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July 2013 visit to the UK

Phillip outside the 'Trip to Jerusalem' © Ricky Yates — Phillip outside the ‘Trip to Jerusalem’ © Ricky Yates

On Tuesday 2nd July, Sybille and I returned to Prague from our eight day holiday in the Orlické hory. The next afternoon, having managed to wash, dry and iron all our dirty clothes, I was off on my travels again, heading for Václav Havel Airport, as Prague Airport is now officially known, in order to spend the next five days in the UK – only my fourth visit there since moving to Prague nearly five years ago.

As on my previous visit just under a year ago, I flew with the budget Hungarian airline Wizz Air, from Prague to Luton Airport. Having landed at Luton on time at 15.30, collected my bag, got through passport control, remembering to say ‘Good afternoon’ and not ‘Dobrý den‘, I set foot outside the airport terminal, to once more experience a country in which I feel less comfortable, the longer I am away from it.

Before I fell asleep that evening, I had three ‘I know I’m in the UK’ experiences. The first came once I stepped aboard the shuttle bus to take me from the airport, to the car park at Slip End where I was to pick up my hire car. I had to listen to a long announcement all about what to do, should the bus be involved in an accident or catch on fire. All this for a five minute bus journey! Sadly this is health and safety gone mad, coupled with lawyers who offer to sue anyone you can think of to blame, for anything that might ever happen to you.

The second experience occurred that evening, after I had driven from Slip End, up the M1 to Nottingham, and met up with my son Phillip and his girlfriend Lisa. Whilst we were sitting in a pub restaurant around the corner from where Phillip lives, I overheard a bit of the conversation taking place on the table next to us. “They’re talking in English”, I thought to myself. It took a few seconds before it registered with me that this should not be surprising as I was actually in England 🙂

The third experience was a very positive one. Having finally worked out how to log on to the wifi network at Phillip’s current home, I accessed the BBC News website, to catch up with the day’s news events. It was a great pleasure for once, not to have any advertising anywhere on the site, because I was accessing it in the the UK, rather than in the Czech Republic.

Me sitting alongside Castle Lock on the Nottingham Canal © Ricky Yates — Me, sitting alongside Castle Lock on the Nottingham Canal © Ricky Yates

Phillip kindly took Friday 5th July as a day of his annual leave, and spent it taking me on a walking tour of Nottingham. In many respects, it might be better described as a pub-crawl of Nottingham, though it was a very warm day so we did have a good excuse 🙂 We visited the ‘Trip to Jerusalem’ which claims to be the oldest inn in England. And we had lunch in a most pleasant location, sitting alongside Castle Lock on the Nottingham Canal, outside ‘The Navigation’, where Phillip took this picture of me.

A heron looking expectantly for his lunch! © Ricky Yates

After lunch, we walked along the canal towpath to where the canal rejoins the River Trent. On our walk, we passed this heron, sitting on the base of a bridge parapet, no doubt on the lookout for his lunch!

We then walked across the main bridge over the River Trent to the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground and the neighbouring world-famous Trent Bridge Inn. Banners were already out on nearby lamp posts, advertising the commencement of the Ashes Test Match series against Australia which was due to begin here on the following Wednesday. But as we enjoyed a pint sitting in the TBI, the sport on the TV screen was tennis, as we watched Novak Djokovic win his Wimbledon semi final match against Juan Martín del Potro.

Later, we joined Lisa and some of hers and Phillip’s work colleagues, for another cool beer/glass of wine outside in the Friday evening Nottingham sunshine. My thanks to Natasha, (I hope I remembered the name correctly), for taking this photo of the three of us.

Myself, with Ian's mother & step-father © Ian Margieson — Myself, with Ian’s mother & step-father © Ian Margieson

I spent the weekend of 6th -7th July, staying with my daughter Christa and son-in-law Ian, at their home in Daventry, Northamptonshire. Christa did ask me not to post a photograph of her here on my blog, so instead, here is a photograph taken by Ian, of me and his mother Eileen and step-father Barry, sitting on the decking at the rear of Christa and Ian’s home. The reason for the computer on my lap was to show some photographs – I wasn’t working, honest!

Having said that, I did have somewhat of a ‘busman’s holiday’ on Sunday morning. I preached at two services – in St. Mary the Virgin, Wilby and St. Nicholas, Great Doddington, on behalf of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS), who have financially and prayerfully supported the Prague Chaplaincy since 2000. These two parishes on the outskirts of Wellingborough, in turn, support the work of ICS. It was wonderful to meet people who faithfully pray for us in Prague. In turn, they enjoyed meeting and hearing me in person, rather than just knowing of me through a photograph in the ICS magazine.

The Cathedral & Abbey Church of St. Alban © Ricky Yates

With a few hours to kill before my flight back to Prague on the evening of Monday 8th July, I revisited somewhere that has a special place in my own spiritual journey – the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban, to give what is commonly known as St. Albans Cathedral, its correct, full name. Here, just over twenty-four years ago on 2nd July 1989, I was ordained deacon, and a year later on 1st July 1990, ordained priest.

The original Abbey Church was built on the site of where Alban, the first English Christian martyr, was put to death for his faith. It is quite a number of years since I was last here and it was wonderful to be able to both pray privately in the Cathedral, as well as to attend Evensong, before heading back to Slip End to return the car, and then to Luton Airport to fly home.

Hrad Litice / Litice Castle

In advance of our recent holiday in the Orlické hory, I followed my usual practice and spent some time examining detailed maps of the area, looking for interesting places to walk and to visit. For those who don’t know, my first degree is in Geography and I’ve had a life-long love of maps 🙂

In the southern foothills of the Orlické hory, I spotted a wooded rocky outcrop, surrounded on three sides by the Divorká Orlice – ‘Wild Eagle River’, on top of which were the ruined remains of a castle – Hrad Litice / Litice Castle. It looked like a fascinating place so I put it on my ‘places to visit’ list for our holiday.

Hrad Litice / Litice Castle was a little too far to walk to from where were staying. So instead, we drove to Popluží, just west of the town of Žamberk, and set out on a circular walk to the castle and back again. I chose the outward route in the hope of getting a view of the castle from a nearby hillside, before dropping down into the village of Litice nad Orlicí itself. As you can see below, I was not disappointed.

Litice Castle from the forest across the valley © Ricky Yates

The castle itself, dates from the thirteenth century and has had a chequered history, reflecting much of the wider history of what is now the Czech Republic. At one point, it was a stronghold of Jirí z Podebrad, a Hussite King of Bohemia. After the defeat of the Protestant forces of the Bohemian Estates by the Catholic League, at the Battle of Bílá hora / White Mountain in 1620, it fell into disuse and disrepair. Repairs were carried out in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and during the 1920s and 1930s, by an Irishman who owned the fortress at that time. He was predominantly responsible for the way the remains of the castle now appear today.

View from the castle tower across the valley of the Divorká Orlice © Ricky Yates

The view from the top of the castle tower is quite spectacular, only spoilt by the neighbouring stone quarry 🙁 However, one always has to remember that if roads and railways are to be built and existing ones maintained, then gravel and stone chips are essential and they have to come from somewhere!

Fortifications at Litice Castle © Ricky Yates

Although only the lower part of much of the castle fortifications now exists, it is still possible to see the thickness of the original exterior walls, with the appropriate orifices from which any surrounding enemy could be fired upon.

Having visited the castle, we returned down the hill to the village of Litice nad Orlicí, and then set out on our return walk along the valley of the Divorká Orlice – ‘Wild Eagle River’, to Popluží, where we had left the car earlier in the day. The combination of a walk through attractive fields and forests, together with a visit to a historic castle, made for a most enjoyable day.

View of the remaining fortifications from the tower of Litice Castle © Ricky Yates

The joys of Czech public transport

Diesel car 'Verunka' © Ricky Yates — Diesel car ‘Verunka’ © Ricky Yates

The Czech Republic has one the most dense rail networks in the whole of Europe. One of the very few benefits of over forty years of communist rule is that nearly all of it is still in existence and in use. Unlike in the UK, where over a third of the rail network was made redundant in the 1960s by Dr. Beeching, no one in the Czech Republic ever saw any part of their rail network as being ‘uneconomic’ and therefore needing to be closed down.

On Friday 28th June during our recent holiday in the Orlické hory, we walked around fourteen kilometres from our hotel in Rícky v Orlických horách, all along a waymarked footpath which follows the valley of the Rícka and Zdobnice rivers. At the end of our walk, we arrived in the village of Slatina nad Zdobnici. How did we get back to our hotel without retracing our steps? By a wonderful combination of train and bus.

The railway station at Slatina nad Zdobnici © Ricky Yates

At the western end of Slatina nad Zdobnici is the village railway station. Here it is in all its glory 🙂 Yes, there is grass growing on the platform and between the railway tracks. But trains still run regularly along the line and a clear timetable was on display. We had a bit of a wait as we had missed the previous train by about fifteen minutes. But right on time, the 14.37 service to Rokytnice v Orlických horách, duly arrived.

As on many branch lines of the Czech rail network, the service was provided by a single diesel rail car. Each one has a name and the one we travelled on was called ‘Verunka’. As the station at Slatina is unmanned, the procedure is to buy your ticket from the guard, once you are on board. Here is ours for the grand sum of 34 Kc – £1.12 at current exchange rates. And yes, that is for the two of us – £0.56 each! The ticket also declares the distance to be travelled – nine kilometres.

When we reached Rokytnice v Orlických horách, which is also the end of the line, we could have virtually straight-away caught a bus from outside the station, all the way back to Rícky v Orlických horách. Instead, we walked a short distance to Penzion Rampušák in the centre of the town, in order to have a well-deserved late lunch and do a little supermarket shopping. But at 17.13, right outside the supermarket, along came the next local bus service, to take us the six kilometres back to Rícky, also for the grand sum of 34 Kc. The joys of Czech public transport – regular, efficient and remarkably cheap!

Diesel car 'Verunka' at Rokytnice v Orlických horách station © Ricky Yates — Diesel car ‘Verunka’ at Rokytnice v Orlických horách station © Ricky Yates

Orlické hory

This post will be more pictures than words, in an effort to give a broader overview of the Orlické hory / Adlergebirge / Eagle Mountains. All the photographs are from our recent holiday in the area between Monday 24th June – Tuesday 2nd July. They stand in stark contrast to those illustrating my post from our earlier visit at the beginning of April 2013, in which snow was the predominant feature 🙁

The main mountain ridge of the Orlické hory oscillates between being just under or over 1000 metres above sea level, with Velká Deštiná the highest point at 1115 metres. Most of the mountainside is forested which means much welcome shade when walking and and a very unspoilt natural habitat. The downside is that trees often prevent the visitor from having a clear view over the surrounding area, one of the rewards I expect from climbing a mountain 🙂

Viewing tower on the summit of Anenský vrch © Ricky Yates

In some places, such as here on the top of Anenský vrch (991m), this problem has been overcome by the building of a viewing tower. But when I reached the top of Velká Deštiná (1115m), I discovered that the tower I had seen in a photograph dating from 2001, has since been dismantled and is yet to be replaced.

View across the Orlické hory from the summit of Anenský vrch © Ricky Yates

The Orlické hory have long been a popular area for walking in summer and skiing in winter. This is the Masarykova chata, opened in 1925 to provide accommodation and meals for visiting tourists and named after Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. His bust stands proudly on a pillar in front of the chata. But it was fascinating to see on display, an old black and white photograph dating from the mid-1930s, which described the building as being die Sudetenbaude im Adlergebirge. Yet another illustration of chequered history of this area.

During our walks we also encountered two things we were not expecting to see.

Firstly, this amazing field of lavender, which looks as though it belongs in Provence in the south of France, rather than in north-east Bohemia.

Nebeská Rybná Church with the fouth green alongside! © Ricky Yates — Nebeská Rybná Church with the fourth green alongside! © Ricky Yates

Secondly, a recently created nine-hole golf course at Nebeská Rybná, with the fourth green alongside the village Church!

Czechoslovak border fortifications

Border fortification in the Orlické hory © Ricky Yates

At the end of the First World War, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, President (1918-1935) of the newly declared independent nation of Czechoslovakia, was very keen that the western boundaries of the country should be the historic ones of Bohemia and Moravia which predominantly follow the ridges of the surrounding hills and mountains. This was for two main reasons. The first was to ensure that nearly all Czech speakers would be residing within the new nation. The second was to have borders that were relatively easy to defend, should conflict once more arise in the future.

However, as explained in a blogpost I wrote two years ago, one important consequence of the adoption of these borders was that many people of German ethnic origin were also incorporated within the new nation of Czechoslovakia. According to a census taken in 1921, just over three million Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, accounting for around 23% of the country’s total population. The areas where Germans formed a majority were known as Sudetenland and the people themselves as the Sudetendeutsche.

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. This alarmed the Czechoslovak government who began to make defensive plans to counteract any future Nazi invasion attempt.

Border fortification in the © Ricky Yates — Border fortification in the Orlické hory © Ricky Yates

The Orlické hory now lie parallel to the border with Poland, but until 1945, this was the border with German Nieder Schlesien – Lower Silesia. Between 1935-1938, a whole series of defensive fortifications were built here, as can be seen in these photographs. The idea was that, from these positions, any possible invasion could be held in check, until the wider Czechoslovak Army could be mobilised to deal with it.

It is somewhat ironic that the construction of these defences, created much needed employment for the local population who had been hard hit by the financial crash of 1929 and the economic depression that followed. Yet the majority of these people were themselves, German speakers!

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. And because Czechoslovakia had now lost the very defensive borders that Masaryk had insisted upon in 1918, the Nazi Army was able to do so, with hardly a shot being fired.

In the past few years, with the aid of EU funds, a walking trail with information boards has been established, linking the various fortifications and giving an explanation about their construction. The rather large fortification at Tvrz Hanicka, is now a museum.

Whilst walking the trail, I could not help but notice that a linguist choice had clearly been made by someone in authority. Information boards about the geology, geography, flora and fauna of the Orlické hory are in Czech, Polish and German, the three languages most likely to be spoken by visitors to this delightful area. Those explaining the origin of these defensive fortifications, are also in three languages – Czech, Polish and English. I will leave my readers to decide about the significance of this difference.

A refreshment truck at Tvrz Hanicka, covered with camouflage netting! © Ricky Yates