The Czech Republic 2008 - South Bohemia

THE CZECH REPUBLIC - South Bohemia
Heading south from Kutna Hora through gentle hilly countryside we arrived at a pleasant lakeside campsite Camping Vidlak in the small village of Opotov near Trebic, run by a friendly Dutch couple with great enthusiasm especially for recycling! This site was well situated for visiting several picturesque towns including Telc and Slavonice.
We spent an afternoon in the main district town of Trebic, actually just in the Moravia region, quite industrial but with a few interesting sights - the decorated house and tower with the largest clock face in the country. We wandered round the UNESCO Heritage listed Jewish quarter of small narrow streets and visited the cemetery with ancient tombstones and a rather low key memorial to the thousands of Jews who died during and between the First and Second world wars. After a short detour through the castle grounds we returned to the busy main square to find a local was taking a keen interest in our van peering into the windows so we hurried back and wished him "dobry den" before driving off!	Trebic - decorated house and clock tower
Further south almost on the border with Austria we found the small town of Slavonice, in our opinion the most attractive with lovingly restored façades covered in s'graffito showing biblical and historical scenes almost like newspaper cartoon strips all over the buildings. Like many of the towns we passed, there were many old buildings, some renovated others awaiting their turn. Overlooking the main square was the church tower with a gallery you can visit at certain times, and a typical Vietnamese run shop selling the most grotesque ornaments (at least to us). We later came across a garden full of them in Germany!
Slavonice main square	Slavonice - s'graffito decorated house
Slavonice - more s'graffito decorated houses	Slavonice - detail of s'graffito
Slavonice - s'graffito	Slavonice - Vietnamese shop window
From there we drove on to Telc, another UNESCO heritage listed town, where the large square was lined with pastel coloured decorated buildings almost out of Western film-set. At one end of the square stands the twin towered church of St James, and a large chateau with a tower with viewing gallery. The old town centre is surrounded by three large lakes. In the gardens of the chateau we came across an old wooden caravan and rows of benches - this was the outdoor cinema! When we returned to the car park for tea, again there were several local people hanging around but this time not interested in our motorhome. Suddenly a small truck arrived and they proceeded to buy a few live chickens each, taking them to their cars in sacks and cardboard boxes!	Telc - decorated buildings
Telc - church and tower	Telc - "Filmset" main square
After returning to Camping Vidlak for the evening and being studiously observed by the many Dutch caravanners on the site, we headed west along mostly empty roads bypassing the large industrial town of Jindrichuv Hradec and on to Trebon in a very flat marshy area and popular with groups of cyclists on all the roads. Reaching more hilly countryside on minor lanes we paused at Rimov, a pilgrimage town where we walked around the Way of the Cross path, about two miles through the countryside with shrines and tableaux depicting the Stations of the Cross, all in different styles some very old and damaged, (the first were built in 1658) others newer and well looked after. According to the map outside the church there were twenty five of them rather than the usual fourteen. There is also a large church and Loreto chapel built by the Jesuit community. From there we continued to Cesky Krumlov, a major tourist city which was heaving with coaches in the afternoon, so we drove on to find an empty campsite a couple of miles to the west. In the evening we drove back to the centre of Cesky Krumlov, parking in the P2 carpark and strolled around the old town centre for a couple of hours.

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