car.

Further progress with the house and garden

At the end of an earlier blog post entitled ‘Finishing touches and next steps‘, I posted this picture of one end of the small room behind the kitchen and stated: ‘My plan is to decorate it to get rid of all the orange 😉 and then get Elefant to fit further matching units along the wall on the right, to store all those things that didn’t fit in the kitchen’.

On Wednesday 23^rd May, just over two months after I wrote that post, my plan came to fruition when Martin from Elefant, came and fitted my chosen units. Before that, I spent many hours over several days, removing unwanted things attached to, or sticking out from, the walls, and filling the resultant holes. I then applied one coat of white emulsion to the ceiling and two coats, (because of the orange 🙁 ), to the walls. Below is a photograph of what has been achieved.

Room decorated & new units fitted © Ricky Yates

My apologies but, because of the size of the room, or more realistically, the lack of size, it is impossible to get a better photograph to illustrate what has been done. And I do still need to gloss paint the metal door frame, part of which you can see in the photo, as well as the window frame which you cannot see.

A year ago, at the end of a blog post entitled ‘Plenty to keep me occupied‘, I posted the photograph below, of an unsightly pile of earth in the back garden, that I wanted to get removed. As that earlier post explains, its origin was from the building of a retaining wall to hold back the earth at the back of the house, to prevent problems with damp.

Some months ago, I discovered that Rudolf Cebiš from the village, (Ruda to his friends 😉 ), owned a mini digger. I approached him and asked if he would be willing to come and rid me of my unwanted pile of earth. I did so, over a beer in Restaurace U Soni, in a mixture of limited Czech, sign language, and showing him this photograph taken in March this year.

The pile of earth in March 2018 © Ricky Yates

Ruda agreed to do so. However, a combination of the mini digger being used on other work and then breaking down, meant that the day I had longed for, for just over a year, only finally happened on Tuesday 22^nd May 2018.

Mini digger being unloaded © Ricky Yates

That afternoon, the mini digger arrived, sitting on a trailer, towed by a tractor, driven by my near neighbour Petr Novak. Here it is, being unloaded on the driveway alongside my back garden, that gives access to the house behind mine. Petr then drove it into the garden, through a gap where a section of fence can easily be removed.

Petr soon got to work, breaking up the earth, in advance of it being put into the trailer on the other side of the fence. Various of my neighbours gathered around to watch the fun.

Milan, who is my immediate neighbour on the other side, hopped in the cabin and made his contribution to the project!

Within two hours, all was done. The earth taken away, then the mini digger loaded back onto the trailer, and my fence put back together. Now to landscape the bare patch……

Carodejnice – the burning of witches night

Bonfire with witch, ready for burning © Ricky Yates

Yesterday evening, Monday 30^th April, I attended my first ever Carodejnice, here in my adopted home village of Stará Oleška. In the nearly ten years that I have lived in the Czech Republic, I had both heard and read about Carodejnice, but had never experienced the tradition whilst living in urban Prague. However, in the North Bohemian countryside, the tradition is alive and well.

Carodejnice is very similar to the better-known Germanic tradition of Walpurgis Night. It involves having a large bonfire on which the effigy of a witch is burnt. Historically, the idea was to ward off evil spirits. These days, it is used as the opportunity for an outdoor evening party, helped by the following day being May Day or Labour Day, a public holiday.

The Stará Oleška Carodejnice took place on a large grassed area, directly behind Restaurace U Soni. This had been thoroughly prepared over the previous couple of weeks with the grass being neatly mown, a bonfire built, a stall for serving food set up, and two large spit roasters put in place. Then on the day, all the tables and benches from the front terrace of Restaurace U Soni, were transported around the back, out onto the grass.

The evening started at around 17.00, with a series of games for the children. At the same time, the spit roasters were lit to later produce a continuous supply of roasted ham, served with bread & various sauces. Later also, there were sausages that could be put on long sticks and roasted in the fire.

The normal bar and restaurant were closed for the evening. Instead, there was a temporary outdoor bar at the back of the building, serving beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks and tea! Everybody paid for their drinks in the normal manner. An entrance fee of CZK 100, (€4.00/£3.50) per adult, covered the cost of the food.

Just as it was getting dark, the bonfire was lit from the back. Just before it was lit, someone added a second witch 🙂 Soon the bonfire was well alight and both witches were quickly burnt.

The party continued on into the evening, with tables and benches being carried to be nearer the bonfire as the evening air became cooler. It was a lovely event to be part of, very well-attended by village residents, together with some from slightly further afield. We were fortunately blessed with a fine, clear evening, and later on, by a full moon.

Full moon over Stará Oleška © Ricky Yates

PS – Once again, I must apologise for the lack of a hácek above both the ‘C’ and first ‘e’ in ‘Carodejnice’, and above the ‘c’ in hácek. Unfortunately, as I have previously explained, if I put them in, my blog set up cannot cope and ‘ Carodejnice’ would become ‘ ?arod?jnice’.