Thursday, August 24th, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Greetings!

We were treated this morning to a local history lesson illustrated by the family experience of a Czech family in the Sudenten, broken up by language and location when the Germans were expelled at the end of WWII, and whose lives were continually disconnected during the period through the turbulent a960s, and on to the fall of communism in the area in November of 1989.  Our special presenter's (Oli) family story made clear the dramatic impacts of expulsions by each side of Germans, Czechs, and mixed families.

The Vyssi Brod Cistercian Monastary, with roots back to the 1300s, is considered the spiritual center of South Bohemia.  Seized by the Nazis, and used as an armory, and then by the Soviets as a garrison, its impressive collection of books and relics has survived amazingly intact.  An unbelieveably ornate wooden bookcase and portrait gallery was created over 50 years by one monastery resident.

Finally, we drove to a mountain ski resort which carried us to the base of a circular wooden walkway to the elevated platform with wide angle photo views. Pat and I hung out at the bottom of the tower, and had an ice cream.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Thursday, August 24th, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday, Sep 19th, Bucharest, Romania

Image
Greetings! When the revolution came to Romania in 1989, one of the most shocking news that emerged to the rest of the world was the number of children that were living in orphanages in complete squalor.  In order to fulfill Ceausescu's grand plan to build Romania into a super-power, he encouraged (required) mothers to increase the number of children they bore to absurd numbers.  All families were to have seven children, and bonus were given for every child beyond that.   Abortions were illegal, and housing was distributed to large families.  At the time of the revolution, over 100,000 children were living in 1700 orphanages at a subsistence level barely sustainable.  This morning, we met Ionut, a 36-year old who told us about that history as a result of his research after attending school with some of the children of the orphanages. Most of our group went to see Ceausescu's house this afternoon, while Pat and I went to the Museum of Geology.  We took ...
Read more

Thursday, Sep 14th, Sibiu, Romania

Image
Greetings! Today was a transit day from Sighisoara to Sibiu.  On the way, our guide (Joe) took us to his home in Targu Mures.  The family homestead his grandparents built, it is a continually-remodeled and expanded one-story structure containing many stories.  Joe and his brother own it now, and he proudly revealed all of its secrets of his childhood.  Pat commented that it was much more liveable than her grandfather's home house in Italy.  I took the opportunity to photograph family member photos displayed in the living room to use in an Ancestry.com family tree I'm playing with for Joe's family. Next, we went to the Salina Turda Salt Mine.   Like something out of a science fiction movie, this enormous hole in a dried salt lake is a must to see.  Not only is the mine itself a spectacular work of man, but so is the adaptation of its insides to accommodate the thousands of visitors who descend sixteen floors via impressively-lighted and speedy elevators...
Read more

Saturday, Oct 22nd, Mackay

Image
Greetings! Well, it seems we're taking you all on an internet travel.  On Thursday, in Arlie Beach, we joined about twenty-five holiday snorkelers out on the Great Barrier Reef.  RedCatAdventures provided us with an 8-hour double-dive, and lots of very speedy, DJ-enhanced, very wet racing around and between the WhitSunday Islands.  We don't know when we've ever been as wet and wind-blown out of the water. But the very important lesson learned was to make every effort beforehand to waterproof your cell phone.  Nothing in the boat avoided getting soaked.  Not in the tightest wrapping, in the most secure hole, did the backpack holding the cell phone survive.  So a week after finding the best computer geeks in Cairn to try to fix our precious and essential Apple MacAir (and eventually buying a new MacAir from JB High-FI ), we found the best computer geeks in Mackay (who were again unsuccessful in repairing what seawater will do), and eventually bought a new G...
Read more