So here we are having crossed the border, as such, into the Czech republic and we have decided to go briefly to visit Loket. It is a beautiful sunny day and Loket matches our expectations. The streets are narrow and cobbled, there is the customary square in the middle of which stands a bronze statue surrounded by parked cars which is a shame. We have come here for the castle though and we are not disappointed - Hrad Loket is steeped in history and is amongst the oldest in the Czech Republic. It is over 800 years old and has been many things in it's time including a prison and a place of torture. We spent hours wandering around this place but sadly we needed to move on as we wished to reach our campsite in Prague before dark and what a good job we did.
Kate, our GPS not me although we probably have a lot in common, took us straight through the centre of Prague (Praha) which was quite nerve racking in many respects especially as it was rush hour. It is a vast city dotted with the usual road works which always sends Kate into a spin, and the roads are terrible. Eventually we were spat out the other side and arrived at our campsite. Parking beside the pool - quiet because it was too cold for even the children to swim - we were entertained that night by a band with a female singer playing in the restaurant - it was rather lovely. Alongside the restaurant the children were entertained by a couple of exuberant young girls and the whole welcome and feel of the camp was quite special.
Prague (Praha)! What to say? We loved this city. As you all know we are not big city people but this place is very special. Firstly we had to get there though. A brisk walk to the station worked out well but do you think we could find out how to get onto the platform? No! This is just a small country station, trains whizzed through incessantly without stopping, but we were lucky enough to find a nice young man sitting in his car who spoke a little English and voila the puzzle was unravelled. We do not think we would have ever found the entrance if we had not asked. Unbeknowingly we then travelled first class to Prague and decided to spend our day just wandering.
So much to do and see: Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, the Old Town Square, St. Vitus Cathedral, Wenceslas Square, lunch on the river - you name it we did it and both were foot weary at the end of the day. Every time we turned a new corner or went down a new narrow cobbled street there was another amazing "something" to take our breath away.
As I say we wandered all day but something happened in Prague that Gary and I still find absolutely amazing. We have only met one other couple from NZ on this trip but in Prague we met 2 more. A lady was calling out to her friends saying she had no idea what the food was she had just purchased and Gary explained to her it was sweet bread rolled in cinnamon sugar. This of course started a conversation which would have lasted at least an hour. They all came from Whitby in Wellington which is where I lived for four years and where I started the Carols by Candlelight around the lake, at least 29 years ago, which still run to this day. (Very much like Nelson) They knew where I lived, they knew the same people as me, their children went to school with my children - it was bizarre. Somewhere our paths would have crossed but.......it was a long time ago.
Prague we both thought was the best large city we have visited and if you have not been and get the opportunity you have to go. The architecture alone is out of this world and the history - well it is something NZ just doesn't have.
Moving on we travelled through Czech, through magnificent hopfields to Zemberk on the Czech Polish border. Czech Republic is very clean, although a little dilapidated, and along almost every road we travelled apple and pear trees grew by the side of the road. They were abundant with fruit but as they are left to their own devices the fruit was very small. They also like to dress the round hay bales up as people which is quite effective.As I said earlier the roads are very poor - even the motorways - but worse are the communal showers which neither of us could bring ourselves to use.
Next stop Auchwitz or Oświęcim - now the shower issue has probably become clear to all.
We have crossed the border into Poland and are camped just 10 minutes walk away from Auchwitz 1 - it is raining but somehow it seems ok for it to be raining here. Sunny would be wrong. We are in a fabulous campsite attached to this huge hotel and have met a wonderful family from Holland. Mama is a ceramic potter who sells her creations all over the world and very good they are too. Daughter in law is a singer and a jeweller - both are very talented and it was nice to spend the evening (our last sunny evening) chatting whilst the sun went down.
Our day in Auchwitz 1 and Auchwitz 2 was sobering. Putting the crowds aside and just being in our own personal space taking it all in was, I believe, lifechanging. The sheer volume of people murdered, tortured, humiliated, separated, exterminated, abused, starved and kept in overcrowded cruel conditions because of one mans gene fault is entirely overwhelming. There are no birds and apart from the tourists it is deathly quiet. The "shower block" and the "crematorium are still standing as are the rooms where those who were destined for the gas chambers were made to undress.These would have been Jewish women, children, the elderly and the ones with disabilities: those with brown eyes and darkhair and those who were of no value for medical experimentation - in fact everyone who had no value to the Nazis. When visiting the site you have to have a tour guide and you keep moving pretty quickly. You pass through rooms filled with shoes (mens, womens and childrens), toothbrushes, suitcases, clothes, shaving brushes and worst of all hair - removed before or after death. Standing there in the same spot where all these atrocities happened............was very emotional and very overwhelming.
I will always be reminded of Auchwitz not only for what I saw but because I decided to buy a necklace here made by Jeske as a lasting memory of this place but also for a reminder that life still goes on.
The next day we drove to the Salt Mines in Wieliczka which dates back to the thirteenth century. Here too you can only take a tour with a guide and it is 3 hours long. You walk through amazing caverns on tiles made of salt. See monuments sculpted from salt, chandeliers of salt crystal and experience how salt extraction has changed over the centuries. There are underground churches where the salt miners prayed for their safety and the mine runs for kilometres horizontally and is very deep - it took us 300 steps to get to the first level. It no longer extracts rock salt as the remaining salt layer is now too thin and closed production in 1999. It was a good day and a different experience.
From here we continued on to Krakow. This was to be our last stop in Poland as the country, to be honest didn't really inspire us. This was before we ventured into Krakow old city which has a wonderful feel about it - it also was a sunny day with brilliant blue sky.....to begin with anyway!!!! Catching a bus a short walking distance from our camp we wandered along the river Wista to the Castle of Krakow, spending hours taking in the history, architecture and gardens then moved on to the Main Market Square to find the Underground museum which lies directly beneath the Market Square. It is like another civilisation has lived down there and I suppose they did over 600years ago. Archaeologists uncoverd the old roads and old trading sites under the square and it has been turned into this very modern interactive museum.......very enjoyable.
Having eaten a very nice Polish BLT with an egg on top and the most delicious indulgence of some huge chocolate icecream desert whilst people watching in the square, we headed home. The clouds were rolling in, the weather was on the change.
Sourcing the return bus home......no problem. Getting back to the campsite.......very different. "We need to cross the road and turn left and left again" my trusty human GPS announced. "You sure about that?" I proclaimed. Let me tell you now he has the eye roll down to a tee so I trustingly followed. Three quarters of an hour later we were back to where we started from. "Oh! We should just turned right and right........". Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!! Anyway we arrived back in the nick of time just as the heavens opened. To be honest they haven't closed yet and the rain has been continuous for days.
Krakow was a good high to leave Poland on. We are pleased we have done it but have no desire to return.
So next day we head back over the Polish border to Frydeck- Mistek in Czech Republic where we once again camped by a lake. We managed to bike around this lake too, along with dozens of in-line skaters, but were not able to have a shower that night because the receptionist left at 6pm and she held the key????? We were treated to a free firework display that night but there was nothing else to keep us there so next day we headed for Bojkovice close to the Slovakian border. This is where Kate (the GPS remember) decides to play a game with us and takes us the mountainous route. Well we travel up hill and down dale upteen times and often in first gear, bikers wave merrily to us on route, which kind of makes our day because they are struggling more than us, the destination flag appears, disappears, reappears and the disappears again from view on Kate and we wonder where the hell we are going to land up but..........true to form it is right at the gate of the correct campsite.
We have a break in the rain so we set off to the village on foot to look around but this is the weekend and everything is closed, it is as dead as a doornail - even the castle jeering at us atop the hill is closed. The only thing open is a smelly museum where the receptionist is soooo pleased to see someone we cannot stop her talking and thrusting paperwork in our hands. We cannot understand a word she is saying so politely accept all that is offered, shake her hand and leave. At least we know we have made her day. The white castle is the reason we have come here but never mind the Czechs have retained their family weekend and we are very pleased for them. We arrive back at Molly just as the rain restarts and decide a shower is in order. Here you can only have a shower after 5pm or before 9am???? So we are OK. If you have facebook you will have seen the now famous shower experience Gary had....what a drama....for those who haven't heard here is a copy.
DRAMA IN THE SHOWER.
Camping near the Slovakian border in Czech Republich I thought I would have a shower before tea. Well what a palarva! Entered a cubicle and stripped off. Put my soap and shampoo in the tray and threw my undies in to wash. It was now that I noticed that the shower head was broken. I opened the door and made two trips (in the nude) to the next cubicle transferring all my clothes, shampoo, soap, towel and shoes. I felt like Gollum! Checked the shower head.......not gunna fall for that again, and shut the door. Bugger, no lock and the door kept swinging open. Gollum checked out all the cubicles and the only one with a lock and a functioning shower head was flooded! No choice but to use that one. All good. Hung up the clothes, put the towel on the stool and climbed in a small tub behind a plastic curtain. Now I have been in a few showers in my time and know that you take the shower head down and get the temperature right first so you don't get sprayed in the face with cold water. Well the hot water took its time coming so I increased the volume a tad. 400 degree water shot out on my feet under pressure which made Gollum immediately stand on the sides of the tub while bending down to adjust the taps. This took quite a while. The cold tap pressure couldn't get past the hot tap pressure until I turned down the hot. Several scalding seconds later I had a nice temperature coming out of the shower. I put the head back in the holder and it immediately swung to the right and gave me a face full before finding a gap in the curtain and flooded the floor. I rammed it solidly into the holder and eventually had a nice shower.
Now I had to dry and get dressed! No problem as I normally dry most of my bits before getting out. Job done, i reached for my T-shirt......damn it's still in the second cubicle. Just as well, as the shower now proceeded to drip cold water down my back. I fetched fresh undies off the hook and standing on one leg tried to put them on. My toe caught the crutch and off balanced me so I stepped on the shower bottom in the wet with clean undies underneath. Another cold drip down my back straightened me up before I fell face first outof the shower. Eventually I was dressed, except for the T-shirt, and squished back to the camper in wet shoes. At least the water was hot.
So you see all this tripping around the world is not as luxurious as some people think! It is hard work.
Penned by Gary.
Relating this to me back in Molly....well we couldn't stop laughing.
Next day we headed for a campsite just outside the larger City of Brno in the very small village of Veverska Bityska. It is Sunday!!!!!! There is an electric boat that takes an hour to cross the lake in the general direction of Brno but it is cash only, as is the campsite, so we need an ATM. Off came the bikes again and off we go in search of it. There is definitely an ATM in the village but we never found it and of the few people we happened across no one spoke English - not even a little. We did however find an amazing place to eat in the garage of a house????? The Czech food we had was wholesome, delicious and cheap - the beer was cold and refreshing. NZ$13 in total. Yum.
Heading back to the campsite, just before the rain started once again we were treated here to a spectacular thunder and lightning display accompanied by torrential rain for many hours. Half way through this a car and caravan arrived and pulled up on the grass to wait out the storm. When the storm finally abated we realised it was a lovely Dutch couple we had met at the campsite in Krakow and whom Gary had helped with his GPS - Coby and Gerard. Neither of us knew that we would meet up again, let alone so soon, needless to say a lovely evening was had chatting over a bottle of wine till the early hours.
Saying farewell again the next day we headed for the Austrian border with Vienna in sight.
That is where we will see you next - hopefully with some sunshine to report.
No comments:
Post a Comment