The pleasures of Krumlov riverside

Despite of the continuing river works, life at the riverside is back to Krumlov Summer normal. And for the first Summer season we are enjoying the privileged position of being right by where it all happens - so sitting in the garden is like being in a front row of a theatre, watching the life go by as it has done for years, when Krumlov becomes both a sophisticated tourist town and a simple beach.
Hundreds of canoes pass by, their crews shouting Ahoy - canoeing and rafting being such a popular sport in this land-locked country that I know no-one who hasn't 'done the river' at least once in their lives. The canoeists usually take a week or two going from up the river as far as they can get (theoretically you could go all the way to Prague if you'd negotiate the few dams along the way), sleeping in camps or rough anywhere along the banks.
And our little street that backs onto the river also becomes a sort of beach - I meet my neighbours, young and old, in the morning and in the evenings going for a swim, or just say hello to them sunbathing by their gardens. And I watch from the window the fun everyone is having. This is the most wonderful part of living in this little town - I can be sitting outside working at my computer but I still feel I am on holiday, surrounded as I am by the relaxed, happy people who actually are.
And then after my swim, like this evening, I can dress into a formal gear and attend a concert - Krumlov is always having some festivals, from classical to jazz etc. And these are not just any old concerts, the quality is high. Next week for example Jose Cura is giving a performance here.

Going home, as evening darkens, Krumlov comes alive with many drifting sounds competing gently as they ooze from little riverside bars and restaurants - a guitar here, a piano there, gypsy music on the opposite bank...
So the daytime beach becomes a sophisticated venue by the evening, only to relax back into a kind of homely place to eat and stay up late. As I go to bed I tend to hear distant laughter from below my windows, along with the lapping of the Vltava river. Life feels so pleasant - how could I ever have thought that the only place to live is London?

Winter walks on skis

When you feel like a walk in the middle of Winter, you'd have a hard time going unless you put on a pair of walking skis. There are two ways to enjoy this pastime: one, when you take yourself on the many kilometres of prepared cross-country, or 'langlauf' walkways, kept by the municipality and well signed.
You can buy maps that clearly mark these paths, and as moving on skis is faster than walking on foot, you can cover further distances in the Winter than you would in the Summer, and see much of the countryside, stop off in villages for a mulled wine or beer, go alone or in groups, and take it easy, or exercise your athletic prowess :-)

Two - and this is what I prefer - is to go into uncharted territory and make your own marks. There is nothing like the feel of the snow squashing under the narrow ski. Of course you don't cover as much ground as you would on a made-up langlauf highway, but, especially when going quite alone and being quiet you meet animals: hares, rabbits, deer.... I even saw a fox as I was coming back the other afternoon close to dusk.

I love this country with all it has to offer. And being here in Krumlov means you needn't go far to get these pleasures: five minutes outside the town, and you are in a forest. So you have the best of both worlds.

skating at Lipno lake

When Lake Lipno freezes over, as it does every Winter (and it freezes so deep that people even drive cars, even lorries, over - as ferries obviously don't operate at Winter time) it is time for families to go skating, a must for most people here. When much snow has fallen, the Lipno resort obliges by keeping a clear path over the ice - 11km long - so you can skate to your heart's content and it never gets crowded like normal municipal outdoor ice-rinks tend to at this time. They also keep a path for people on walking-skis - 'langlauf' being another activity beloved by Czechs of all ages and shapes. But that maybe is a subject for some other blog.
In the evening, tired and full of endorphins from the sun and the exhillaration of skating, you get an added bonus of the famously spectacular sunsets over the lake. What more can one ask of a piece of Nature?

day out at the riding stable

As we are still waiting to see what happens with the UNESCO cause, as I wait for the Lake house garden to return to some semblance of normality after all the earthworks, and as the riverside house works progress so slowly, here is something more cheerful to put up:The local riding stable that I so love held a beautiful family day, where the youngsters showed off their skills. As usual, the atmosphere was very gentle and relaxed, everyone came out with their kids and grannies, beer and sausages were aplenty, the girls dressed up the horses - and themselves - in amazing 'four elements' costumes and performed to music.

This is what small-town living can also be about: everyone knows everyone, we watch the kids growing up, and the community supports their members' efforts. The town hall might be a bain in our lives, but at the everyday level the sun shines and the living is friendly and easy.

half term pleasures

The family are here again - so I am again indulging in giving the children the opportunities that our little Southern Bohemian paradise offers. So little Anna and I (and a couple more Krumlov Brits), led by Sarka from Stable Pohoda, went for a fabulous late-afternoon horse ride in the snowy landscape, a great excitement for Anna as we didn't get home till the dark, the horses picking their way through the deep snow underfoot. Moments to stick in the child's memory - the sharp frosty air, the glistening snow in the pinkish sunset, the showers of powdery snow from branches overhead when riding among trees. And the total silence save for the soft crunch of the horses' hooves.
And then the daily tuition at the Lipno ski school, delivering fantastic value: the instructors here are brilliant, speak fluent English and really know how to get the best out of the children - Anna is now confidently skiing any hill on offer, and her 6yr old brother surprised us yesterday by showing perfectly relaxed turns and bombing down the red run with such joy that I couldn't believe my eyes!
Oh - and one more thing - we grown ups took a day discovering another 'local' resort, Karlstift, just over the Austrian border. Small, but just great for a single day out - 2 reds, one black, and one blue. Challenging enough yet almost empty of people. Highly recommended for those visitors to Krumlov who find the Lipno resort a little too easy or busy.

St Hubert's Hunt

For the Brits, this kind of 'hunt' is nothing like you might imagine. Here it's another of those typically laid-back Czech occasions for a fun afternoon out.
In the stunning setting of the Cerveny Dvur parkland, on a lovely Autumn day, today's programme consisted of an easy but entertaining parcour in front of our audience,
followed by a 'hunt' where we raced off, following the 'fox' through the hectares and hectares of the park, weaving fast through the magical landscape of majestic, ancient trees. Meanwhile the audience, not able to watch the horses, entertained itself by campfires and songs to guitars.
Lastly, and again for the audience's benefit, we did a relay race, and then a final blast of a mad gallop to capture the prize of a fox tail pinned high up in the finishing arch.
The prize fox tail did go to our stable, but that was the part of the event that perhaps received the least notice. Because the Czechs just love any excuse for being outdoors, really. Competition? Ambition? Forget it. Who cares who 'wins', the main thing is the sun's shining, families and friends get to meet up, and everyone's having a good time.

As I was riding, I couldn't take any photos, so I begged a few from the onlookers. I might get some more - meanwhile this as a taster.

Fox-hunting, Czech style

This Saturday I'll be taking part in a fox-hunt. Except here the fox is a rider in mask, as you can see. All round the countryside the local stables are organising these fun hunts, and riders come to most of them, if the dates don't clash. Which they strictly speaking should, as the hunts are in celebration of St Hubert, the patron saint of hunters. But then, if all the stables did their hunts on the Saint's name-day, we'd all lose out, so, in an appropriately Bohemian way, we just stagger the events and do it as we please.
So on Saturday it's our lovely stable Pohoda's turn. The hunt will happen in the vast, beautiful parkland grounds of Cerveny Dvur, an ex-Rozmberk hunting chateau near Cesky Krumlov which has for many years been serving as a drugs and alcohol dependency clinic. So the only rule for the riders and the onlookers is 'do not bring alcohol'. But (how else?) there'll be sausages and bonfire and hot tea, so who cares.

We've been going there on and off to practise the jumps in the past couple of weeks, so fingers crossed our stable wins!
Hope I shall get some photos from friends - if I do, I shall post them here and tell you how we did.

Summer camp, Czech style

Our little Anna is coming for the second year to the Summer camp, organised by the wonderful riding stable we so love. Am I right in thinking that only the Czechs could be so relaxed about letting the children have a real experience of living in totally close proximity to the animals, in very basic tents and facilities but fully engaged in the daily care of the horses, learning to ride but also just letting go and being free to enjoy nature, the Summer and all the fun that goes with it?Actually, it's not just the kids that get given a fabulous time as you know from my previous posts. Only this evening 6 of us adults with 9 horses (3 foals that simply came along with us) went for a five hour ride, ending at 11pm - which meant a moonlight ride home. What an experience, one of a total trust with the horse, as you, the rider, see nothing of the terrain you ride, simply let the horse fly across the fields and try not to be in its way. And as to mad trots through totally dark forest paths, where you see absolutely nothing at all, just have to bend right down to the animal's neck so you don't get decapitated by overhead branches - well, I would love to know which other stable would allow such a ride and not get scared by some health and safety regulations! Thank god for sanity still prevailing - needless to say we all got home in one piece and much envigorated - best thing for one's health, I'd say.
Sorry no photo, understandably.

Riding stable recommendation: www.stajpohoda.cz

Another Czech obsession - canoes and rafts

Living as they are in a land-locked country, the Czechs have developed a passion for their rivers. And so every Summer the rivers become highways for masses of rafts and canoes of all description as they all 'take to water', as they call it, for a week or two. Some do it year after year, well into their middle-age, but I don't know any Czech who wouldn't have done it at least once in their lifetime, when young, as it is considered to be one of the most important rites-of-passage.
It used to be a more adventurous undertaking 'in the old days' - you'd start at the point where the river becomes navigable and then let the flow take you over calm waters as well as over the rapids, stopping here and there for a bite to eat (inevitably prepared around a campfire and using as many free ingredients such as fish you might have caught or food found in the vicinity, such as mushrooms). Sleeping was done 'under the stars' or in small primitive tents, and the whole ethos was one of being at one with Nature.
Nowadays the rite-of-passage involves more alcohol, and the sleeping happens mostly in privately owned campsites that have sprung up along the banks - this is one result of the country becoming business-minded in its post-Communist era.
But not all is lost; while the concentration of canoes can be scary in places like Krumlov and the camps, if you actually take a canoe you can find yourself drifting through breathtaking gorges and forests and not feel crowded at all. And it is still possible to find a solitary spot under a tree and sleep under the stars.

to the Lake house on horseback

It's a 50+km round trip Krumlov- Olsina, but my goodness, was it worth it. The beauty of riding in this country is that you can go anywhere, no-one hassles you about 'private' this and that.
No fences, no gates, no 'keep to the bridleway' lark, just sheer open country to enjoy for the riders and the horses both.
And such a relaxed and friendly stable; wild gallops over the vast meadows, nothing like the boring trekking you get as tourists in the UK, I'm afraid to say.
Riding home tired, watching the sunset from the horseback is another wonder. I just HAD to share it with you.

Wow - powder snow on empty pistes

What, now, after Easter? Well, Winter obviously got re- surrected so we couldn't resist the snow, and drove down to Sternstein in Austria (40 mins South of Krumlov). There must have been all of ten skiers altogether on the beautifully prepared slopes today, and the conditions were truly fantastic - nice and fast on the piste, and fluffy through the trees. Wow.
Sternstein is a nicely old-fashioned, little gem of a resort, just right for a quick dash to the slopes - not somewhere you'd want to spend a week at, as all it consists of are two runs of 1.5 kilometers each, one red, one blue. But just right to enjoy a day out,
together with its neat, truly Austrian, restaurant serving strudels and goulash and other typical delights.

What a wonderful day, and what a gift by the weather angels :-)

(BTW for more challenging skiing, one would have to go a bit further (about an hour's drive in all), to Hochficht, which has many more runs of all standards (well, maybe not the black equivalent of the Wall at Avoriaz, but who cares when it's practically round the corner). We'll report from there too when we next go with a camera)

Skiing at Lipno lake (Kramolin) resort

Our family came to visit, with two small children - the purpose was to go skiing for their half-term holidays, as the nearest resort here is only 20 minutes drive from Cesky Krumlov. I was very nervous, as the weather has been much milder lately and most of the snow has gone, so I apologized as soon as they arrived: sorry, the snow at the resort will be no good any more.
But they insisted they wanted to go, and so it was completely touching to see their enthusiasm even at the little that there was! Having had no snow in Britain at all, they pounced on the sorry remnants of it here, and immediately started to roll in it, make little snowmen, do snowball fights and even carry large lumps of it around as if they were some fabulous treasure.

It almost wouldn't have mattered if I haven't had arranged for lessons. But they enjoyed those too, especially the older, 7yr old girl who was here for the second time. Being in Czecho, it is affordable to get private tuition, so each of the children had their own instructor with whom they quickly bonded and learned very fast. The older girl was bombing down the red runs like a pro by the end of the week, and even the younger boy was confident to ski straight down the blue at some speed.

But now they are gone, the house feels a little empty, but meanwhile the Spring has arrived and everything is starting to green up, with Spring flowers shooting out of the ground, and catkin bushes buzzing with millions of bees. I hope to take some pictures and post them up here soon.

Winter horse-rides in South Bohemia

Just thought I'd add a couple more - frustratingly, I'm not so good at getting the pics all nicely lined up. Oh well.

In response...

Thanks to our first fan of Czech Winter, here are some more photos. Hope you all like them.