Odds & Ends

Rotary Bike Ride

The Group

BJ and Astronomical Clock
in Old Town Square

As mentioned in earlier blogs, B.J. is a member of the Parole
Rotary Club in Annapolis and when we arrived in the Czech Republic she contacted the only English speaking Rotary in Prague.  We have attended a couple events already but this one has to be the best by far.  The idea was to ride bicycles in and around Prague.  Now that may not seem a real treat unless you come here in June and stroll around the city's tourist areas... it is virtually impassable with the crowds and the cars. So the concept of riding a bicycle in this insanity is .... well, insane.  The answer?? Patience...all will be revealed.  But first...we travel to Prague late in the week, check into a hotel and chill out for the day.  That first day we have dinner arrangements with Petr Slama, a member of the Theological Faculty at Charles University,  at his home just outside the Prague city limits and spend the evening with him, his wife and three daughters.  It was a delightful evening of food and very lively conversation. One of his daughters, 15-year old Marta, is coming to the U.S. this summer and will visit Annapolis; you will be impressed!!  I realized on our return to Prague that evening I had neglected to take any photos... in retrospect, B.J. and I were so captivated with the visit we simply neglected to break up the flow with photo snapping.  The following day we again chilled and then met Hana Habermannová for lunch.  Hana was one of the translators for us a few years ago

Hana, et. al.

Charles Bridge at dawn

when we came to English to the Church (ETTC)--Czech style Vacation Bible School-- in Letohrad.  It was really special to hear about her life and profession in Prague; we wish her the very best for the future and look forward to intermittent updates.  Now...back to the bike ride.  The answer to riding bicycles in Prague?  Do it before the throngs of visitors and locals show up.  After lunch with Hana we travel back to the hotel and get an early evening with the intention of meeting with the Rotarians at 3:15 AM! That's right, up and out before sunrise, which by the way was 4:55 AM that morning.  So for the next five hours we crisscrossed the Vltava river and up and down the opposite sides of the city.  I've got to tell you that riding through the narrow walking streets of Prague and over the Charles Bridge at dawn was quite a treat.  Even thought it sounds complicated, we rented bikes just off Old Town Square, stored them in the hotel and were up and gone with minimal hassle.

The Graduates

Ludmila, Jarmila and Josef

Impressive!

Are you coming to the graduation?  Are you kidding.. you bet I am, wouldn't miss it!  Er....what graduation? Now, it is June and the schools are closing at the end of the month but this still seemed a bit early for a graduation.  So Lida (Ludmila) 'Jr' explained that her mother had been taking courses for three years, not full time of course, but enough to warrant a ceremony and a diploma.  The best I could understand is that it was a recognized course for seniors who wanted a formal degree.  It turns out that two other Letohrad church members were also in the course and are graduates.  B.J. and I head over to the 'castle' for the ceremony... oops... severely underdressed... did not expect this formal a ceremony.  But, alas, it's the thought that counts and being the Americans, we can get away with a lot here.  So congratulations to Ludmila Stejskalova, Jarmila Černohousova, and Josef Pomikálk!

Final Community Lecture
This will be number four in the once-a-month, translated, community lectures held in the sanctuary of the church.  This one was on 'Racism, Then and Now'.  It was an unusually pertinent topic since we are representing Annapolis - the site of the Alex Haley-Roots

President Obama and the 50th
anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'

memorial because Kunta Kinte, Alex's forefather, was sold into slavery there in 1767.  Not only that, my hometown is Selma, Alabama and I was a junior in high school during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march and the infamous Bloody Sunday episode when white law enforcement brutally beat the marchers--prompting the passage of the Voting Rights Bill in 1965.  The lecture followed the 'Jim Crow Laws' of the post-civil war period up to 1965 and their transition into the 'New Jim Crow' black incarceration practices in force today.  Questions from the audience were insightful.

ETTC Helpers

'Horse' Basketball

English to the Church -- locally known as 'Church Camp' -- is scheduled for July and will be the seventh time FPC in Annapolis has conducted a Czech version of 'Vacation Bible School' here in Letohrad.  The camp could not be conducted without the assistance of the 'shepherds' or 'helpers' as they are called here.  These are the mid-teen, Czech youth that make the whole process work.  Not to take anything away from the highly professional preparation and execution of the Annapolis folk who travel here but the actual execution of the week-long camp relies heavily on the translation and local knowledge provided by the helpers.  B.J. mostly, I assisted, organized a fun day to get the helpers warmed up for the upcoming camp.  We had a fantastic time with rotational table tennis, a version of 'Horse' basketball and some energizers.


And a final Odds & End....

Tomáš Popolář
'Flower Child'

Sorry, my apologies, I know I will pay for this one but I just could not resist.  We took a quick day trip to Wroclaw, Poland last weekend and this photo emerged as one of the highlights of the trip.

A Litomyšl Trip

I don't remember where we were... but the conversation turned toward horses. Renata mentioned that there was a horse parkour event nearby Letohrad and would we be interested in seeing it.  The only problem was it was in Litomyšl and since we had been there before it might not be as interesting. Er... been where?  Litomyšl, you know, the beautiful UNESCO site that all FPC visitors to Letohrad are taken to visit.  Dumb stare....dumb stare back!  OK, this is my and B.J.'s sixth and fifth trip, respectively, to Letohrad and we have never been there.... at least the name was not familiar. It was a possibility that somewhere in the brain was stored a visual memory that would snap into reality.  But.. OK the horse thingie sounds great.  The day arrives and we are off in the car with Danny and Renata Popelářovi to Litomyšl and surrounding area.

The Garden - 'Urban Green from our Groves'
First stop is the flower show.  The best I understand it is the gardening facility, a nursery and outside gardens, is part commercial provider and part educational facility.  Just adjacent to the facility is the

BJ & Renata in Flower Exhibit

gardening high school - not a concept we in the states are familiar with - and the commercial arm is not open to the public except during specific designated times.  The flower show was in a small side building and held quite a few gorgeous flowers and other plants.  As mentioned earlier, I am not a 'green thumber' but do appreciate the unique beauty.  After browsing the flowers we moved over to the adjoining area where the high school students maintain separate demonstration gardens... each one specific to a class year.  With our horticultural genes satisfied, we headed to the town of Litomysl.

The Town

The UNESCO Castle

Construction Exposure

Well, the visual memory did not snap into focus; we truly have not been
here before.  Of course, the main attraction is the UNESCO site consisting of the castle, adjoining park and French garden.  There are some adjacent buildings also enclosed in the site boundary; carriage house, riding hall, stables and brewery.  (By the way, it's translated 'castle' on the local signage but from what I have picked up the name is 'Zámek' which I understand is better translated 'palace' or 'chateau'.)  Now don't get me wrong, the complex is drop-dead beautiful but my engineering eye immediately honed in on the design of

One of many designs

Piarist Church

the building.  There was a section of the wall that was intentionally exposed to see the levels of construction material.  The base is a rocky structure covered with a smooth coating and then a white substrate.  Now the interesting thing is the rectangular designs that cover the entire outside of the palace.  They are constructed by scratching away the white outer shell exposing the underside smooth coating.  All are different and some quite interesting.  Although not within the UNESCO boundary the area contains religious structures including the Piarist Church, it's adjoining college and the monastery gardens. The entire vista is breath taking and quite worth the visit-- delayed as it was. As for the town, it proved to be old and quaint.  An hour's or so walk through it solidified a very satisfying visit.

The Horses
But... to the main event.  Danny, as you might know, works for a livestock feed company based in

Amsterdam.  His colleague happens to be the best hourse feed specialist in the area; thus the specific interest in the parkour.  I have to admit, the term horse parkour is a new one to me. Now, I can tell you I have seen the events on television but never realized it was known by that term.  No matter.. the skill of the riders and the physical adroitness of the horses were mesmerizing.  I was impressed with the organization and execution of the event; a hair trigger break between each contestant which keep the activity at a high level.

Music! Music! Music!

Music is an integral part of the Czech psyche.  It is common to see students with an instrument case hanging on their backs.  I would venture that every third person you meet has some musical ability. So... let the spring weather break and immediately temporary outside stages pop up everywhere (including the one in Old Town Square in Prague they were putting up today!!).

Tvrz
We were approached by Jiřina who had two extra tickets provided by the Letohrad mayor to a very special venue just outside town at Tvrz Orlicí.  We drove out with Radek and Jiřina late in the afternoon to a very nice hotel complex with a permanent stage attached to the side of the building.  This was the opening night of a series of concerts and there were loads of dignitaries there.  The first half hour was acknowledgements and awards with flowers and other mementos. Then a full orchestra from Hradec Králové entered the stage, began tuning and was soon followed by the director and the featured performer, a violin player; as you can see from the flyer.  The concert, entitled 'My Film Loves' ventured away from full classical to a more 'energized' presentation of film themes.  Also note the flyer for some of the selections from Lord of the Rings to Fiddler on the Roof.  It as a delightful treat.... not that the classical genre wasn't acceptable, but the variation was quite refreshing.

Ústí nad Orlicí

 The ancient and the modern...

It's a big crowd...as usual.

OK... it's early in the evening and the cell rings.... it's Aleš.  'Hey, we are going to pop over to Usti and catch a concert... you two wanna go?' (very liberal paraphrasing!!!)  Yea...sure...just let me turn off the computer, shelve the program I was working on, find my shoes and ...yea...sure.  It's only a bit and the car pulls up and we are off.  What concert you say... well, I don't know... remember you can find something like this all over country this time of year.  And what does it matter?  We arrive in town, search for a parking place... there are SEVERAL cars jammed every square inch near the square; as are the people from those cars jamming the actual square.  The square proudly exhibits the expected bubonic plaque memorial from the late 14th century and just across from it the also expected temporary stage -- actually a very impressively engineered structure.  We all wade into the crowd...not a chance to get up front since we just arrived prior to the concert... but soon are toe-tapping and bobbing along with the partisan crowd who knows the band and the song lyrics by heart from the radio.  Ah... summer in CZ.

JamRock 2017

Park Stage

Part of Tent City...

And now the granddaddy of music festivals in
this part of the country... the annual JamRock.  Beginning Thursday and ending on Sunday, it is situated in a large field just outside Žamberk.  We had multi-day passes provided by Katka (by the way, we have not reimbursed her since she has been in Norway -- note to self -pay Katka!) JamRock is composed of three stages in the same area, the small Rock Stage, and the main stage or Jam Stage and finally the secondary large one, the Park Stage. Bands are scheduled over the four days to follow each other in rapid succession as they rotate through the stages... there were a couple times bands were in two of the stages but they did not interfere.  And there are LOTS of people there along with food, drink and nick-nack vendors by the score. This goes on until after midnight and then a DJ takes over until the early morning hours.  Who, you ask, would hang around for this insanity?  Well, just adjacent to the field with the stages is a large field with

Jam Stage

plenty porta-potties, a beer vendor and a carpet of tents each housing two to four people.  I saw a couple small RVs but the vast majority were in camping tents.  So, you simply hang out for your favorite band, go back and grab a wink or two and return for the next round of music.  Of course, there are those of us who did not venture the camping style and showed up for the day events.  But, ignoring the good intentions, we made most of the Friday concerts but previously scheduled events pulled us away for the remainder of the weekend.  But no matter, the day we were there the spectacle was worth it.

Business & Pleasure

Formplast s.r.o.
Purkert

The facility was very impressive!!

The timing was right so took the opportunity to visit Aleš Pomikálk's company in a nearby town for its 25 year open house celebration.  The company had an open house on their 20th anniversary and it worked so well it was decided to have one every five years.  For that 20th year open house there was about 3000 people that showed up for the weekend festivities so the logistics for this one was impressive.  There were a series of charter busses from local area towns (the drunk-driving laws here are really strict) as well as an extensive food and beverage presentation - gratis.  I'm told this area of the Czech Republic is called 'plastic valley' for the several companies that produce various parts for the German auto industry.

Lukas, Ondrej, Hana, Sam, Veronika, BJ and
Dija with a shoe blowout in the shipping department

Formplast has about 600 employees (400 here and about 200 in another location) and produces headlight assemblies mainly for Mercedes Benz but also for BMW, Audi, VW and Skoda.  The beauty of this facility is they design and produce the forms for the various products and then use those forms to produce the actual headlight assemblies.  The factory was spectacular!  Being an engineer by training I was fascinated by the orderly processes.  There were production lines open during the open house so we had a good chance to get acquainted with the systems.

 A Piece of Cake
Soon after we got to Letohrad we were chatting with Lida Stejskalova - Lida lives just on the

BJ and a Dort Fix

A patient wait

adjoining street and has visited Annapolis a bit ago during one of FPC's youth exchanges.  We noticed a rather large dog being walked down the street and thought it odd that someone would want to keep such a 'beast' in a populated area.  Lida informed us his name was Dort.  Now .... that might not seem too odd until you realize the Czech translation for dort is 'cake'.  We didn't think much of it at the time.  Later as we made one of the gazillion trips back and forth to the church there was a house on the street across from Lida.. and in the yard was the 'beast'. Over the next few days we began to notice that if a local passed the yard, Dort just looked, but as soon as he heard our voices his tail began to swing wildly and he bounded up to the gate.  At first we were a bit hesitant to venture a scratch since we expected a bit of 'bait and switch' in which we would pull back a stub.  But we finally braved it and Dort really proved to be a piece of cake.  He is wonderful.  Over the weeks we would see him and his 'father' out on a walk, or see him tied up outside a local market.  It was not until a few weeks ago BJ and I took a long stroll up by the chapel on the hill (you know, John's chapel --not Jana's!!).  There is a very long, narrow trail just past the chapel.  As we progressed up the trail we saw something a bit up the way...we stopped... it was big and menacing.  As we slowly began to backtrack there was something about the profile.... so what the heck... on we went.

Dort on the trail

Yep, it was Dort as we soon realized as he heard our voices and bounded toward us.  Immediately Dort's father emerged from the woods, he had been cutting some small kindling... we exchanged hellos.  Dort had to be restrained for us to leave.  Since then we often drop by the gate to get a Dort fix... which is always followed by a hand washing since Dort is rather exuberant in his greetings.

Miscellaneous

It's been a bit since the last entry and I think it necessary to clean up a few things.  We have been focused on presentations everyday this week -- with a couple on some days -- but have been otherwise occupied also.

Third Community Lecture
We had our third community lecture, this time on the American healthcare system with a specific

Third Community Lecture

focus on Obamacare and the current Republican proposal on healthcare.  This translated lecture prompted the most interest by far and ended with a vigorous discussion of the comparison of our system to the European approach in general and the Czech system in particular.  The current debate on healthcare in the U.S. pointed out a lot of weaknesses with our for-profit approach and actually tempered some of the attitudes here about the level of taxation regarding Czech health services.  That is, the overall benefit of universal healthcare outweighed the individual cost of supporting their system.  As an aside, after the lecture we were approached by a good friend of our translator, Renata Popelářová. Her friend, Jana, conducts English classes for adults in nearby Žamberk and asked if we would speak at her last class this season on the previous topic of Trump vs Clinton. We gladly accepted and had a very meaningful evening along with a entertaining dinner at a local restaurant; they were appreciative of the topic and the chance to engage  native English speakers.

Local Gardening Show & Nad'a Critters
Motivated by the numerous huge announcement banners scattered around our part of town, we --well,

One of many storks in the
Letohrad area

Nad'a and B.J. at one of the
exhibits

B.J. actually-- thought it a good idea to check out the gardening event.  A couple members of the church mentioned it also but the directions we got were a bit convoluted..not their fault but our reliance on our rudimentary Czech.  So after a rather enjoyable tour of the area adjacent to the local train station we finally stumbled on the site.  Still a bit unsure we ventured into the tented area in the open field where we found booths for lawn equipment, food, beer, feathered friends in cages and a small theater/food bench tent.  It was not until we bumped into Nad'a that we realized the actual plants were in a nearby nursery-- quite an expansive complex with a stork perched atop one of the building structures.  It was fun touring the various exhibits and greenhouses on the property. Of note, to me anyway, was the really weird vegetable that could only be a prop for a SciFi

The garden creature

Athena eating.  She had a sore foot and needed
 some 'persuasion' not to chew on it. Yes, there
is a food bowl under there!

movie.  I was informed it was a kohlrabi.. and after some bantering we took a couple home; an interesting taste but not an addictive one for me. ....Er... and speaking of Nad'a and critters, we popped by for lunch one day and enjoyed meeting a couple of her critters ranging at her house. There was the expected Newfoundland 'beast', Athena, and a very adventurous turtle in the garden.

The Walk at Klášterec nad Orlici and The Bells

OK, only 5 of 6 kids and one with
back turned....ever heard of "herding cats"?

Dija on Lookout

Aleš and Veronika Pomikálovi, their friend, Jane, and a total

The Footbridge

of 6 kids set out for a hike along the Orlici river near the town of Klášterec.  We were invited along out of hospitality but it turns out more to assist in kid collection... a challenging task I will admit. The weather was grand.  There happened to be a fishing competition that day and we passed several marked areas with a couple fly fishermen wading in the water and a 'scorer' on the shore; I never got a look at a fish but there are trout there.  We made it safely to the 'stone bridge' and ventured up the nearby hill for some refreshment.  It was an equally
inefficient return trip to the cars but an equally enjoyable one.  On the way back it was suggested if we 'pick up the pace' we could try to make it back in time to participate in the ringing of the bells at the historic chapel in Letohrad.  Let me explain.  As referenced a couple times previously, there is an 18th century chapel on a high hill in Letohrad called Kapel sv. Jana Nepomuchého.  Now... a bit of a head-slap here ... B.J. and I assumed the chapel was to someone named "Jana" and thought it strange there was an 18th century chapel dedicated to a woman.  Well... after a few weeks of  Czech lessons we realize that the chapel is actually the Chapel of St. John of

Practice....

The Pro...

Nepomuk; the 'Jana ' being a declination of "Jan" or John... ok, we are slow learners. But, back to the story.  The chapel is still part of the catholic church but has become accessible to the public.  As such, each year for the month of May, at 7AM and 7PM each day, the chapel is opened and anyone is allowed to ring the bells there.  There are four bell towers situated on the corners of the courtyard (yea, the courtyard is in the shape of a pentagon but.... go with me on this). The lower bells are rung for 15 minutes and then silenced and the main bell in the central tower is rung three time in succession.  It is a really cool thing to trek up the hill and join the kids and adults in ringing the bells.