Its my blog and I'll write what i want to

 It's  my blog and I'll write what I want to. April 12th

It's time to visit Czechia again, staying in the Pension Karolina, visiting Bilina Gymnasium High School and a couple of trips away from the mining town I first visited in 1993.

Bilina

                  My Bilina "car park" shot. Railway and power plant on a hazy day.

                                Boten, the basalt bump that dominates the town.

Stayed in the charming Pension Karolina again. A pub with four bedrooms and no food but the town hotel, the Lion, is still being renovated so it's Karolina again and Patkove house for breakfast, a walk of 15 minutes.

                                   Home sweet home. (Don't forget to lock the door when you leave in the morning!)

                                     Nearby house loves cats.

Gymnasium 

The school is a subset of the Most Gymnasium. Approximately 250 pupils aged 11 to 18 and in small classes. What I do is simple converstaion lessons in English. Ask me a question, I'll give you my answer. And they offer a whole range; Which football team do you support, What's your favourite Czech food, What about Brexit? What do you think of Margaret Thatcher's politics, and so it goes on. Their English is excellent, so is their interest and I still enjoy it.

                                        Pay attention girl. Me and Danisa and a class

I was in school five days and for one day went to Most,  a town a few miles away to have conversations with two groups of adults who are learning English. Mostly Social workers, working with addicts. 

One evening we went to a country and western concert in the town community centre. Three guitars, one banjo and a fiddle sang in Czech, I recognised Folsom Prison Blues and Help me make it through the night. The group were called Desperadi and they were good.

                           Czech school dinner, Not a chip or chicken nugget in sight

                          Fuzzy photo of Desperadi. I blame the beer.

On an afternoon off I walked to Kyselka, the Bilina spa, finally being restored and hopefully reopened.

                              The original Kyselka spring

                                        The spa at Kyselka

                    The pub across the railway line.

And away from Bilina                                                                                                                                  One of the teachers, Mary, with a couple of her friends, took me to the town of Melnik, a drive of about 45 minutes. It was Saturday, the town square was busy. An open air market in full swing selling almost anything, especially food and flowers. Just off the square is the town castle, one of several owned by the Lobkovitz family and apparently they still occupy part of it.

Melnik is at the confluence of the Laben (Elbe) and Vlatava rivers and the castle stands high above them.  Similar to of the other Czech castles I have visited, its unlike the strongholds such as Bamburgh which line the Northumberland Coast.

(Cesky Krumlov, which I visited last year, straight out of a fairy tale, but not Disney, and Cesky Sternberg which could have stood in for Colditz. )

we did the castle tour, well furnished rooms, plenty of historic items but the best grand salon had 22 framed pictures of European cities: Prague, Venice, Cologne to name but three. A unique collection apparently and well worth the tour.

                           Chateau Melnik from below and above

               Not the actual confluence, the water going off up the picture is a canal. The rivers meet a little further away. The Laben, or Elbe is a very busy river, goods arriving and leaving at the town dock.

AND THE NEXT DAY WE WENT TO PRAGUE

 A large group of us set off from Bilina for a couple of nights in the capital. Travelling by car to Teplice, coach to Prague, one bus ride, two metro rides got us to the Hotel International (Travel on Prague buses, trams and the Metro is free for pensioners of all nations, just have proof of your birthday)

              The Hotel International. Built in the 1950s to house visiting officers of the Czech army it has a couple of hundred rooms, conference halls and a small theatre. Occupied by the Russians in the 1968 invasion it also offered refuge to the stars and crew of the film "The Bridge at Remagan" before they removed themselves to Austria. Originally named something like Hotel Brotherhood  it is now run by a company with the name Czech Inn. And yes, it is based on the Moscow "Seven sisters" buildings.

Prague, as usual, was busy with tourists and the only one of the major sites we visited was the palace and cathedral complex which I've seen before.

                                   St Vitus' cathedral

                            Palace and sentries.

We visited the memorial to the many Czechs who suffered during the communist era.

              Memorial to the victims:

              205,486 arrested

              170, 938 forced into exile

              4500 died in prison

              327 shot trying to escape,

               248 executed.

On a happier visit we went to see the head of Kafka. A large statue made up of several segments which rotate, finally forming the whole head. Sadly my video failed.

                                               Franz Kafka.

We also saw the spitfire and the butterfly:

 The body is a spitfire, the wings open and close. There were a good number of Czechoslovakian pilots  (and Polish) in the Few who fought the battle of Britain in 1940.

And on another occasion we went to the Church of Saint Victoria which houses a 500 year old Christ Child and has several of the beautiful gowns that have been made for it over the years. I failed to see the child, it is in the Souvenir shop and I didn't go in!

BACK TO BILINA

We repeated the journey by metro, bus, coach and car to return to Bilina. The next two days I spent the mornings in school answering questions, explaining Brexit and discussing the merits of several English football teams. 

After school on one afternoon six of us went round the local power station. An introductory film,  a look atb transformers and a peep into the boiler room which, not surprisingly, was very, very warm, then up in a lift to a viewing platform some 125 metres (412 feet) above ground level. The mine was clearly visible, as was the cleaning plant and the network of conveyers that take coal to the power station. Some years ago a lovely man, George, showed me round the mine, the power station and a ceramics factory. Sadly he has had an accident and died.

                    Coal fired power station. It is very clean but has a limited life now.

                                                          On the top of the power station. 412 feet high

And to finish the day we went to Teplice for a concert given by a brass ensemble. Six brass instruments and a drummer, they played, among other tunes, Misty, Baby it's cold outside, Just a closer walk with thee, a selection from West Side Story and a selection of Beatle tunes. 

After one more day in school I came home.

If you ever read my blog "Tales from the Wigwam" you will know I have had a Total Knee Replacement. The new security scanners at Newcastle recognise this and wave you through. The older equipment at Prague does not and in spite of saying "It's my knee" hoping I would go through I was subjected to a thorough patting down, told to sit and remove my shoes which were carefully examined. I wouldn't mind but it all took place in the middle of the queue of fellow passengers who looked on, in sympsthy.

I thought this year might be my last visit to Bilina but I enjoyed it so much I think I will return.

Prague TV tower. There are babies like the one below climbing it!