Forest Walks and Country Air

After our visit to Modrava last week end, my feet have been itching to get into some open space and soak in the last rays of Autumn. After the visit to Roznov where Sarah stuffed her pockets full of Autumn leaves, she has been pining for forests instead of city pavements.

A long week-end was upon us with a Monday holiday, and in true fashion, I commenced my search for the week-end location on Friday night! The search was driven by looking for national parks with walking trails and then doing an accommodation search within the surrounds, and Lukov was the chosen destination with a B&B on the perimeter of the National Park Podyji!

On Saturday morning we collected the car and set off.

Along the way, the small country roads were lined with apple trees which were in full fruit. The girls hopped out the car and set off to pick fruit while we crawled along behind them. Maagies vol, we then continued to find our little village which was proving problematic as the GPS found 2 towns with the same name and we were left in the predicament of having to choose which one to try first. We got to the guest house in the late afternoon and settled down for the evening.

Sunday morning we bundled the girls into their kit and piled into the car to look for the parking area for the reserve (assuming it would be a little way away). To our surprise, we had gone no further than reversing the car out of the b&b driveway, and we saw the parking sign on the verge opposite, and so travelled a whopping 5 meters, parked the car and all piled out again.

We walked alongside a farmer’s field before getting into the forest where we would look for the trail that led to a ruined castle “Nový Hrádek” which ironically means “New Castle”, although dating back to 1358 (some history on this link).

So our walk begins (Colin’s photography is stunning!!!):

After a 2km walk, we arrive at the forest (seen above the green in the picture before) and see the path to Nový Hrádek, which is another 2km further. At this point I begin to wonder about the capacity of the smaller among us to go the whole way, but decide to see how we go. There was much talk about looking for deer and finding bunnies (we even had to pack carrots and bread especially for the occasion). The girls were animated the whole way, hunting for the invisible creatures.

There was a point when the girls claimed that they were tired of walking and would go no further, and I managed to get them to go past one more bend to see if the castle was there. My lucky day – it was!

As we left the castle, we now decided it was time to leave behind the bunny feasts and Sarah skipped along very merrily the whole way back, planting carrots and bread, and reciting all manners of carrot delicacies that the bunnies would enjoy… “carrot cake; carrot cup-cakes; carrot juice; carrot stew; carrot soup; carrot pancakes”. Believe me when I say this did not stop the whole 8kms back – A Forrest Gump moment.

Meanwhile, Amber just munched her carrots.After the walk we travelled to the neighbouring town of Znojmo to find some lunch. We enjoyed the scenery along the way:And there’s always time to fit in a sunset or two before going in for din-dins. This one reminded me of an African sunset, although is nothing like it really. On Monday we visited Vranov nad Dyji which borders the park on the West. Again, the passing scenery got Colin’s trigger fingers jumping, forcing him to pull over and take some snaps. This is the approach to Vranov nad Dyji and the view of the Castle(dating back to the 11th century) on the hill overlooking the town.

The town is linked to quite a large lake, which we braved the cold long enough to walk over the dam wall and explore a bit, followed by lunch in a small and cozy restaurant that beckoned us with it’s roaring fire inside. Home time, with our lungs full of fresh country air and the camera full of happy smiles and sunsets :)

An afternoon in Divoká Šárka

Pronounced Deevoka Sharka.

Home to myth and legend, the beautiful valley at the edge of Prague 6, one can find total escape – Divoká Šárka, a huge nature reserve. The name means Wild Šárka, a mythic female warrior(she wasn’t Zulu tho) and is, indeed, somewhat of an untamed place.

As legend has it, the city was controlled by a small, but fierce tribe of Amazons on one side of the Vltava river and a large all male tribe, ruling from the vantage of Vysehrad on the other side of the river. The women, knowing they were greatly outnumbered; felt the best way to beat the men was to capture their best warrior, Ctirad.

So Vlasta, the female tribe leader, set Šárka, beautiful warrior, as the bait to trap Ctirad. Here is where the legend has a couple of different versions. One says she seduced Ctirad and while he slept, her sister warriors captured and killed him. Another version says she dispatched him herself. The end of Šárka’s life also has a couple of versions. One has her wracked with guilt over what she as done and she throws herself off the cliffs in an act of repentance, while another version has her falling in love with the handsome Ctirad and being broken-hearted at his death, she plunges off the cliff (which bears the name Divci Skok or Girls’ Jump) to her death at the grief of his loss. Either way, it’s a lovely and romantic legend, something Czech history is full of, and adds an extra special beauty to the naturally beautiful Šárka Valley. (full version of the legend is here: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/11889)

Knowing the legend, it is impossible to walk through the Šárka without feeling that you are walking back in time to when warriors roamed the wild. And truth be told, there are very few places in the CZ where you don’t feel the sense of the times of old when warriors roamed on horses and mighty battles were fought. The girls below making a house for the local mice of the Šárka:

At the entrance to the Šárka is a McDonalds, so we were not able to pass by without the standard wails of starvation and near death, so we ended the evening on burgers and chips.

Eufrat Week-end in Modrava

Since leaving Plzen, the very large gap in the girls’ lives has been Teacher Hanka!  When Eufrat invited us to join the school for a week-end away (see Pirate Week-end in April for the last one), we jumped at the chance for the girls to see their old school mates, and especially Teacher Hanka.

We were building up for the week-end for over a month and A&S were collecting things all over the house to wrap up and provide as gifts – we still don’t know what got given in the pile of presents handed over to T.H. in the end.  At restaurants, Sarah was folding fans of the paper napkins to present as gifts as well :)

The big day arrived and after leaving Prague after work, we were the last to arrive after 9pm (although the programme started at 3).  The location was a small village called Modrava in the Šumava mountains.  The hotel “Klostermannova Chata” is a cultural monument named after a Czech author Karel Klostermann who spent much of his time in the house.

The next morning, the weather was gorgeous!  The children were setting out for a walk into the forests and we took the opportunity to get into the mountains ourselves and do some walking. 

Sarah coming running out of the house below to join the rest of the gang for their hike: The whole Šumava park is spider webbed with hiking and cycling trails and it is a really beautiful part of the country to go exploring.  The Šumava is known as the green lungs of Europe due to the extensive forests everywhere.

Colin and I set off and soaked in the beauty of the country.

As the week-end coincided with Halloween, the theme for the week-end was dressed up kids and the story of Hansel and Gretel.  They made a ginger bread house and put on the play of the story for the parents on Saturday evening.

Teacher Hanka made an excellent old lady who turned into the witch and the children all took it in turns to play various parts – the children; the trees of the forest; the mom and dad.

Teacher Lenka was Hansel:

Sunday, Colin & I took more time out to explore the area and went on a stunning 10km hike.

Sunday afternoon, the girls ended their week-end with a treasure hunt and were all lined up to receive their rewards.