Advertisement
Published: April 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Litomyl
The town of Litomyl. Hello All!
I am so pleased and honored to hear that a lot of people are reading my blog! No pressure... right? ;-)
Well, I have just returned from a small weekend excursion to Eastern Bohemia, which is the other major region or area in the Czech Republic. (The city in which I study, Brno, is in Moravia). I had a really interesting time and have lots of great photos to share with you!
On Friday, April 11th, the group left the dormitory at 7:30 for a town called Litomyšl, which is known for being the birthplace of composer Bedřich Smetana. It is a lovely, unpretentious little town that also has a beautiful Renaissance Chateau. The group went on a tour of the Chateau and afterwards we were able to walk around the town for lunch and enjoy the sunshine that has eluded us for so long!
From Litomyšl, we continued our group tour to the town called Třebechovice. The particularly interesting thing about this village is its giant, wooden, mechanical nativity scene. To be honest, it is more than just a nativity scene; it actually contains scenes from the nativity through the life of Jesus, up
Litomyl
The town of Litomyl. through the story of his death and resurrection. It is an incredibly intricate structure and (if I am correct) took several years to create. Apparently the exhibit contains more material than we saw, but part of it was closed for some reason.
We left Třebechovice to move on to Jičín, another tiny town. We walked around for just a little while because we would return to Jičín on Saturday. Our hotel (Hotel Charlie) was located a few kilometers outside of Jičín, so we were obligated to stick close and enjoy the amusements and food provided by the hotel. The hotel was a bit unusual because instead of having a big, central building with rooms, there were several little hut-cabins that contained 3 or 4 beds and a small bathroom. They were quite funny looking. I would have enjoyed them more if there had been continuous warm water for the shower and fewer spiders. It was my privilege to find a spider in my bed and in the shower. I DO NOT like creatures with 8 or more legs. ::shiver:: We did have a TV, so we watched some German music-TV station (equivalent to MTV or VH1) in the evening.
Renaissance Chateau
A view from the outside... You cannot really see it, but it looks like the building is made of blocks... each "block" is actually a painting that contains a different image inside of the painted rectangle. Two of my roommates spoke German, so the other American girl and I made them translate the shows. ;-) It was surprisingly fun for everyone! We laughed and made fun of the music videos and silly commercials.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then returned to Jičín. Jičín has a fable about a cobbler-turned-robber from the city. The man was called Robber Rumcajs and there is even a tiny house and "workshop" dedicated to the fairy-tale. The weather was quite nasty - very cold and a bit rainy - so I was glad that I had taken some pictures on Friday and that we didn't spend much time there.
It was still quite cold, but the rain had stopped by the time that we arrived at Prachovské skály a half an hour later. Prachovské skály is an area of protected land and huge natural rock structures. Following the "green path," my group did roughly a 5K hike through the area in about 2 hours or so. That was my favorite part of the whole trip. I got some great exercise and was able to see some beautiful Czech nature. Apparently it is quite a treat
Renaissance Chateau
A view from the outside... Again... for Czechs to leave their cities or villages for areas of nature to relax. The Czech Republic has some beautiful sites, so I can see why! In fact, the areas in which I traveled during the weekend are known as "Czech Paradise" or "Bohemian Paradise".
I was pretty tired after our hike through paradise and wanted to rest, but we had one more stop before our day was to be over. We traveled an hour to the Castle Kost. I found a website (http://www.zamky-hrady.cz/2/kost-e.htm) that gives a nice summation of the Castle Kost:
"It dates back to about the middle of the 14th century. It was built by Beneš of Vartemberk, mentioned here already in 1358. The castle construction was finished by his son Petr at the close of the century. The silhouette of Kost, by a rare coincidence, has not changed since that time. The building is dominated by its six story residential tower called White Tower. Around 1414 the castle was acquired by the Zajícs of Hazmburk. In 1497 - 1524 Kost had been occupied by the Šelmberks, who refashioned the western wing. The Bibernštejn Palace was built next to the castle road by the middle
Renaissance Chateau
This is a picture of the courtyard of the chateau. I thought the artwork was beautiful and interesting. of the 16th century. The outer buildings, fortified and affiliated to the castle, came into existence in a fortified approach under the Lobkowics (since 1585)".
The Castle was, to me, only mildly interesting, but I did think that it was funny that filming was being done there for a televised Czech fairy-tale of some sort. We saw men running around in odd-looking costumes. The castle has actually been used as a filming site for several films and recordings, apparently.
Our time at Castle Kost was not long and we went back to Hotel Charlie to spend our evening. I watched the German music station with my cabin-mates again and fell asleep early. :-)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.227s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0457s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
kitty
non-member comment
wooow
the architecture is just gorgeous! why do our buildings have to be so boring?