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Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 4)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s post takes us off to two off-the-beaten-path destinations in the Czech Republic. Our first adventure was a day trip to the town of Mělník, located 33 km north of Prague.

Náměstí Míru, Mělník – the main square

We took a very local bus from Prague and were dropped off in Mělník’s main square. Our main destination for the day was the town’s castle, which is also home to one of Europe’s most northerly wineries. You can see the castle in the photo at the very top of this post: the vineyards are on the terraced slopes below. We had a very enjoyable tour and tasting session at the winery, and emerged ready for some hearty Czech food.

Finding my way around Mělník – we’re going to the Zámek!

There didn’t seem to be a lot of dining options in the historic centre of the town, so we settled on the Hospoda u Beníšků (see photo below). This was no tourist trap: it was clearly a local restaurant. It was so dark inside that none of my photos turned out…but I do not think the decor had changed since the early days of Communism. Unlike every restaurant in Prague, there was a unilingual menu. No problem: I knew the basics like brambory (potatoes), knedlíky (dumplings) and palačinky (crepes)…what could possible go wrong?

Outside the Hospoda u Beníšků, in Mělník

Alas, even after a week in the Czech Republic, we saw absolutely no familiar words on the one-page menu. Attempting to get an explanation in German didn’t help. Somebody’s friend apparently spoke some “French”, but we didn’t recognize a word of whatever language she actually spoke. So, we ordered blind: pointing confidently to items in the middle of the menu, we prayed that we hadn’t selected anything too dodgy. For me, at least, it turned out okay: gravy, non-specific meat, a greenish selection of vegetables.

The long hike to Hrubá Skála

Our unusual day continued with a trip to the ossuary. Here, the bones of 15,000 people had been artfully arranged into various sculptures and displays. At one point, thousands of bones spell out the words Ecce Mors, which I believe is Latin for “Look, Death!” (You can’t make this stuff up!)

Finally – we make it to (slightly above) Hrubá Skála!

We returned to Prague for dinner, and two days later left for our second “off-the-beaten path” destination: Hrubá Skála. The “village” of Hrubá Skála (which is little more than a large castle) is situated near the top of a small mountain ridge in the Český ráj (“Czech Paradise”). It is a national park with extensive and often bizarre sandstone formations. Our hotel was located in the castle…it promised to be a unique adventure.

Hrubá Skála – Hotel Zámek

But getting to Hrubá Skála took quite a bit of effort. We tried to take a train to a nearby town called Turnov, but there was some kind of accident or washout (we didn’t want to know too many details). So, somewhere around Mladá Boleslav, we had to get off the train and take a bus for a while. Then, in Turnov, we had to catch another train to Hrubá Skála. The detour had cost us some time, so we were quite keen to arrive at our destination. Alas, Hrubá Skála (the train station) is a few kilometers from Hrubá Skála (the actual place). After a long walk, and then a steep hike through the woods, we finally arrived at our impressively rustic castle.

Main entrance to Hotel Zámek – Hrubá Skála

Sadly, the overcast skies and the disappearing daylight conspired against me in those pre-digital days of photography. I don’t have any impressive, or even half-impressive, photos of our hikes through the forest and the sandstone. But still – we stayed (and ate our meals) in a castle! And with it being late October, there were very few other people in the castle.

The pool was about to close for the winter (Hotel Zámek – Hrubá Skála)

After leaving the castle, we began to make our way to Frankfurt, Germany, and our flight back to Canada. You can expect to see some pictures from the final portion of the trip soon!

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Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 3)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Prague is one of Europe’s most magnificent cities. And in the 1990s, it was still one of the cheapest. So, looking back from 2020, I still can’t believe how we found our accommodation.

We arrived by train in the middle of the day. A former colleague had given me the name and phone number of a good local hotel. We walked off the train, and paused to organize ourselves. We must have looked like tourists, because a 40-ish fellow eventually walked up to us and casually asked if we needed a place to stay.

Not our landlord (actually, the guards from Prague Castle)

To this day, I don’t know why we agreed. I guess it was just a gut feeling that we could trust him. I mean, this guy could have taken us anywhere…and we could have been in very serious trouble. I don’t remember the price…maybe the equivalent of $10.00/night. Anyway, we went.

On the Charles Bridge, with Prague Castle in the background

He owned a sprawling old apartment on a street called Sokolovská (near the “Florenc” metro station). It had really high ceilings, and it had been chopped up into a sort of Bed & Breakfast, without the “Breakfast”. The elevator was microscopic. The room layout was unusual, to say the least, but we each had our own space and we could walk downtown. Was it legal? No idea. But it worked out well in the end, and much better than a similar prior experience in Budapest.

Me, with laundry, by our Sokolovská Street accommodation (Prague, Czech Republic)

Nothing can really prepare you for your first glimpse of the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) in Prague. It is huge. And the buildings are on a scale that dwarfs similar main squares in other Czech cities and towns. But it’s even more spectacular if you arrive at night, from the southeast, without looking up too much. We looked back and saw the absolutely stunning cathedral. In Czech, it’s called Chrám Matky Boží před Týnem (“Church of Our Lady before Týn”). My 1999 photos didn’t turn out very well, but my 2014 photos of the same location come close to capturing how impressive it was. Except that I was right under the church when I first saw it, and the light rain made it look even darker and more ominous.

A less dramatic daytime view of Staroměstské náměstí in Prague, without the huge church

I could fill pages and pages with descriptions of Prague’s cultural and architectural sights. But one of the most memorable things was watching a hockey game between archrivals Slavia and Sparta. These were the top two teams in Prague (and the Czech Republic), but we managed to get standing room tickets on the day of the game.

The Charles Bridge (with Prague Castle behind and to the left), Prague. Czech Republic

Hockey in Europe can be scary. Not the game itself, usually, but the ferocious rivalries and the aggression that plays out in the crowd. When you don’t speak the language, and everybody starts chanting and saluting in an “authoritarian” manner, you just hope that you remain unnoticed. It was all very different from when I played hockey there in 2014. I wonder if any of the players I played against in 2014 (some of whom played for the national team at one time or another) were playing in the game I watched in 1999.

October 15, 1999: Slavia beats Sparta 3-1. Former NHL player Vladimír Růžička was playing for Slavia.

Stay tuned for more Czech adventures!

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Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 2)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In 1999, Klatovy was not the most obvious choice for our first destination in the Czech Republic. Even now, with a population of just 22,000, not too many people have it on their travel radar. But I thought it might make a gentle introduction, as it was not very far from the German border. It wasn’t just close to Germany…it is also known as Klattau, and many of the surnames in the area are clearly German in origin (our inn was run by the Hauptmann family).

The Municipal Building in Klatovy, Czech Republic

I took a LOT of pictures of Klatovy’s main square (náměstí Míru), because it was just so photogenic. One of those appears at the very top of this post. But we enjoyed other aspects of the town too. Klatovy was where we first enjoyed Knedlíky (boiled dumplings), and also hosted the first store in which I saw Ukrainian champagne. After a couple of days here, we were ready to move deeper into the Czech Republic.

Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic. Note tourists on the deck above the clock. That’s where I took my photos

Our next destination was Plzeň, a considerably larger city on the way to Prague. LIke Klatovy, Plzeň also has a German name (Pilsen)…after which Pilsener beer was named. The highly respected Pilsner Urquell beer is from here. Alas, our accommodation in Plzeň (a cross between a hostel and a budget hotel) won a different kind of recognition from us: due to the openly hostile service and lack of cleaning, we declared it the inaugural winner of the Anti-Tourist Awards (a shortened form of the actual name!). It really was a letdown after our fine accommodations in Klatovy,

Climbing the Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje in Plzeň, Czech Republic.

Many of my photographs in Plzeň were taken from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje (St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral), located in the absolute centre of the city. As you can see from the photo above, it required a steep and narrow ascent with very low ceilings. It was worth it in the end, however, as the 46 m high tower afforded some great views.

View from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic.

Although parts of Plzeň were a little rough around the edges back then, we still found some cool places to visit. I stumbled across the hockey arena, which foreshadowed a subsequent part of our trip, and my friend found a spectacular wine shop. Although it has a fine history of beermaking, the Czech Republic also takes winemaking very seriously. Once again, this foreshadowed something we would return to later.

Another vertiginous view from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic

We also found a very ornate synagogue, which turned out to be the second largest one in Europe. It had been restored only in 1998, after being closed in 1973. The Plzeň Jewish community had numbered about 2,000 when the synagogue was completed in 1892, but now numbers only about 70. Part of the synagogue is once again used for worship.

Velká synagoga (Great Synagogue) in Plzeň, Czech Republic…it’s the second largest in Europe.

After Plzeň, we were ready for our biggest challenge yet: Prague, the legendary capital of both Bohemia and the Czech Republic. Would it live up to its advance billing? Stay tuned!

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Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 1)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Yesterday, I discovered a long-lost treasure: a photo album I assembled right after returning from my October 1999 trip to Bavaria (Germany) and Bohemia (Czech Republic). I’ve decided to prepare a few “Travel Flashback” posts for this special trip from a very different time.

Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) on the Marienplatz in Munich, Germany

I wasn’t alone: my friend Trevor was willing to join me on this exciting adventure. As flights to and from Germany were considerably cheaper than flying direct to Prague, we decided to fly into Munich…and back home from Frankfurt. In between, the focus of the trip would be the newly independent Czech Republic. This would be my first sustained trip behind the former Iron Curtain: other than 3 days in Hungary in 1991 (and a couple of hours in Yugoslavia on that same 1991 trip), Eastern Europe was still largely unknown to me.

Munich’s Olympiastadion, as seen from Olympiapark (there’s a soccer game between Germany and Turkey in the stadium)

To begin, however, we had a couple of days in Germany to acclimatize ourselves. In retrospect, this was a great idea: when stepping outside of your comfort zone, it’s a good idea to take baby steps at the beginning. I could survive in the German language, and I had been in Germany many times before. It seems strange to talk about culture shock in the Czech Republic now (here’s a link to the start of my posts from a 2014 trip), but back then it was still emerging as a travel destination and few of my friends and family had been there.

Neuhauserstrasse (Munich, Germany)

Alas, our brief stay in Munich was plagued by fairly grim weather. The old city is beautiful, as you would expect, and not even the wet/overcast weather could obscure that. You’d think that October would be a great time to visit, given that Munich is the home of Oktoberfest. Well, Oktoberfest actually ended the week before we arrived. The various pavilions (and they are indeed massive) were still there, but they were empty and abandoned. On the plus side, this explains why the accommodation costs were quite low and the various other attractions in the city were not very busy.

The Paulaner pavilion, on the Oktoberfest grounds in Munich, Germany

In addition to the medieval city centre and the Oktoberfest site at Theresienwiese, we saw the impressive Deutsches Museum, the Olympiaturm (Olympic Tower), the BMW headquarters…all the things one should properly see when visiting Munich. But we also knew this was only an amuse-bouche.

Another Oktoberfest pavilion in Munich, Germany.

On the morning of October 11, 1999, we took a regional train from Munich to Plattling, in deepest Bavaria. In Plattling, we hopped on an even more regional train to Bayerisch Eisenstein: a small village right on the Czech border. In fact, the border runs right through the train station. We walked across the border, technically now in the Czech village of Železná Ruda, and hopped on the “regionalest” of all trains to our first Czech destination: Klatovy.

This was the train that we took to Klatovy, Czech Republic. Taken at Klatovy’s train station (October 11, 1999).

Stay tuned for my first immersion into the Czech Republic!

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Records on the Road

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Last Saturday was “Record Store Day” and we drove to Ottawa to see what was available in the record stores of our nation’s capital.  It reminded me of the interesting music I’ve picked up in my travels: each record has its own story, above and beyond the actual music.

The photo at the top of this post is one of my favourite finds.   For some unknown reason, the Soviet record label Melodiya decided to release a 4-track EP (7″, 33 rpm) containing seemingly random tracks from Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 “Ram” album.  When I was “crate-digging” in a Tallinn, Estonia used record store, I found this pressing from Riga (now in Latvia, but then part of the U.S.S.R.).  While I can’t speak Russian, I know the sounds of the Cyrillic alphabet and was able to phonetically confirm that this was in fact a release from the former Beatle.  I picked up some fascinating Soviet LPs there too…but I’ll keep the focus on 7″ records today, as they are easier to pick up while traveling.

A Czechoslovakian 7" single from Dean Reed, the "Red Elvis"
A Czechoslovakian 7″ single from Dean Reed, the “Red Elvis”

Speaking of the Soviet era, I picked up some fascinating 45s in Prague last September.  Some were just Czechoslovakian pressings of hits by Western artists but the Dean Reed 45 pictured above was something I would never find in Canada.

Dean Reed went nowhere in the U.S.A. as a singer and traveled the world in search of fame and revolution.  He ended up based in East Germany, where he was proudly paraded by the authorities as a genuine American rock star and revolutionary.  He did, in fact, enjoy immense popularity in the Eastern Bloc…at least for a while.  His ersatz-Elvis recordings sound rather hokey now but there wasn’t much else available.  Alas, he drowned under mysterious circumstances outside of East Berlin in the mid-1980s.  If you’re interested in his bizarre story, there is a book (“Comrade Rockstar”, by Reggie Nadelson) about Reed and it has long been rumoured that Tom Hanks would make a movie about this forgotten musician.

Karel Gott's "Beatles" single
Karel Gott’s “Beatles” single

Karel Gott also found success in the Eastern Bloc during the 1970s but, unlike Dean Reed, still enjoys some popularity today.  Like many people who lived during that difficult time, he made certain compromises in order to  preserve his career in a totalitarian state.  The above single does not feature the Beatles, but the A-side is a Czech-language tribute to the Fab Four (although it sounds nothing like them).   I found this single in the same grim record store that yielded the Dean Reed record.  Both were very cheap: I suspect it is because they come from a time that many people would like to forget.

Johnny Clegg's 1987 "Asimbonanga" single was not attracting attention in Helsinki
Johnny Clegg’s 1987 “Asimbonanga” single was not attracting attention in Helsinki

Johnny Clegg is one of my favourite musicians.  Best known in North America for contributing “Scatterlings of Africa” to the Rain Man soundtrack, he bravely led racially-integrated bands during the Apartheid era in South Africa and continues to release genre-crossing and thought-provoking records today.   I wrote about Johnny last year in this post.  Alas, it doesn’t appear that he is very popular in Finland:  I found the above French pressing of his “Asimbonanga” single in the bargain bin of a Helsinki record store.

Reality is stranger than fiction: the Rutles "I Must Be In Love" single
Reality is stranger than fiction: the Rutles “I Must Be In Love” single

I never imagined that the above single could exist.  The Rutles were a Beatles parody band created by some Monty Python alumni and eventually were the subject of the brilliant rockumentary “All You Need is Cash”.  The soundtrack is also outstanding and highly recommended for Beatles fans.  The parody was so well-received in England that I found this single in a London record shop last November.  It was an unexpected souvenir of the same trip that took me to Abbey Road and various other Beatles landmarks.

Coming up next week:  I’m on the road again!  Using some accumulated Air Miles, I’m visiting a place that I somehow overlooked during my year of extended travel.  Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Posts from the road

Hockey in Poland (and a bit more of Prague)

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(Tychy, Poland)

After our very challenging first 3 games in Prague, we were able to take it easy on Sunday. The only organized activity was a dinner cruise on the Vltava River.

A bunch of us decided to visit the Museum of Communism, for a look at what life was like from 1948 to 1989 in the Czech Republic.  The three largest exhibit rooms were entitled “Dream”, “Reality” and “Nightmare”; the situation moved quite rapidly from “dream” to “nightmare”.  There was even an interrogation room where confessions would be obtained under extreme duress.

The Interrogation Room at the Museum of Communism in Prague, Czech Republic
The Interrogation Room at the Museum of Communism in Prague, Czech Republic

It was sobering to see how quickly Czech life became unbearably oppressive during those years.  We saw a grocery store stocked with only a couple of (not very desirable) products, the bribery necessary to get anything done,  and the sheer number of collaborators and informants who enabled the totalitarian nightmare to continue.  We also saw a movie showing the police brutality that took place just outside the front door of our hotel.   All of this reminded us of how fortunate we are in Canada.

Another view of the old town square in Prague
Another view of the old town square in Prague

The river cruise was quite mellow.  There was no commentary, just a buffet and a slow journey up and down the river.  As I found during our canal cruise in Haarlem, it’s nice to see a city from a different perspective. Given the crowds in Prague, it’s also great to have a bit more personal space while admiring the city.

View of the Charles Bridge from our boat (Prague, Czech Republic)
View of the Charles Bridge from our boat (Prague, Czech Republic)

Monday morning saw us driving to Opole, Poland for a series of games.  We had just over 2 hours of ice time, so we alternated playing against teams from Tychy and Wroclaw.  Playing 4 straight games against teams that could rest between games turned out to be quite demanding, especially as the ice was not resurfaced during that time.  However, I’m pleased to report that Canada’s hockey honour was restored with 4 straight victories over our well-rested opponents.

Our first stop in Poland: a roadside restaurant just inside the Czech/Polish border
Our first stop in Poland: a roadside restaurant just inside the Czech/Polish border

We received a very warm welcome in Opole; they seemed genuinely thrilled that we had made the journey.  Gifts were exchanged and there were many Polish beverages available before and after the game.  The Canadian spectators reported that the Polish fans were also gracious and friendly.

Our bus driver got lost on the way to our hotel in Tychy after the game, so a one-hour journey turned into a three-hour odyssey through the misty Polish night.  We finally arrived (after eating “dinner” at a 24-hour gas station) just before 1:00 a.m.  No harm was done, though, and I think everybody fell asleep quickly after arrival.  Fortunately, our hotel is right beside the arena where we play(ed) on Tuesday night!

Wenceslas Square (site of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution") in Prague, Czech Republic
Wenceslas Square (site of the 1989 “Velvet Revolution”) in Prague, Czech Republic

On Tuesday, we visited the famous city of Krakow as well as the infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz. I will be describing those visits in a separate posting.  We also played the Tychy team (in their home arena) Tuesday night and were once again victorious.  We really enjoyed the evening, as a couple of Polish and Canadian players switched teams and we had a fun night of pizza and refreshments after the game at our hotel.  Tomorrow, we once again move on!

Posts from the road

Prague and our first hockey games

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(Prague, Czech Republic)

The last time I was in Prague was in 1999. I had recently finished my law studies and I was living on a real budget. I was travelling with a friend from Toronto and we found our accommodation as we stepped off the train in Prague’s central train station. We went with a “gut feeling” that the guy who approached us was trustworthy and that our $15/night room (or was it $10?) northeast of downtown would be safe.

Prague's famous Staroměstské náměstí (Old Town Square)
Prague’s famous Staroměstské náměstí (Old Town Square)

Needless to say, it is a little different this time around.  The tour organizer has taken care of everything.  We are staying at a well known international chain hotel right in the middle of downtown on the famous Wenceslas Square. Our own bus is taking us to our hockey games and will also be shuttling us around 4 different countries.

Prague is a beautiful city and it receives a lot of tourists!
Prague is a beautiful city and it receives a lot of tourists!

As for the hockey…the first game was a real eye-opener.  Our opponents were led on the ice by Milan Novy: the Czech national team player who was apparently described by Bobby Orr in 1976 as the best player in the world at the time (after leading Czechoslovakia to a win over Canada in the first round of the Canada Cup).  Novy was also one of the few Czech players to play in the NHL before the fall of the iron curtain.

Zimní stadion in Prague: we played all of our Czech games here
Zimní stadion in Prague: we played all of our Czech games here

While Novy is now in his 60s, his teammates were various Czech ex-professionals from the much more recent past.  Our team, meanwhile, had arrived from Canada that same day and were both sleep-deprived and jet-lagged.  Our goalkeeper played a heroic game to keep the score down and we managed to score 3 goals against this Czech all-star team.  We were told that this was probably the strongest team we would face…but that our next Czech opponents were younger and “almost as good”!

The puck must be very close to me, as I look very intense here!
The puck must be very close to me, as I look very intense here!

That assessment was correct.  Our two opponents on the second day also had former professionals, although not as many as on the first team we played.  As for the outcomes:  let’s just say that our results “improved”!  None of our opponents could be classified as weak in any way…and they were all extremely motivated to win because this was actually considered a tournament (we had thought that they were all exhibition games).  The last game was especially close but some very “flexible” rules proved to be our downfall.  I won’t go into the details but the bottom line is that any penalty results in an automatic penalty shot.

Once again - the puck must be close!
Once again – the puck must be close!

All three of our games in Prague were at the Zimní stadion.  It clearly goes back to the days of communism and, surprisingly, has North American dimensions rather than the wider international ice surface.  However, the blue lines are very close together:  this means that there is a lot of room in the attacking zone and our opponents really took advantage of that.

While the on-ice results haven’t completely been what we hoped for, we still had a lot of fun playing the familiar yet different European game.  After 3 games in less than 24 hours, though, there won’t be any hockey tomorrow.  We can be tourists for a day!

Posts from the road

Hockey Tour of Eastern Europe!

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(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

I will soon be flying to Prague  in order to commence the trip of a lifetime: a hockey tour of Eastern Europe!  We will have a game every day (more or less) for the time that we are there.  There are also some special events and there will even be time for a little sightseeing along the way.

I visited Prague in 1999 and was able to watch a professional hockey game between Prague archrivals Sparta and Slavia.  However, I have not played hockey in any European country other than Switzerland and now I’ll have the chance to play in four different countries (including a couple that don’t have a very high hockey profile yet).

This trip was not part of my initial 2014 travel plan.  I was talking to one of my hockey friends a couple of months ago and he mentioned that he was going on this tour.  It sounded great and I told him that I could be a last-minute replacement if anybody had to bail out.  Within days, that’s exactly what happened!

Not only will this be an incredible experience for my team, but it will also be memorable for our opposition.   Canada still enjoys an almost mythical reputation as the birthplace of ice hockey and home of the greatest players and (national) teams.  Of course, it also means that our opponents will be thrilled with any success that they have against us.

As you can imagine, there will probably be little time for blogging or photography on this trip…but I promise to do what I can and then catch up when I get back to Canada.

Game on!