Trebon Area - Day 21

Wednesday, September 24

Today we walked in the Trebon area and I have named this "fish day" because most of our hiking was along the fish ponds.

That may not sound very exciting, but the ponds are like large lakes, lined with centuries old oaks that provide a haven for the biggest diversity of bird species (180) in Eastern Europe.

I found the story of fish farming in the Czech Republic, a land-locked country, quite interesting.

Dating back to the 13th century, the leaders had a vision of transforming the flooding marshlands into a series of fish ponds. The engineering skills used in this area during the 16th century were so advanced that the basic techniques are still practiced today, providing an excellent source of sustainable fish.

As we walked along the edge of Rozmberk Pond, the largest in the country, Lada told us how the lakes are "seeded with fish eggs," 90% of which are carp. They are raised for two years and then transferred to a larger pond for their last two years using a series of locks and canals. 

At present there are 2900 ponds in the country and over 500 in the region of Trebon, where we were hiking.

Carp is harvested twice a year, for Christmas and Easter. 70% is exported to Austria, Germany, Poland and France.

It is usually cut into "horseshoes," marinated in garlic and deep fried.

We walked passed the ponds and met up with our little green bus where Hradec was preparing our picnic lunch by the trail.

We continued our walk and came to the charming town of Trebon.

It is very similar to Slavonice and Telc, with its large square, framed by burgher houses with Renaissance and baroque sgraffittie-adorned facades.

It, too, has a large chateau complex, but much of it is used for other purposes. The Renaissance mansion was built by the Rozmberks in the 16th century, but it was later taken over by the Schwarzenbergs, who took possession of Trebon in 1660. We walked past the main part of the Trebon chateau, which now houses depositories of the State Regional Archives, established by the Rozmberks in 1602. The oldest deposited document dates to 1184. 

Also, in the chateau complex was the permanent exhibition, "The Region of Trebon -- the Countryside and the People." It was a combination of three-dimensional dioramas and nature exhibits. Because of the surrounding marshlands and peat bogs, the area has also made a name for itself as a spa. Mud baths with therapeutic benefits are quite popular (no interest here).

We also watched two well-done videos about the wildlife surrounding the ponds and fish farming.

The real highlight of the day came at 3 pm when we were treated to a private performance by the Pipers of Trebon at the auditorium of the Hvezda Hotel. It was a group of about 12 young women who played different size recorders. They were amazing. They played Renaissance music as well as some contemporary songs. Some of them also sang and the whole effect was delightful. 

Following their performance, we boarded our bus and headed for Cesky Krumlov, our home for the next two nights. We are staying at the Hotel Zlaty Andel on the main square. I cannot believe my room. I am on the third floor, with a room big enough for a party, overlooking the town square with a view of the castle in the background. I felt guilty with such luxurious accommodations, but it was the luck of the draw and I really appreciated it. 

We walked to a local restaurant for dinner and then to bed.

Telc Area - Day 20

Tuesday, September 23

A short coach ride this morning took us to the village of Svetla, where we began our hike. We were still in a pine/spruce forest and still in the rain.

There was more rain today and it was coupled with cold weather. I was wearing 4 layers of clothing and feeling like I was back on the Camino again.

We walked for a couple of hours, and the highlight was reaching the "continental divide."

I asked Lada about this. In the US, we have only one (basically the Rocky Mountain range). He said in the Czech Republic, there are several and they are not at very high elevations. We were only at 1500 ft. We also walked along the Velky Pond, one of many dotting the countryside.

This is a popular tourist area so there were several shelters along the way. Fortunately, we found one where we could enjoy our picnic lunch out of the rain. My friends are hunkered down to stay warm.

It was still raining hard after lunch and we were given a choice to continue with the hike or spend time in Telc. I chose the latter with several others.

Telc, which has about 6,000 people, is famous for its castle and its main square, which is quite large for a town this size. The whole town is surrounded by a sophisticated system of ponds and defensive walls.

The old town has changed little since the 1500s, and, of the 40 houses lining the square, none is younger than. 300 years. A fire devastated the town in 1553, and it was rebuilt of stone. There are numerous buildings with "sgraffitties", like we discovered in Slovenice. We enjoyed the little shops, but many had closed for the season.

At 4 pm our group assembled for a tour of Telc Castle, which is located at the end of the main square.  

It was built in the second half of the 14th century. In the 1500s, the nobleman Zacharias z Hradec  (for whom the main square is named) imported a team of Italian artists, who turned the earlier Gothic palace into a lavish Renaissance residence. Their work also influenced many of the buildings on the town square. The appearance of the castle had not changed since the late 1500s, and it is one of the few intact Czech and Moravian Renaissance castles. It was never sold -- only passed from one family member to another -- but sometimes with different names. It was owned by the Lichtenstein family from the early 1700s until 1945 when the family was expelled to Austria and the property was taken over by the state. (I think they might have been German sympathizers.)

Because it has been so well-maintained, it is a delight to see. Our small group had a personal guide, but unfortunately, hurried us through because it was after hours. We also were not allowed to take photos, so my descriptions of my memories are my take-away.

The palace has 133 rooms and approximately 40 are open on tours. Among the most impressive was the huge ballroom known as Golden Hall, which had a balcony for the band. Noteworthy was its ceiling, with 30 three-dimensional octagonal panels hand-carved from wood and highlighted in gold that fit together to form a star shape . This type of ceiling treatment was used in a number of rooms. There was also a Theater Room with a stage, and panels along the wall containing painted masquers. The Blue Room, so noted because of its blue ceiling, had walls painted with an allegory of the four elements as personified by the Roman gods. Knight's Hall contained armor -- lots of it -- with full suits, helmets, shields and weapons from the 15th-17th centuries. On the ceiling were paintings of the acts of Hercules and on the wall, portraits of Hradec and his wife Katrina. But the most memorable room was the African Room, which was lined with numerous heads from animals Zi could not even name.  They were the trophies from a relative who hunted in Africa from 1903-1916. I wish I could have stayed longer here. We walked across an upper balcony and were able to get some lovely views of the garden. The sky had finally cleared.

Then we exited by the All Saint's Chapel, which we were allowed to photograph, where Hradec and Katrina are interred.

From the castle, it was a short walk back to the Hotel Anton, where we had dinner and an early bedtime, due to our departure tomorrow.

Podyji Nat'l Park - Telc - Day 18

Sunday, September 21

Much of our journey in the Czech Republic skirts the border with Austria. Today in the forest it is not obvious where one country ends and the other begins, but that was not the case for many years before 1989.

We began our day with a drive to South Moravia to see the Podyji National Park.

We started in the village of Lukiv and hiked through some pine, spruce and deciduous forests and ultimately came to the ruins of an old castle - Novy Hradek (1319 ft).

This castle is noteworthy for several reasons:

First, it was built in 1358 by the brother of the famous Czech emperor Charles IV and was used as a hunting lodge. In the next century, another castle was built next to it which became part of a series of castles that were built during the 15th century to defend the borders.

Secondly, it has not been inhabited for 250 years and the last owner lost it in 1920 due to land reform. The state took it over and tried to run a tourist club. 

Third, when the communists took it over, they built a wire fence right through it, eliminating any possibility of using it for the public. They wanted to destroy the castle, but it was too expensive so they left it alone.

Fourth, after 1989, the state took it over again and decided to leave it as an aspect of nature.  The castle has provided a support system as well as some diversity to the environment. For example, the mortar used contains limestone which is a contrast to the normally acidic soil in the area, allowing some different plant life.

We prowled around the ruins, going into some of the remaining enclosures, and then climbed to the top where we could see the ruins of the tower of the newer castle. From here we could also see the the Dyje River, which makes an "S" from this angle. 

We had a picnic lunch seated on wood stumps in the castle courtyard, but, unfortunately, it started to rain.

Then we continued our hike back to our green bus and it was a short drive to the tiny town of Cizov near the Austrian border. There we visited the only stretch of the "Iron Curtain" that has been preserved. It was an eerie thing to see and not as forbidding as what it had actually been.

Lada, our guide, was 22 when the border opened so he was quite knowledgeable. He said that originally there was a fence along the border. But that was too easy So they kept moving the fence until it was 3 miles from the border. That way, if you got across, they still had time to find you. Secondly, they put up one fence, then 2 and then 3. The one in the middle was electrified until the mid 60s. They also put in mine fields, but they ended up maiming or killing the guards.  All the inhabitants of the land between the Iron Curtain and the border were forcibly removed and their villages demolished. A total of 390 people were killed on the Czechoslovakia border between 1948 and 1989 while trying to escape. However, a total of 655 border guards also died here, although only 10 died in conflicts with border violations. The others died from suicide, electrocution, drowning, or accidents with guns.  The Iron Curtain stretched 7250 km from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea and 930 km lay in Czechoslovakia.

Why escape?

In 1948, when the Communists were elected in, 20,000 people immigrated. Then a train full of people ran through the border, and the wall started going up. In the 1950s, there were 15 million people in the country. Of those, 262,000 were sent to jail, 80,000 were sent to work camps.  Everyone was taught to be suspicious of one another and you had to be careful what you said even with your children. Lada told us some personal stories that were very sad.

The we boarded our bus for about an hour's ride to Telc, our home for the next 3 nights. We checked into the Hotel Anton and had dinner there. We were all tired so an early evening.

Lednice-Valtice - Day 17

Saturday, September 20

Today I learned a new definition for an old word - "folly." It is an architectural feature constructed on one 's property merely to enhance the view. Our hike today visited several of these on the former Liechtenstein property. They were built over a period of  300 years by the Liechtensteins and were designed by the most prominent architects of the time.

We started our hike by walking up to "Colonnade," an arch built in the classical style in 1820 on Rajsna Hill.  

When we walked through, there was a paved road on the other side. Our guide Lada told us that the road is exactly where the iron curtain was built in the 50s. It ran from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic.

For decades, this beautiful park was not able to be visited by the public. We walked along the hillside where we had a great view of Vatice. Unfortunately, it was very hazy so no good photos. 

We walked into the village and passed the homes. They are currently celebrating "harvest" and are decorating pumpkins. Our other guide, Lucy, said that growing, eating and decorating pumpkins is a new thing, maybe only 10 years or so. I was impressed with some of the artistic decorations for newbies.

 Valtice Castle is located in town but we did not tour it. 

Instead, we went to the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic located in the basement of the castle. It was like going into a cave, complete with cool temperature and moisture everywhere. They have been using this cellar for wine making for 600 years. We were treated to a discussion of winemaking and samples of at least 6 wines. We are in Moravia and it is known as the  "wine capital" of the Czech Republic. This is the largest winery with 2200 acres of vineyards; and it produces 4 million bottles a year. One-third of their business is red wine and 2/3 is white.  The Czechs do not export their wine - they drink it and have to import 30% more .

After the winery we walked to the wall of an old cemetery where our bus driver Radick (sp?) had sent up cold cuts and vegetables and put out stools for us for a picnic lunch. Quite lovely.

Then we continued our walk on the estate (now owned by the state).  

We walked along some vineyards and through an old oak and pine forest, with many of the trees aging out.

Since it was Saturday, we found it was a popular place with cyclists, too. And since the land is somewhat marshy anyway, we were plagued with mosquitos. But our repellent worked. 

We came upon another "folly," the Rendezvous, which resembles a triumphal arch.

It was actually used as a hunting lodge where the sportsmen would have cold meat and wine before heading out for the kill. Today the top level had been rented out for a wedding reception. However, they never retrofitted it with an elevator. How do you get grandma to the reception?

Later we came to a chapel dedicated to St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters,

and finally to another folly, the Three Graces, which was built as a place to display some statues collected over the years.

We returned to the hotel in time to attend a little wine festival down the street. I went for a short time, had no wine because I wasn't sure what I was ordering, but did enjoy the folk shows.

We had a special treat tonight. We had dinner at a local winery, again at a cave-like, bricked in facility. The vintner, a young man in his early 30s, was very excited to have us. He served the wine straight from the barrels using a special pipette. We must have had at least a half dozen samples. He said there are about 180 wineries in the area, but very few are young, like him. He inherited the business from his grandfather. We had a great dinner with chicken schnitzel.

Afterwards, a trio I had seen earlier performed for us - a violin, accordion and bass. They were very entertaining. Quite a day! 

Lednice-Valtice - Day 16

Friday, September 19

Leaving Vienna, I caught a cab to the airport and met my new group from Roads Scholar for a 9 day hiking trip. There are 19 of us and we all fit comfortably on a little green bus that whisked us away across the Austrian border to the Czech Republic.

Our first stop was Mikulov, an important border town on the ancient "amber road" from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic.

We stopped here for lunch at a local cafe.

Afterwards, we took a tour of the city, which once had a very prominent Jewish population. When Austrian kings expelled Jews from Austria in the early 1400s, they settled here, ultimately making up half the town's population and forming the largest Jewish community in what is now the Czech Republic outside of Prague.  In the 19th C, the railway line bypassed Mikulov, causing economic stagnation. Consequently, most of the Jews left, long before WW II and none live here today.

The town has been beautifully restored and has a lively main square.

On one side is an old church facade (the actual church burned centuries ago) and it was later used as the tomb of the Dietrichstein Family, an aristocratic family who ruled the city from the 16 th C to 1945 and the people who owned the castle.

Behind it on Holy Hill you can see a church on top covered in scaffolding . It is the church of St. Sebastian and the destination of the annual pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Mikulov.

Then it was a short walk to Mikulov Castle.

Our guide pointed out that castles are fortresses and chateaus are the palaces often built on top when defense is no longer the priority. This is a beautiful castle/chateau that sits high above the city. It was burned down at the end of WW II but was rebuilt in the 1950s by the Communists. They did not want to be perceived as barbarians and wanted to show their appreciation for art and culture. Consequently, they picked 150 of the approximately 1500 castles that dot the landscape to restore.

We walked through the wrought-iron gate  and along the side of the chateau. Outside we could still see the original stone foundations of the castle but no reason to go inside - it is all new. However, the views from the top were spectacular.

The path took us to the former Jewish neighborhood, where others live now, and back to our bus.

We then headed to our hotel Hranicni Zamecek in Hlohovec.

After checking in, we boarded the bus and went to Lednice Chateau Park, a -19th century English style park which extends for 4 miles between Lednice Castle and Valtice Castles. We walked past the English neo-gothic style castle but did not go in.

The castle was built by the Lichtensteins, who also owned Valtice Castle. (More on that tomorrow.) Together, the 2 castles and land comprised 100 sq. miles during their reign. Today Lednice Castle houses a university for winemakers. Anyone is welcome to sign up for a summer short course. One of the key features of the castle was an elaborate greenhouse.

Since the technology had not been invented to make curved glass, the structure is made of cast-iron (like many train stations and market halls throughout Europe) and then 65,000 small rectangular pieces of glass are layered and assembled into the frame. Every two years they are cleaned. What a nightmare that must be!  

The walk around the garden was beautiful, offering various views of the castle.

There are a number of water features and we discovered they are actually fish ponds that have produced fish for food since the 1400s. We will study more about that later. Then we headed back to our hotel for dinner in the restaurant there, which overlooked a beautiful pond. After introductions all around. We all turned in early.