21st Sept
2015
Beautiful
villages, over some mountains, and lots of roadworks
It was pretty
chilly last night, but we survived OK – Actually it is easier to sleep well
when it is cold, as long as you aren’t cold too ! But our good sleeping bags and liners work
well to below freezing, so a temperature of only 3 or 4 deg C is no problem at
all ! Once again we woke up to a lovely
sunny morning, and several fisherman already set up and hard at work on the
lake. We slowly packed up and then
headed out, with the plan being to try to get to Prague using just the smaller
roads through the middle of the Czech Republic.
We succeeded too, but it wasn’t always easy !
From Sumperk the
plan was to drive almost due west to Prague, staying on highway 11 and then 2,
through villages and towns like Rychnov nad Kneznou, Pardubice, Kolin, Cesky
Brod, and finally into Prague. Probably
only about 250 kms or so, but it was to take us almost 7 hours driving to get
here ! We had mountain passes up to 1000
metres, we had forests, we had multiple roadworks with traffic lights, we had
little villages and some quite large towns, but worst of all we had road
closures ! And over here they just put a
No Entry sign on the road that is closed, and leave you to find your way around
it !! of course, Garmin gets upset, and if it wasn’t for our mapping programme
on my little tablet sometimes I don’t know if we would have found a way around
– Not before Christmas, anyway !!
The villages and
towns were a delight – Driving across a country like this you really get a feel
for the people, and villages, and everything along the way. You see the mountains and forests, and see
the farmers working in the fields, and are able to get a very good understanding
of things in general. But some things
stand out.
Every town seems
to have a factory with a very tall smoke tower.
Are the factories still working ?
What was it that they made ? I
would really like to be able to speak a little of the language so I could ask
people.
Why so much corn
growing in the fields ? Not only all
today, but most of yesterday, we have seen endless fields of corn stretching as
far as the eye can see. What do they do
with all this corn ? It doesn’t look
like tasty sweet corn, but more like cattle fodder – But then if that is the
reason, where are all the cows ? We saw
hardly any. We did learn later that
apparently they had some very hot 40 deg C weather during the summer, and this
damaged a lot of the crops, but even so, what were they going to do with it all
? (Edit later - Checked Google and corn is used for ethanol, producing starch as a thickener and use in chemical industry, corn syrup used as a sweetner in many foods, and, believe it or not, an environmentally friendly kitty litter !!)
Final question
for the day is in regard to the loud speakers that seem to be fixed to about
every 3rd or 4th light pole in almost every village. And
they are not old and rusting, but new.
What are these for ? Surely it can’t
be for community sing-alongs ? (Edit later - Found this in Google : "But the sirens are an integral part of the Czech Republic's present-day
civil defence system, and are still used to warn the populace in times
of peril.")
And I have to say
that I am starting to wonder about the power of the church – and this isn’t
just about CZ, but everywhere we have been.
Every little village has its church, often more than one. I do
not question the importance of religion, but only the vast sums of money that
have been spent on building these monuments, and are now being spent restoring
or maintaining them. Are they glorious
buildings ? Sure, of course they are. Are they the best, most equitable way of
spending money on this earth ? I am not
so sure in my mind. I am perhaps now
starting to understand the political power that the church held in the past,
when Archbishops were enabled to pass laws and enforce them. As usual, this is only my
personal thought. But seeing church after church
after church today, one after the other, with the villages often only a few
hundred yards apart, really brought home to me just how many there are.
We got into
Prague at about 5 pm, and found a
campsite right in town, only about a 15 minute tram ride from the Old City, or
Stare Mesto. So tomorrow we shall set
off to Wenceslas Square, and see what he holds in store for us !
Pics are here :-
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