pilgrimage – Page 2

A mini pilgrimage on Holy Saturday

On the afternoon of Holy Saturday, I was one of five members of the St. Clement’s congregation, who went on a mini pilgrimage. We met at Ládví metro station in the north-eastern Prague suburbs, and from there took the bus further out to Dáblice from where we began our pilgrimage walk.

Dáblice is a village which now adjoins the Prague conurbation. We climbed from the village centre, up onto Dáblický háj, a beautiful area of heathland and woods. At the top of the hill is an observatory and adjacent to it on a rocky outcrop, a cross.

From this point, there are wonderful views out across the northern Bohemian countryside.

The view from Dáblický háj © Ricky Yates

There followed a very pleasant walk through the woods along the top of the ridge before our path took us down to the main road that runs along the southern edge of the heath. Across the main road, lay the goal of our pilgrimage – a memorial to those who resisted fascism.

The memorial is situated on the northern extremity of what was once a military shooting range, created back in 1890. During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, the whole area was isolated and surrounded by barbed wire fencing.

After the assassination attempt on 27^th May 1942, by Czechoslovak parachutists, on Reinhard Heydrich, the acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, 463 men and 76 women were executed here within 33 days, including outstanding scientists, artists, politicians, soldiers, and four representatives of the Czech Orthodox Church who had provided asylum to the Czechoslovak parachutists in the Orthodox St`s Cyril & Methodius Cathedral. In total, it is believed that over 750 people were executed here during the years of Nazi occupation.

When we arrived at the memorial, we discovered that it is officially closed from March – September 2015, whilst work is carried, with the benefit of an EU grant, to renovate the site. Fortunately, it was fairly easy to get around the metal barrier across the entrance and being a holiday weekend, nobody was working there. It will obviously look nicer when the landscaping work is completed.

The names of the first people executed here, starting just three days after the Heydrich assassination attempt.

Quite clearly a new concrete wall has recently been created as part of the renovation work, to which the plaques with the names of all those executed, have been reattached.

In translation, the inscription reads: ‘Stop for a while …… our blood entered this soil but we have arisen again’.

Cross with crown of thorns © Ricky Yates

A new cross with a crown of thorns has been erected, quite appropriate for our Holy Saturday visit.

A tale of two Advents

The Advent Ring hanging from the ceiling of St. Clement's Church © Ricky Yates — The Advent Ring hanging from the ceiling of St. Clement’s Church © Ricky Yates

Last Sunday, 30^th November, was Advent Sunday which marks both the beginning of the Church Liturgical Year and of the season of Advent. Contrary to what the manufacturers of Advent calendars all believe, Advent only occasionally begins on 1st December. Instead it begins four Sundays before Christmas Day.

The word ‘advent’ means ‘coming’, from the Latin ‘adventus‘. And particularly at the beginning of the Advent season, we are encouraged to think seriously about the promised second coming of Christ – his second Advent, as in turn we prepare ourselves to once more celebrate his first coming at Christmas.

The tradition of having an Advent ring/wreath/crown, with four candles, an additional one to be lit on successive Sundays during Advent, is very popular here in the Czech Republic. Whilst our host Ceskobratrská církve evangelické / Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren congregation, are not great keepers of the Liturgical Year – for example, they do not mark Ash Wednesday – they do mark and keep the Advent season. As part of doing so, each year they provide this amazing Advent ring which hangs from the Church ceiling, just behind the altar. I took this photograph at the end of our Advent Sunday worship last Sunday morning, just before snuffing out the first lit candle, as part of our duty of leaving the Church building safe and secure!

I thoroughly enjoyed our Advent Sunday worship with the regular congregation being joined by numerous visitors from around the world. Our service began with the singing of, ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’, and ended with a rousing rendition of Charles Wesley’s ‘Lo, he comes with clouds descending’. But as well as celebrating Christ’s promised ‘second Advent’, I was very conscious that just a couple of days later, I would experience a personal ‘second advent’ – that of my wife, Sybille, returning to Prague from her nearly six-month walking pilgrimage, from Prague to Santiago de Compostela.

Having left from the front door of the Chaplaincy Flat on Monday 9^th June, Sybille successfully walked into Santiago on the morning of Sunday 23^rd November. After her arrival, she spent a few days enjoying the city and also visited a friend in Lugo. With no direct flights available to Prague, she instead flew to Barcelona and spent the Advent Sunday weekend staying with another friend there, before being booked to fly to Prague on Tuesday 2^nd December.

Over the few days before Sybille was due to return to Prague, it was cold but dry. However, soon after dark on the evening of Monday 1^st December, it started to rain. But because the air and the ground were so cold, the rain almost immediately froze, forming ice everywhere. Prague, together with much of the rest of the Czech Republic, experienced what has been described as an ‘ice storm’. Ice forming in large amounts on the overhead wires, caused the whole of the Prague tram network to close down along with much of the Czech railway system.

The 'Carly' on Tuesday 2nd December © Ricky Yates — The ‘Carly’ on Tuesday 2nd December © Ricky Yates

Eventually, the rain did turn to snow and this was how my car looked the following morning, in advance of driving out to the airport to meet Sybille. But underneath what appears to be just a light dusting of snow, was a thick layer of ice covering the windscreen and all the other car windows. It took a major scraping exercise to get the car into a condition to be driven safely with good visibility all round!

Therefore, having been sitting alongside the sea, sipping a glass of wine the previous afternoon, it came as quite a shock for Sybille as she flew from a temperature of +16C in Barcelona, to one of -2C in Prague. She did humorously request that I put her straight on a plane back to Spain, when she saw the snow and felt the icy cold.

Fortunately, the weather and temperature has improved from the atrocious conditions of Monday night and Tuesday. I’ve taken the inside of this week as annual leave and we’ve begun to adjust to once more being together in the same flat, for the first time in nearly six months.

‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’

My clean study bookshelves © Ricky Yates

According to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Quotations’, this proverb dates from the late eighteenth century. Apparently, an early example of its usage is found in one of the sermons of John Wesley published in 1788. Whether I’m godly I’ll leave others to judge, but after one last, major effort over the past few days, the Chaplaincy Flat is now in a state of cleanliness that it hasn’t known in the more than six years Sybille and I have lived in it.

As I explained as part of my answer to question three in this post from mid-July, whilst Sybille is away on her long distance walking pilgrimage from Prague to Santiago de Compostela, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to completely clean every part of the Chaplaincy Flat. As I also explained, the task was both prompted and aided by Sybille completely sorting out all her papers and belongings which were previously scattered on and under her desk.

After a bit of a lull in cleaning activity during September, as I wrote in the opening lines of my previous post, in October I tackled the kitchen. Whilst our kitchen might be small – realistically it would be better described as a kitchenette 😉 – getting everything contained within it clean, was no small task!

With the kitchen complete, this meant that only my study remained to experience my cleaning blitz. But it was the room that I was least looking forward to tackling, which is why inevitably, I left it until last. My study does tend to be the room where things that don’t have a proper home, get dumped. For example, there is a box of papers which my predecessor was going to take to the Diocesan Record Office in London, but didn’t quite get around to doing so 🙁 There are also two more boxes of papers and photographs which are mine, waiting as they have been for over six years, for me to go through and sort them out!

Eventually I decided that the best way to proceed was to start on one side of the study entrance door, and work my way slowly round the four sides of the room. Therefore, the ‘business end’ came first, where my desk, computer, printer/scanner/photocopier, phone, wifi router, paper shredder and two lamps, are all located. My greatest fear, as I pulled furniture away from the wall to remove the large amount of cobwebs and dust lying behind, was that I would accidentally disconnect some of the various wires, plugs and adaptors that make everything work. Fortunately, I avoided any mishaps and things probably work far better now they are no longer covered in dust 🙂

Then it was the aforementioned boxes, piled on a trunk of my belongings, under the windowsill. The contents still are not sorted but at least they are no longer covered in dust.

The remaining walls of my study are all lined with bookshelves – all of the genuine IKEA variety 🙂 They were put together and erected for my predecessor as Chaplain, when he and his wife moved into the flat after it was purchased by the Chaplaincy in January 2006, almost nine years ago. We are most grateful to have all these bookshelves as, despite massively downsizing before moving to Prague, both Sybille and I have great difficulty in parting with books and are experts at buying or collecting additional ones 🙂

However, apart from giving the bookshelves a quick wipe before stacking our respective libraries on them, I have to confess that they haven’t received much attention with regard to cleaning since, save an occasional cursory wipe with the duster along the most exposed parts at the front. Therefore you can probably imagine the amount of dust that arose as I completely emptied each shelf of its contents.

As part of this exercise, I made two other ‘interesting’ discoveries. The first was that, whilst the bookshelves line the walls of my office, they are not actually attached to the walls. Therefore, having emptied each unit of all the books contained on them, I was able to move each unit away from the wall to reveal dust, cobwebs and dead insects which had been taking up residence over the past nearly nine years! The second, was that the back board of each unit had either detached itself or was coming detached from the unit. So as well as cleaning, I also spent time firmly nailing each back board, back into place.

This whole exercise of cleaning my study, has been tiring and quite time-consuming. But upon completion, I have been left with a real sense of satisfaction. And having had a run around today with the vacuum cleaner and the duster, through most of the other previously, thoroughly cleaned rooms, I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve in advance of Sybille’s return home this coming Tuesday. The only danger is that I’m becoming a little obsessional, promptly wiping any dirty mark I see and picking up every speck of dirt off the floor 🙂

Whilst cleaning the boxes, whose contents await me ‘sorting them out’, I did make a most pleasing discovery – this delightful photograph of Sybille taken on our honeymoon in France just over nine years ago.

Since my return from Switzerland……

Five weeks ago today, I returned to Prague after spending a wonderful two weeks accompanying Sybille on her pilgrimage from Prague to Santiago de Compostela, walking with her across Switzerland. Since returning, I have successfully written and posted seven blog posts about our journey together. A big ‘Thank you’ to the faithful few who have left kind and appreciative comments on these recent posts.

The evidence of how far we walked can be seen by state of the soles and heels of my much loved walking boots. In the last couple of days of walking, I did slip slightly in a few muddy places, because of the increasing lack of tread. I also discovered that the waterproof cover, integral to my rucksack, was unfortunately no longer waterproof 🙁 . I have now invested in a new pair of walking boots, though I’ve yet to test them out over any serious distance. And I will buy a new, separate waterproof cover for my rucksack as, despite being twelve years old, it is otherwise still in good order.

Two other major things have happened since returning to Prague. On Tuesday 2^nd September, I paid another visit to my dermatologist at Vojenské nemocnice, the Military Hospital. Unfortunately, one Basel Cell Carcinoma (BCC) on the right side of my forehead had, despite numerous treatments with liquid nitrogen, refused to disappear. So we mutually agreed that the only way forward was to have it cut out under local anaesthetic.

What then followed speaks volumes for the efficiency of the Czech Health Service. Armed with a brief report from my dermatologist, I went straight-away to the plastic surgery department in another nearby building. There, without an appointment, the surgeon quickly examined the BCC and promptly gave me an operation date of Wednesday 10^th September – just eight days later.

My head following surgery! © Ricky Yates

The operation on Wednesday 10^th September, despite being under local anaesthetic, was a bit more major than I was expecting. I was grateful that I’d accepted the kind offer of my friend Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz, to accompany me to the hospital. This is how I looked following the operation – Karen being responsible for taking the photograph! Fortunately, when I returned to the hospital the next day for a follow-up visit, the head bandage was replaced by a large sticky plaster which I was able to remove the next day.

The wound was pulled together by six stitches, the last two of which, were only removed on Monday of this week. But the good news is that the histology report, whilst confirming that what was removed was a BCC, also said that it was completely removed – it was clear around the edges. I now have a return visit to the dermatologist booked for the middle of October.

Then on Monday 22^nd September, the day I had the last of my stitches removed, came the news that my daughter Christa, had gone into labour with her first child. Later in the evening came word from my son-in-law Ian, that I had become a grandfather for the first time, following the birth of my grandson Finley.

Because of breathing and other difficulties, Finley was immediately taken to the Special Care Baby Unit of the hospital in Northampton. But as this picture below, taken yesterday, shows, Christa and Ian were finally able to hold their newborn son for a short while. The latest news is that they hope to be able to take Finley home this weekend. I’m hoping to meet my grandson for the first time at the end of October when I’m visiting the UK for a few days.

My grandson Finley and his proud parents © Ian Margieson

Gland – Geneva

My final two days of walking through Switzerland, accompanying Sybille on her pilgrimage from Prague to Santiago de Compostela, took us through a series of towns and villages that are predominantly home to people who commute to work in Geneva. Whilst the surroundings became increasingly urban, there were still some attractive stretches of countryside in-between settlements.

On the morning of Tuesday 19^th August, we left the Pilger Herberge and walked through the town of Gland, passing under the main Lausanne-Geneva railway line by Gland station. Walking along a series of minor roads, we reached Prangins with this delightful Church at the centre of the village and a peaceful outdoor café where we enjoyed a mid-morning coffee.

Prangins then merges with the much larger town of Nyon which we traversed, parallel to the main railway line, before the chemin took us away to the more peaceful surroundings of the Bois Bougy where we found a bench to sit on whilst we ate our picnic lunch.

The next commune we walked through was Céligny, which is clearly aware that it lies on the Chemin de Saint-Jacques as it features five scallop shells on its coat of arms.

From Céligny, the chemin once more entered woods and fields before arriving at the impressive Château de Bossey, home of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches.

Liturgical & Hymn book choice © Ricky Yates

Whilst we couldn’t see inside the main building, the chapel was open to visitors. We both smiled when we saw the bookshelves at the back of the chapel with an amazing variety of liturgical and hymn books in several different languages.

We had hoped to stay that evening in Commugny, about four-and-a-half kilometres on from the Château de Bossey, where there was another family who were listed as accueil jacquaire; people who offered overnight accommodation specifically for pilgrims. Sybille tried phoning their number two or three times during the day, but got no answer. We found the house as we entered Commugny, as it is situated right alongside the chemin. But ringing the door bell also received no reply.

So we walked on another couple of kilometres, into neighbouring Tannay where we stopped at a little shop and café and each had a small beer. Whilst we enjoyed our liquid refreshment, we agreed that we would stay in whatever accommodation we next reached when we walked on. Much to our amusement, immediately around the next corner was Auberge Lion d’Or. Our enquiry about the availability of a room received a positive response. It was expensive, but we both agreed that, as it was to be our last night together for three months, we might as well treat ourselves. So we did!

Sybille with her tablet & glass of red wine © Ricky Yates

We also enjoyed a splendid evening meal together on the terrace of the Auberge, where I managed to take this photograph of Sybille, checking out something using her tablet, especially bought for her pilgrimage, to enable her to keep in contact with ‘her world’. It also has a Kindle app to which many books have been downloaded, without adding weight to her rucksack 🙂

Although I did get a slightly askance look when I asked for a third cup of coffee 🙂 , breakfast at Auberge Lion d’Or was otherwise fine. Afterwards, we set out on our final day together, walking from Tannay, through Mies, Versoix, Bellevue and Chambésy, to the hillside village of Pregny where we enjoyed a lunchtime drink sitting on the garden terrace of a bar-restaurant.

We visited the village Church before the chemin then began to descend quite steeply and we had this first view across Lac Léman, of the city of Geneva with its famous fountain.

Yours truly has arrived in Geneva © Ricky Yates

Our actual entry into Geneva was where we had to walk alongside the main Cantonal road for about a kilometre. Sybille suggested I should pose directly under the sign, just to prove I did get there 🙂

Soon afterwards, the chemin took us from the busy road, through a park, to the side of Lac Léman where we ate a late picnic lunch. Then, after taking in my final view of both the lake and the fountain, we walked to the main railway station. There we said farewell to each other. I went to buy my ticket and catch the train to Bern and then on to Langenthal. Sybille walked on through Geneva to the Swiss – French border, some seven kilometres further away.