By Ricky, on November 15th, 2010
The railway station in the village of Babylon © Ricky Yates
We spent the final long weekend of our October holiday in the far west of Bohemia, close to the German border, staying in the little village with the somewhat surprising name of Babylon. To get there from Slavonice, we spent a good part of Friday 8th October driving, firstly through parts of northern Austria before passing back into the Czech Republic. Our journey then took us through Šumava, a highly attractive area of mountains, forests and lakes, parallel to the German border. Having now driven through Šumava, this area has been added to my ‘must re-visit and explore more’ list of places in the Czech Republic.
Babylon is where Jack, an Irish member of our St. Clement’s congregation, has a house that dates from the first decade of the twentieth century, which he has spent the . . . → Read More: Babylon and Pasecnice
By Ricky, on November 11th, 2010
Besídka Restaurant & Hotel, Slavonice © Ricky Yates
Less than 30 km south of Telc lies the little town of Slavonice. On the morning of Thursday 7th October, we drove from Telc to Slavonice, stopping off to briefly explore the intervening town of Decice en-route.
Slavonice has some of the best examples of buildings with sgraffito decoration in the whole of the Czech Republic. The reason that so many of these architectural gems have survived is because of the town’s somewhat unfortunate history. A prosperous town in the latter part of the sixteenth century from which period, many of the town’s historic buildings date, it lost much of its prosperity during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and suffered a further economic downturn when the main road between Prague and Vienna was re-routed in the eighteenth century.
In the twentieth century, two further events . . . → Read More: Slavonice
By Ricky, on November 4th, 2010
Arcaded building with sgraffito decoration in Telc © Ricky Yates
Leaving behind the Bata Canal and the valley of the Morava River, we drove westwards some 200 km to the little town of Telc, situated around 500 metres above sea level in the rolling hills of the far south-west of Moravia. Telc had been on my list of places to visit ever since I first read about it soon after arriving in the Czech Republic in September 2008.
The historic centre of Telc is surrounded on three sides by medieval fish ponds and access to it is via a narrow bridge and/or a gateway through the town wall. Inside the wall is the cobbled town square námestí Zachariáše z Hradce, which is surrounded by arcaded houses with beautifully decorated facades. These all date from the 16th century when the town was rebuilt by Italian masons in the . . . → Read More: Telc
By Ricky, on October 28th, 2010
Advert in the style of Alphonse Mucha for the Morava Restaurace a Disco in Uherský Ostroh © Ricky Yates
After the disappointment of the Wallachian Open-Air Museum being closed on Mondays, we left Rožnov pod Radhoštem and headed south, having lunch in and spending a couple of hours walking around the streets of the small spa town of Luhacovice, before arriving in the late afternoon, in the town of Uherské Hradište. Struggling continually trying to pronounce ‘Uherské Hradište’ correctly, we soon resorted to referring to it as ‘U.H.’!
As Professor Michal Novenko, our St. Clement’s Church organist had told me a few months previously, ‘Uherské Hradište’ means ‘the fortified place of the Hungarians’ – ‘Hrad’ being the Czech word for ‘castle’. The name is a reminder of past history when borders and peoples were not as they are now. I’m not sure how many Hungarians are left . . . → Read More: Uherské Hradište and the Bata Canal
By Ricky, on October 25th, 2010
Do you fancy a pasta salad with a horse called 'Fruity' galloping through it? © Ricky Yates
In a valley between wooded Moravian hills, lies the small town of Rožnov pod Radhoštem which is where we drove to after leaving Ceský Tešín. Rožnov had been recommended to us as a place to visit by several people as it is the home of the Wallachian Open-Air Museum where an amazing variety of historic wooden Moravian buildings have been preserved since the founding of the museum 85 years ago in 1925.
We arrived just before dusk and eventually found a place to stay within our price range in Penzion Becva, which didn’t appear in our guidebook, but which I fortunately spotted as we were about to leave the town to look elsewhere. Having been so well-fed at lunchtime, we then went out that evening looking . . . → Read More: More Czenglish and Museums don’t open on Mondays
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