By Ricky, on May 14th, 2013
The Swiss Alps from my conference centre bedroom balcony © Ricky Yates
I spent the week, (Monday 29th April – Friday 3rd May), attending the annual Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Chaplains and Families Conference held in Beatenberg, near Interlaken in Switzerland. ICS is an international Church of England mission agency seeking to make known the good news of the Christian Gospel to people who speak English, who find themselves living, studying, working or holidaying away from home in countries where English is not the main language. ICS mainly works in continental Europe and other countries that surround the Mediterranean, together with few far-flung outposts such as the Falkland Islands.
ICS has financially and prayerfully supported the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy since August 2000, their support allowing the appointment of the first full-time Chaplain in Prague, my predecessor Canon John Philpott. They have continued to . . . → Read More: ICS Chaplains Conference in Switzerland
By Ricky, on April 23rd, 2013
Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 © Ricky Yates
One of the complications of the Czech language, is that nouns have different endings according to their gender and the case being used. As consequence, nearly all Czech females, have a surname that is slightly different from, and longer than, the surname of their father or husband, from which it is derived. In most cases, this occurs by the addition of ‘ová’ onto the end of the male surname.
The obvious example to illustrate this point, is the now-retired, famous Czech tennis player Martina Navrátilová. Martina’s step-father, who married her mother when she was six, is Miroslav Navrátil. She took his name and thus is Martina Navrátilová. There are some exceptions to this rule, which arise when the male surname ends in . . . → Read More: Getting over the ‘ová’
By Ricky, on April 18th, 2013
Ricky at the entrance to Rícky. Sorry about closing my eyes! © Ricky Yates
In January 2012, I wrote a post entitled ‘Exploring the Czech Republic‘, in which I told of my discovery of a place in the Czech Republic which bears my name – Ricky. As I explained in that post, the village is actually called Rícky v Orlických horách, and there should be a hacek, a little hook, above both the ‘R’ and the ‘c’ in ‘Rícky, as there should be above the ‘c’ in ‘hácek’. But as I know from past experience, for technical reasons that are beyond my comprehension, if I put one in, the letter will appear as ‘?’ in the text of this blog.
‘Rícka’ means ‘stream’ and so with the ‘a’ replaced with a ‘y’, the word is made plural meaning ‘streams’. ‘v Orlických . . . → Read More: When Ricky went to Rícky
By Ricky, on April 15th, 2013
Rokytnice v Orlických horách – ‘Gateway to the Eagle Mountains’ © Ricky Yates
After spending Easter Monday exploring Boskovice, the following morning we drove further north for about three hours, (including a mid-morning coffee break), from South Moravia, into the extreme north-eastern corner of Bohemia. This was in order to visit the Orlické hory (Czech) or Adlergebirge (German), both names which translate literally into English as ‘Eagle Mountains’.
The Orlické hory lie close to the border with Poland in the former Sudetenland, from which the Sudetendeutsche population were expelled at the end of the Second World War. They are not as high as the Krkonoše Mountains where we spent a walking holiday for a week in July 2011. Therefore, when planning some weeks earlier, how to spend my post-Easter break, we thought they would be an ideal location for . . . → Read More: Orlické hory
By Ricky, on April 8th, 2013
Kostel Sv. Jakuba Staršího/Church of St. James the Great, Boskovice © Ricky Yates
On the morning of Easter Monday, Sybille and I set off from Brno, to spend the first few days of my post-Easter break, exploring some more parts of the Czech Republic we have not previously visited. We drove about 40 km north from Brno, to the town of Boskovice. Despite seeing ever-increasing amounts of snow lying on the surrounding countryside as we drove into the hills of the Moravský kras, the main roads were fortunately perfectly clear.
We parked the ‘Carly’ in the somewhat snow-covered Masarykovo námestí, the main square in the town centre, which is dominated at the west end, by the impressive Kostel Sv. Jakuba Staršího/Church of St. James the Great. From there, we set out to discover two of Boskovice’s main landmarks. A large Zámek/Chateau, which dates from the early nineteenth . . . → Read More: Boskovice
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