Lake Bled

 Lake Bled and Triglav National Park are where fairy tails are created. It is just beautiful in 360 degrees. 

The Vintgar Gorge is an enchanted hike along the Radovna River that cuts deep in the earth with the aid of glacial run off. Watch your head. 

 

The town of Bled is very popular thanks to Rick Steves and other You Tubers. But well worth the traffic. They required helmets on our gorge hike, but no life jackets required on the wooden flat bottomed boat out to the island. When you are finished take a short hike up to Cafe Belvedere for a cup of kava and the famous Bled Cream cake with stunning views from the terrace Tito entertained world leaders

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We drove down the valley 45 minutes to Lake Bohinj, a much quieter and quaint village but with all the views. 

 

A Train, A Bus and a Schnitzel

 

Our time in LA has come to an end, for now. Yesterday was spent with Daniela, her mom, sister, brother in law Lucaś and 18 month old Mati. First we joined them at church in Ceska Trebova. God’s Word was spoken and He was worshipped and there was fellowship. 

After a lunch further north we walked up to the Hrad Potstejn for a history lesson and amazing views of the country side. 

The highlight of the day was sitting around the table of Alća and Lucaś sharing a meal and some wine and fellowship sharing life together. Little Mati was active and happy and after all the high fives, he gave me a hug before we left. Alća and Lucaś are wonderful parents. 

And speaking of wonderful parents, Alena is a wonderful host to us and mom to Daniela. Her love language is certainly service to others. It is hard to turn down all the food she wants to prepare for us. Saying goodbye this morning was difficult when she dropped us off at the train station. 

So there we were on a train with Daniela headed south towards Vienna on our way to to Ljubljana. It was nearly a re-creation of our trip back in 2018. I was reminded of a nice out of the way Austrian restaurant in Wein with famous schnitzel. Daniela said our train to bus transfer would take us to within a 7 minute walk of the Puerstner.  Nothing has changed, probably in a 100 years. The old dark wooden interior is covered in stuffed animals and antiques. I can only dream of what clandestine deals and schemes that were hatched during the Cold War in this place. The pork schnitzel and bier was as remembered. 

Soon we are on a 5 hour bus headed towards the Slovene border. The 4 lane autobahn cruises.  And then we pass through the border and our third country of the day. I must have dozed off a few times as the time flies. Apparently so do the seasons. It was hot in CZ but it has rained all day and it feels like fall. I’m still in a T-shirt and am just about perfect. 

We reach Ljubljana and walk several blocks in the rain and find our hotel/apartment for the night. A rental apartment. The owner says it’s really safe. The police station is across the street. We off load our bags and take a breather. It’s already dark out. Are the police still in their office? We venture out and start walking towards the center of town along the river Ljubljanica and wait until just the right restaurant invites us in. It is the Vander. They are busy and normally only except reservations but if we are willing, the matre ‘d will clear a table. He says we are very lucky this evening. More like blessed. Our waitress is very kind. The girls order a tomato salad and I try the Burrata cheese salad with tomatoes and dried plums. She suggests a local white wine and who am I to argue. I did not realize I liked any of these things. It is so wonderful. 

We walk back through the cobbled center while the lone accordion plays traditional music and the castles glows high above the skyline. 

A Little History

 

My mind can only grasp about 250 years of a nation’s history. Of course America’s history is far richer and deeper than what is recorded from European settlers.  I have only scratched the surface of European history and I have learned how naive I have been. 

About 10 years ago I was visiting my mom and dad. Mom had a tote full of my old keepsakes; school records and pictures, baseball paraphernalia, and this old globe I had since I was 7 years old. I took it out of the tote and said “what am I supposed to do with that?”  Mom said, “it was yours. Did you know there are countries there that no longer even exist!” “Well mom,  the land is still there, and for the most part the people remain too. It’s just the names and some of the lines have changed.” 

Lanškroun was first noticed in the late 1200’s. It lay on the border of Bohemia and Moravia, Czech lands. It has been “acquired” and sold numerous times by various noble families who ruled the various kingdoms and duchies of the day, usually as a result of the end of some war such as the Battle White Mountain and the Hussite War. The Swedish army occupied the area during the Thirty Years War(1618-1648), who would destroy and burn the town before they left. It was ethnic Germans who sought to expand that moved into the area and rebuilt Lanškroun. Today you can see the German influence on architecture, memorials (WW1 German memorials are everywhere) and even some of the food (is schnitzel German or Czech? Answer: it is delicious).  More wars came and more geopolitical boundaries like the Astro-Hungarian Empire formed.  After WW1 the Czech people merged with the Slovakians to become Czechoslovakia. But in 1938 a guy named Hitler wanted his ethic Germans back and the Czech lands known as Sudetenland was freely handed over by the French, English and Italians. I guess the Czechs did not have a say. Those other guys were just thinking of their own skin and “appeased” the guy with the silly mustache. Of course the Sudetenland was not enough to annex and soon he took the rest of Czechoslovakia as a protectorate.  Now most of us should know a little about the rest of WW2 history. So afterwards in 1945 the Czech partisans expelled all Germans from their borders. It wasn’t all pretty as the Lanškroun Blood account suggests. 

Then another war, a Cold one, consumed the freedom and spirit of the locals. This too is history most should know. But in 1989 a peaceful Velvet Revolution ended that war and in 1992 a velvet divorce dissolved Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Democracy is growing, not without some aches and pains. My friend Jiři managed to leverage some pre democracy earnings and purchase a former state owned manufacturing company in Lanškroun and has grown it into an international company. For a small rural town with a turbulent past, LA is a thriving community. Shops, industry, research, manufacturing and my most favorite bakery in the world,  Sázava, are located here. 

“In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare gave the landlocked country of Bohemia a coastline—a famous and, to Czechs, typical example of foreigners’ ignorance of the Czech homeland.”-Derek Sayer author of The Coasts of Bohemia- a Czech History. A must read if you want to understand Czech culture  and her people. 

Hrad Potśtejn

About the time Lanškroun was first noticed, the Drslavic family dynasty built the Castle Potštejn. The castle’s ownership has changed through war, marriage and money multiple times. Most notably was the robber barren Nicholas who used the castle as his Hole in the Wall like an early version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Prince Charles, no not the current British monarch, but Charles IV, of Good King Wenceslaus fame, King of Bohemia was the only successful conqueror of the castle. To root out the bandit he had his crew dig tunnels beneath the fortress until it collapsed, burying  its residents, and all his loot. Rumors and myths abound with stories of hidden treasure, that remain hidden as of today. 

The castle has changed ownership many more times. However, 

since 1945 it is primarily controlled and operated by the local municipality and well worth the mile walk up 482 feet to take the tour. 

LA

 

We are on a train heading east out Prague. The country side looks familiar, like that of central Minnesota with rolling agriculture land. Farmers are raising dust as they harvest corn and bail grass hay. Some fields are already barren.  

Earlier today Martin and his 18 month old son Timi met us at the train station and we had a most excellent visit as we strolled through Old Town towards his Charles University office near the Malostranske square. It was getting on in the afternoon to meet our train so we beelined are way back making me a liar once saying I never needed to cross the Charles Bridge again.  Martin helped us find our train platform and soon we were headed east to our stop at Ceska Trebova. 

The 271 train  continues its run south towards Brno before heading to Wein(Vienna). It’s a very punctual train.  At our stop in Ceska Trebova Daniela and her mom, Alena were anxiously looking at all the passengers disembarking. We were the last off and when they saw us they ran towards us with arms open. It was a glorious reunion. The last time we saw them was in 2019 when they visited us with Daniela’s sister Alća and we took a world wind tour through the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Bitterrot valley of Montana and traveling south along the salmon river to Stanley before going to Sun Valley so her family could see where she worked a previous summer. After the warm welcome we jumped in the car and headed to LA, or Lanškroun as it is marked on maps. 

That evening we ate a traditional svíčková. Look it up. Come to CZ and try it yourself. My words cannot do it justice. Later Ráchel stopped by to visit with her new daughter. What a blessing. Rachel was part of each of our previous Rescued and Travna visits and was a guest of ours in Boise when she did a month or two internship at church. 

After another early night battling jet lag we awoke and readied ourselves for a short 30 kilometer bike ride through the LA country side. Daniela’s dad, Jiři is our guide. The route was mixed with local roads, bike paths, nature paths, single track, and two track farm roads. It started following a stream bottom up through a narrow wooded valley. The trails and roads undulated and twisted there until we came to our first kava stop at a bistro along side the road in a small village. The cappuccino was joined with a fresh koláč, a Czech pastry staple. Afterwards we continued up before topping off overlooking rolling and hilly farm country. At one point we were traveling along a continental divide that separated water flowing north to the  North Sea or southeast to the Baltic. Then it was mostly downhill back towards LA along bike routes, fam field roads and some rough rooted single track back to LA and our last stop by a recreational area for a cool mug of pivo. Our 30 km turned into nearly 42km but I would do it all over again. 

That evening was a family gathering on the porch with all of Daniela’s family; mother, sister, two brothers, father and 5 nieces and nephews. Alena prepared another feast of traditional family foods. Body and souls made full, we slept well. 

Another Adventure Far

And now I can relax. We made it past TSA and are awaiting our first leg from Boise to Prague stopping in Salt Lake and Paris. 

This trip was first planned to take place in 2020. Tickets were purchased and plans were made. Then the ‘rona stopped the world. 

I’m reminded of Eisenhower and D-Day. He spent a couple years planning Operation Overlord. After some delays, he finally gave the ‘go’ order. Soon he was left alone as his staff scattered to perform their duties. As the ships set sail he set his plans aside. Later he would say, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”. Ike had done all he could. 

I always feel better after I clear my first security check. Now I trust our planning is sufficient and trust the Lord will lead us through the various airports, train stations and terminals. 

We’ve been preparing for this most recent iteration of our trip since last February. So our plans are to fly to Prague and visit some old friends, take a train to Lanškroun where we meet up with Daniela and her family. After a couple days we travel to Slovenia for a visit to the Julienne Alps. Daniela will return home after putting us on a bus and train to Florence Italy. We have booked an all inclusive gravel bike tour through Tuscany with Trek Travel. I’m excited to ride on some famous Strade Bianca just like the pros. After 5 days we will spend a couple days in Cinque Terre before flying back to Prague, Brno and Olomouc, CZ where we will reconnect with many friends. A late addition to our plans is a hop over to Amsterdam to visit Jordan. Then we fly home. Stay tuned for the details and implementation of the plan. 

Part 2

We have arrived in Prague! All connections and transfers were as planned. No problems. We met two students at the airport bus stop. One from India who is beginning his university studies in Brno. The other from Peru who just graduated from university in Madrid. Both have huge smiles. We were all looking for the AirPort Express (AE) bus to the main train station downtown. We saw the AE approach and walked down to board and were disappointed when the driver closed the doors and drove off after he dropped off his passengers. We learned that there was a designated loading zone marked at the “G” stop 50 yards away.  A second AE bus made a drop off then drove right past us and the G stop. What are we doing wrong? Soon a crowd was forming. We were all trying to decipher the instructions on the placard. I read that as of July 2024, you must push the red button if you want the bus to stop. But there was no red button to be found. But just as if on schedule a third AE pulled up, stopped and the driver greeted us. We all boarded and soon we were weaving our way through town and to the train station. Next to my seat was a red button. It is for stopping the bus to get off.  Not on! After saying goodbye to our student friends we simply walked across the street and there was our Hotel, the EXE City Park. 

We have been awake for 30 hours or more and are exhausted. Apparently that is not lost on my eyes and face. But we should soldier on to get this jet lag business under control. After checking in we stroll towards Old Town and find a favorite restaurace, the Lokál Dlouááá. At 4:30 the only difference from 2018 is that there are no crowds this early. I enjoy my first Pivo and my weariness dissipates. All is good. I order a pork schnitzel and Rhonda gets fried Edom cheese and pickled mushrooms.  Heaven with a small “h”.  Afterwards we wander back to the hotel and crash at 6:30! I slept hard for 4 hours when my body told me it was mid afternoon. But soon I was back to sleep and did not awake until 6:30 am. The hotel breakfast was great, the coffee better. 

We bought our tickets for Lanškroun, locally referred to as LA, for early afternoon. We are now relaxing and soon will meet up with Martin for a visit and lunch. 

It is good to have landed on the Coastof Bohemia.