Another Great Day Exploring the Czech Countryside
On Monday, I woke up to another moody sky over the red tiled roofs that move me every time I see them.
After breakfast with Iva and work on my blog, she headed off to school in Brno and I met my dear friend Milan, who generously (and happily) took a day off work to spend time with me. His son Adam also chose to take a day off to replace his 1-hour of English in school with 10 hours of private English tutoring instead. I’ll admit though, we spoke more Czech than English. I couldn’t help it – I so enjoy speaking the language. I become more extroverted when I speak Czech – a very unusual, but fun phenomenon. Still, Adam has now mastered the pronunciation of the infamous “th” and our common love of animals gave us lots to talk about. After spending some time at their place in Ràjec making plans and meeting the menagerie, we headed off.
In addition to English/Czech lessons, we also all got a bit of history and phys-ed in the mix as we visited the surrounding countryside. First, we stopped at the Church of Saint George (Bořitov) whose oldest section was built in the 12th century.
We then visited a palace in Lysice (but only from outside as it was still closed for the season), so we made plans to return in May or June to visit the gardens. Next, we headed for lunch nearby and all ordered the daily special: cauliflower soup, chicken nuggets, and parsley or mashed potatoes.
After lunch, we headed back to their place, where Milan’s wife Julie was back home from work and put out an irresistible display of sweets, including vetrniky, a kind of pastry that I remembered from 20 years ago…. so I had to have 2.
We drove Julie back to work and then went hiking in and around Bull Rock Cave (Býčí skála). Much to my delight, Aisha, their 10-month old puppy and a very cooperative model, joined us. There’s lots of history in these caves. In addition to various artifacts, including a small bronze bull, many skeletons were found here and evidence of violent deaths.
We left the trail at Stara Hut – an old iron processing station. Adam and I narrowly escaped the big white teeth of a small white dog when we tried to cross the street at an ecological centre. Milan had gone with Aisha to get the car. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand a dog’s body language when it’s protecting its territory – luckily its warning didn’t proceed to a bite – so we continued along the trail and safely crossed at a nearby bridge. Phew!
On our way back home, we picked up Julie at her mother’s place, which had been in the family for generations. Adam has a small black Vietnamese pig there, but the lighting made it hard to photograph, so you’ll have to take my word for it. Take a look at these wonderful beehives instead – no longer in use. The chicken is real though!
No amount of fresh air and exercise would make me hungry enough for another big meal at dinner time, however. So the very good restaurant in their small town of Ràjec prepared me a half portion of chicken stir-fry while the others enjoyed chicken or venison steaks and gnocchi. Soña joined Milan’s family and I for dinner (Antonin had left for Poland that morning for work), so I went back home to Blansko with her and didn’t even look at my photos that night – instead, I had a great sleep.
What a wonderful day – another one. I look forward to coming back in May or June – we’ve already discussed some of the wonderful things we could do once the weather got better. Thanks Milan – for our time together and for the photos of me to prove to folks that I really was there.
Amazing shots!! Wow!
The animals are so very cute!!! I want to hug the guinea pigs. Is that a picture of an actual snail?