Czech Mate.

Czech Republic 

 While travelling from Germany to the Czech Republic we could really see the change in the architecture and the general living standards of the people. In Germany, out in the country it has a certain charm to the villages but the contrast was quite apparent. We travelled our way to Prague with the thought of a good cup of coffee at a nice little coffee shop on route. Hours passed and there was no such thing!

The towns and villages were old with the typical prefabricated  “council” flats littered in the towns that in their way of making them look more modern, did the worse thing possible and painted different areas of them yellow and red and any other gaudy colour they had in the tin to brighten them up in a throwback of the 80’s. What this did in actual fact was to have them stand out with their render falling off and as the residents walked around the street, years of communist rule was etched on their faces.
 The villages in the country side were a rundown outhouse style affair with no money having been spent since they were made. Nothing very quaint and “coffee shop-ish” about this…… or so I thought!

St Barbara the patron saint for miners

While in the beautiful town of Prague we saw in a brochure a village called Kutna Hora, 70 kms from Prague, and thought we ought to see it as it had a magnificent cathedral. So off we went to discover that there was such a place in the Czech Republic that would lift your spirits and even put a smile on the locals faces. The town was a medieval one set on the side of a hill with fantastic houses and shops that the best little coffee shop would have felt at home and on top of the hill was a masterpiece of Gothic brilliance with the cathedrals roof towering above giving off a perfect silhouette in the midday sun.

We strolled through Kutna Hora with refound joy, as much for the people that lived there as this was their show piece and as we were in such a good mood we treated ourselves to a cheeky bottle of Pinot from the “Royal” vineyard that was established sometime in 1100AD at a reasonable €10.

To top off our day,  we drove out passed fields and fields of sunflowers, it was a week or two late but still a magnificent display. We had always wanted to see them on masses since we bought a Ken Duncan print showing them a few years ago and that was another ”must see” ticked off.

Just to clarify, Prague is stunning, not like the other towns and villages mentioned above, although there are examples of this in Prague, but on the whole, it shines!

Paul