Walking to Germany. April/May 2019.
It's time for my annual trip to Bilina in Czechia, leaving the lads to continue the Friday walks.
I arrived in Prague about 8pm and by 9.30 was ensconced in my room in the Lion Hotel on the town square in Bilina, small mining town in North Bohemia, between Most and Teplice, not that far from the Hor Mountains that separate Germany from Czechia.
During my stay I spent three days in Bilina Gymnasium (Grammar School) talking to the students. For the older ones, sixth formers, I had been asked to choose four famous British scientists and I went for illustrated talks on Newton, George Stephenson, Darwin and Alan Turing. Not surprisingly, and as I had expected the students had never heard of Stephenson (Who?) or Turing so the forty five minute lessons passed well, and quickly. For the younger ones I had prepared a Powerpoint Display on animals, posing the question "Do the British love their wild and domesticated animals?"
One of the younger classes. No uniform! Doesn't seem to be a problem
Bilina Gymnasium, a small school with about 200 pupils
Leavers Day. The students leaving came to school dressed as "future professions". They were also allowed to daub younger children and staff with grease paint.
Last lesson, questions and answers; What's Brexit? What music do you like? Who are the Beatles? and yes the boy on the right is asleep.
After the first day one of the English teachers, Mary, took me to her house in Most. She and her husband took me for a drive up into the mountains to a reservoir to see the remains of a village demolished for the water. Sounds familiar! It was very cold and windy but we walked across the dam and through a wood to the foundations of what had once been a small community.
Afterwards we went to a tiny Czech village whose name translates as Czech Georgetown. A narrow stream divide the village from Deutsch Georgetown in Germany.
Living on an island which, at the moment is one state, walking into a foreign country is a strange experience. Being in Europe there is no border or customs shed, you just walk over, and back again. Weird.
I'm in Germany, the photographer is in Czechia. Euros behind, crowns in front! And the wind has ruined my hair.
Much as I enjoy going into the school (Well I have no meetings to attend, no boxes to tick, no marking but I have done some preparation.) I equally enjoy the trips that are organised.
We had our annual visit to the beautiful city of Prague, dominated by the castle and cathedral.
The journey to Prague by rail would suit the man in the tweed jacket, the line follows the valleys of the Rivers Bilina, Laben (Elbe) and Vlatava (Moldau). I have "done" all the tourist spots over the years and now get taken to a minor gallery or museum. This year we visited an exhibition of haute couture, designs by Archer, a man who wisely left the country for Britain in about 1936, and an amazing display of glasswork mostly by modern artists.
Some of the glass exhibits.
Later we visited the Klementium, the National Library of Czechia. Unfortunately there was not a tour on that we could join but we did look round the library, I was surprised at the number of books (non fiction) in English. The library also had a small garden in a quiet quad.
I sent this photo to my wife on a WhatsApp. She asked if I felt a little over dressed. The statues are concrete, the reinforcing bars in the man's toes are showing!
After a lunch in the library café we wandered the embankment for a while, admiring the view, visited the Palace of Books in Wenceslas Square and caught a train back to Bilina.
Castle, palace and cathedral, above Charles' Bridge
Wenceslas Square, National Museum at the top
For the next trip I joined twenty ladies and one other man in a convoy of cars for Tabor in South Bohemia.
Tabor is a small town in the heart of Hussite country. Jan Hus had similar views to John Wycliffe of England and Martin Luther of Germany. Opposed to the wealth and power of the church which he considered was not carrying out its duty by tending to the poor and needy, he eventually got into serious trouble and died at the stake in 1415. Opposition to the Hussites naturally led to wars. The Hussites were led by John Zizka who won several battles and eventually a compromise was reached. The Hussites used a weapon called a Palcat, the hotel we stayed in was the Hotel Palcat.
Tabor has a pretty town square with a large church, closed. We did visit the catacombs, rather like a walking Ghost Train underground, spooky.
Catacombs!!
And we visited the Chocolate Museum which had a display of ……………...Chocolate, but not as you know it. A room devoted to the history and manufacture of the sweet product. The following are all made from chocolate, and they are not small
In the evening we visited a mill close to the centre of the town used as a depository for military items used in films. Roman armour, Samurai armour, medieval armour, it was all there.
Samurai helmet, worn by Tom Cruise!
After standing close to items worn by stars we went to the cellar and had dinner by candlelight.
The following morning (after an evening in the "wellness" sauna and whirlpool we went to what is probably the only camel farm in Europe.
Run by a lady who fell in love with camels in Australia (yes, Australia) the farm had at least a dozen, living inside but with easy access to outdoors, some Dromedary, some Bactrian, and a small herd of lamas too. She gave a talk on camels, their diet, their humps, their feet and nostrils and then brought a couple out for us to admire.
Camels, and a saddle.
Next stop on the tour of the Tabor region was a visit to the home of Edward Benes, sometime president of Czechoslovakia, who resigned after the communist coup in 1948. The house was his, not a state residence and it is decorated more or less as it was when Benes and his wife lived there.
It's time for my annual trip to Bilina in Czechia, leaving the lads to continue the Friday walks.
I arrived in Prague about 8pm and by 9.30 was ensconced in my room in the Lion Hotel on the town square in Bilina, small mining town in North Bohemia, between Most and Teplice, not that far from the Hor Mountains that separate Germany from Czechia.
During my stay I spent three days in Bilina Gymnasium (Grammar School) talking to the students. For the older ones, sixth formers, I had been asked to choose four famous British scientists and I went for illustrated talks on Newton, George Stephenson, Darwin and Alan Turing. Not surprisingly, and as I had expected the students had never heard of Stephenson (Who?) or Turing so the forty five minute lessons passed well, and quickly. For the younger ones I had prepared a Powerpoint Display on animals, posing the question "Do the British love their wild and domesticated animals?"
After the first day one of the English teachers, Mary, took me to her house in Most. She and her husband took me for a drive up into the mountains to a reservoir to see the remains of a village demolished for the water. Sounds familiar! It was very cold and windy but we walked across the dam and through a wood to the foundations of what had once been a small community.
Afterwards we went to a tiny Czech village whose name translates as Czech Georgetown. A narrow stream divide the village from Deutsch Georgetown in Germany.
Living on an island which, at the moment is one state, walking into a foreign country is a strange experience. Being in Europe there is no border or customs shed, you just walk over, and back again. Weird.
Much as I enjoy going into the school (Well I have no meetings to attend, no boxes to tick, no marking but I have done some preparation.) I equally enjoy the trips that are organised.
We had our annual visit to the beautiful city of Prague, dominated by the castle and cathedral.
The journey to Prague by rail would suit the man in the tweed jacket, the line follows the valleys of the Rivers Bilina, Laben (Elbe) and Vlatava (Moldau). I have "done" all the tourist spots over the years and now get taken to a minor gallery or museum. This year we visited an exhibition of haute couture, designs by Archer, a man who wisely left the country for Britain in about 1936, and an amazing display of glasswork mostly by modern artists.
Later we visited the Klementium, the National Library of Czechia. Unfortunately there was not a tour on that we could join but we did look round the library, I was surprised at the number of books (non fiction) in English. The library also had a small garden in a quiet quad.
After a lunch in the library café we wandered the embankment for a while, admiring the view, visited the Palace of Books in Wenceslas Square and caught a train back to Bilina.
Wenceslas Square, National Museum at the top
For the next trip I joined twenty ladies and one other man in a convoy of cars for Tabor in South Bohemia.
Tabor is a small town in the heart of Hussite country. Jan Hus had similar views to John Wycliffe of England and Martin Luther of Germany. Opposed to the wealth and power of the church which he considered was not carrying out its duty by tending to the poor and needy, he eventually got into serious trouble and died at the stake in 1415. Opposition to the Hussites naturally led to wars. The Hussites were led by John Zizka who won several battles and eventually a compromise was reached. The Hussites used a weapon called a Palcat, the hotel we stayed in was the Hotel Palcat.
Tabor has a pretty town square with a large church, closed. We did visit the catacombs, rather like a walking Ghost Train underground, spooky.
And we visited the Chocolate Museum which had a display of ……………...Chocolate, but not as you know it. A room devoted to the history and manufacture of the sweet product. The following are all made from chocolate, and they are not small
The following morning (after an evening in the "wellness" sauna and whirlpool we went to what is probably the only camel farm in Europe.
Run by a lady who fell in love with camels in Australia (yes, Australia) the farm had at least a dozen, living inside but with easy access to outdoors, some Dromedary, some Bactrian, and a small herd of lamas too. She gave a talk on camels, their diet, their humps, their feet and nostrils and then brought a couple out for us to admire.
Camels, and a saddle.
Next stop on the tour of the Tabor region was a visit to the home of Edward Benes, sometime president of Czechoslovakia, who resigned after the communist coup in 1948. The house was his, not a state residence and it is decorated more or less as it was when Benes and his wife lived there.
The grave and home of Edward Benes.
The final visit on the trip was to the monastery at Klokoty. Beautiful church, too highly decorated for a protestant boy. The site dates back to the early 14th century.
Klokoty, a place of pilgrimage run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
And then we went back to Bilina, but the very next day Helena, Pavel and I caught a train to Plasy near Pilsen. Plasy is a small town with a small row of shops selling shoes, clothes and food. But it has a monastery (closed) and brilliant National Technical Museum in an old brewery and funded in reconstruction by the EU. a good reason for staying. Mostly a museum of civil engineering it had items from bathrooms to cathedrals. Woodworkers tools, stone masons equipment and a fascinating display of the adventures of Jiri Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund two Czechoslovakians who drove a Tatra car down through Europe and Africa in 1947. Their adventure included having a drink with Yuri Gagarin in Cairo. They produced films and books about their trips (a second went round the world) but there exploits were hushed up by the authorities, mostly being published after 1989. Sorry, no photos of the museum but here's the monastery.
Plasy marked the line where the armies of the US and the USSR met in 1945.
Where the Soviet army met the Americans. The Russians got the brewery! It is worth pointing out that there are several memorials to the Russians for 1945. They were then considered liberators.
Next day we went by train to Pilsen, home of Pilsner Urquel and the Skoda factory that makes heavy vehicles, not cars. Not surprisingly there is a museum of brewing which has an important history in the area. Once on a day almost anybody could brew beer (safer to drink than water, just like olden days everywhere). Gradually the number of brewers was reduced, you had to be a substantial property owner to have the right to brew, surprise surprise.
We also visited the synagogue in Pilsen. The town once had a large Jewish population, in 1945 204 returned and then most of them emigrated to Israel or the US. Beautiful inside, very similar to a church but without the usual Christian signs of course.
Pilsen has some beautiful buildings too. The cathedral of St. Barnabas, a couple of the many bold houses and the synagogue.
Next day we returned to Bilina, and after another day in school I came home, exhausted but happy.
Quick trip round Bilina
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