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From Prague, Telc is a 2-hour car journey, much of it down Interstate E65 but is also accessible by bus, from Prague, Brno, and Ceske Budejovice, although it obviously will take longer than two hours. Traveling by train would be too complicated unless you live in or around South Moravia. After a few
missed turns towards the end of the journey we were there around 11am.
There was a parking lot about 1 km north of the center and we walked along
the castle wall waiting for an entrance. The wall took us to a small gate
that opened up into a few shops and then we walked over a little bridge
above what I later realized was a frozen pond. We entered the center from
the north and I immediately realized how right my guidebook and everyone
else was who made comments concerning the town. Whereas most town squares
in the Czech Republic may resemble medieval times, especially Prague’s
center and Cesky Krumlov, Telc was the real deal. It’s been untouched by
modern construction and the gaping hand of capitalism doesn’t have a commanding
grip, like, say Wenceslas Square in Prague. In front of us, across the
way was the yellow Baroque Holy Name of Jesus Church. To our right were
Jan Zrvavy Gallery and the Gothic Chapel of St. George. We tried to explore
the castle area that was off to the right but the aforementioned churches
and everything else were closed, which isn’t surprisingly for a Sunday
in February. Wait a second, aren’t Sunday’s the day of worship? We strolled
down the town square, namesti Zachariase z Hradec (a governor of Moravia),
whose Baroque and Renaissance buildings line the street. I’ve never seen
so many beautiful buildings next to each other before and as pleasant as
they looked, it almost resembled a movie set. Building after building was
a different color and a different design and some even had paintings on
them, most memorably in black and white. Towards the southern end of the
square is the Marian Column, which had nests of snow here and there that
only added to its majestic quality. There were cafes and souvenir shops
in the square, but they are hidden under shadowy arches so they aren’t
visible from the other side of the square. And everything being covered
in snow only enhanced the view. The square was mesmerizing, to say the
least. If it had been summer, I would have sat in the square for hours,
but as it was -5 degrees Celsius, remaining idle didn't sound enticing.
We strolled through the square for awhile and then explored the rest of
the town. On the way from the South the Great Gate was the Romanesque Church
of the Holy Spirit and its tower overlooks the town but, like everything
else, is closed for the winter, as my student discovered from the owner
of the pub next door.
The grog warmed me up like nothing else can. In case you’ve never heard of it, grog is a drink consisting of two parts boiling water, one part rum, and even a squeeze of lemon juice and a spoon full of sugar. It sounds simple and bland but it warms your stomach better than anything I've tried before. Unfortunately it was cold in the cafe and we clasped our drinks to help our hands warm up. The waiter, probably the owner, was English speaking and very pleasant and precise when taking our order. The place looked empty and I don't just mean because there was no people but the light jazz coming from the bar was something to tap my feet to. Or was I doing that to test for the feeling in my toes? While we were there, we decided on the next destination. To the north about 50 kilometers was the Church of St. John of Nepomuk, another UNESCO site. The church is in the shape of a 5-pointed star because when St. John was thrown off of St. Charles Bridge in Prague, stars are said to have appeared over the place in the river where he drowned. Unfortunately my student had to return to Prague at a given time so we had to opt for something closer and the man in the cafe suggested Slavonice, which was less than 30 kilometres to the South. We walked around the town for another half an hour and on the way back to the car we noticed a big crowd gathering in the square and I remembered that this weekend was Masopust. It translates to "a fast from meat" and it is a mix of Carnival and Mardi Gras where everyone indulges in everything before the beginning of Lent. It's funny that it is celebrated in the Czech Republic though because it is one of the most atheistic countries in the world. It sounds like a reason to dress up funny and eat a lot of food to me. That didn't take anything away from the genial mood of the town and more and more people filed in during the 10 minutes we watched. People were dressed like mushrooms, fairies, horses and Teletubbies and they still seemed to be in the preliminary stages when we arrived. I thought about staying longer but we'd already been in the small town for four hours and it wasn't getting any warmer. So from the center we walked back to the car and went to Slavonice. It wasn't a big town but it had two nice squares, Peace Square (Namesti Miru) and Upper Square (Horni namesti) and like Telc, everything was brilliantly covered in snow. Some of houses have sgraffito decorations and to my surprise, I learned that the center is an UNESCO site as well. It is much smaller than Telc so an hour was suffice to walk around the two squares and the old town wall. What I didn't realize until later is that Slavonice is only 1 km from the Austrian border and during Communism it was the closest to the border that people were allowed live. All subsequent towns were abandoned and sometimes destroyed. One of the sgraffitos on Horni namesti had figures from Greek mythology and some of the Hapsburgs. Interesting combination. There was a nice Gothic church but of course it was closed. After joking about losing our way in the small village after making a few wrong turns, we returned to the car and left for Prague. My student was running late so she drove between 130 and 170 km per hour on the way back. I'm not sure exactly how fast that is but the RPM meter was hovering at around 5000 so it couldn't have been that slow. From Slavonice, we returned to Prague in 90 minutes, which leads to the second conclusion of the day. The first is that you can trust an UNESCO site to be well worth a trip and secondly, future trips on trains and buses will be spoiled by the speed and cleanliness of a car. The following is the first article Matthew wrote for the magazine:
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Other Franz Ferdinand ~ 