Fulnek to Hradec nad Moravici: Day 144

An easy walk today through villages, along roads and woodland paths to the Castle at Hradec nad Moravici.

Leaving Fulneck I followed a tree lined rough road through fields passing a few morning dog walkers. On a deviation through broad leafed woodland on a blue waymarked path I spotted a sign on a tree. Google Translate revealed it was a quiz for small children, this included taking counters from the bags in a plastic container beneath the tree and adding them numbers on them together. One set of counters were marked 2, the other 3, so not too difficult! 

I soon reached my first village, Lukavec. Despite a good sized breakfast I was tempted by a retro ice cream sign and duly bought one from the shop.

As I was walking through the village trumpet music suddenly started from loud speakers attached to lamposts. A long message in Czech followed. Many villages in Czechia and Slovakia have these loud speakers. Google's artificial intelligence told me the local mayor's office used them to publicise local events and other items of interest to the villagers. In addition they form part of the Civil Defence system to warn of threats to peoples' safety.

From Lukavec it was up a wooded valley on what may once have been a road. A jogger ran by me then stopped to speak with a lady picking yellow flowers. As I approached the village of Leskovec I passed a large building beside the stream, an old water mill according to a later information board.

After an uphill walk over grassland I arrived at a third village of Lesni Albrechtice where a further ice cream sign tempted me over to a stall beside a car park. Buying their cones ahead of me were a German couple walking the Eisenbach-Budapest trail which the E3 follows for a while, they started 2 months earlier. I was one of the few long distance walkers they had met. They were walking in the opposite direction to me so asked about the difficulty of the West Slovak section. I muttered a few reassuring words in reply. Later I thought I should have told them of my blog which might have given them more insight.

Woodland followed and the kilometres soon passed on a good track as I thought of other things. Lost in my daydreams I accidentally started on tomorrow's route and had to retrace my steps to where a track led to the castle at Hradec nad Moravici. 

Unfortunately there were no tours of the castle in English but I was able to look around the outside and view the courtyard of the main building. Similar to many places in the area it had a long history, however the current "castle", which was more a large stately home, dated from the late 16th century when it was rebuilt in the renaissance style. The main, white building was surrounded by others from various dates including the gatehouse, the red castle in front of it and a couple of towers. I thought the square, white tower in Neo Gothic style quite attractive. It was one of the latest additions in the late 19th century. As I ambled around a black box suddenly started playing a Beethoven Sonata; good background music probably played as the composer had visited the castle which had a long association with music and musicians. Also appropriate as tonight I am staying at the nearby Hotel Sonata.

The main town is down the hill from the castle and has (at least one) good coffee shop where I enjoyed a slice of cheesecake with my latte.

Suchdol nad Odrou to Fulnek: Day 143

A busy train trip from Krakow to Suchdol nad Odrou followed by a walk through a landscape rather greener than the one I left behind in England. 

Crowds of people were trying to enter the Leo Express train. Tickets were allocated to reserved seats. Unfortunately people heading in one direction down the narrow carraige aisles were obstrucing people heading in the other direction, as they all struggled to reach their allocated seats. The stalemate was compounded by people blocking the aisle as they tried to force their bulky bags onto the inadequate and overcrowded luggage racks above the seats. Eventually the chaos settled into a sort of jumbled order on the busy train and I looked out the window from seat 3/91 at the suburbs of Krakow as they segued into the surrounding farmland. 

The name Leo Express was misleading as the train proceeded over Poland at an exceedingly slow pace, dropping to a crawl as it approached level crossings, possibly as they were not working. We speeded up in Czechia, and I had to hurry off when the train stopped briefly at Suchnol nad Odrou before continuing to Prague. My confusion over the lack of a raised platform caused me some hesitation. 

The station offered the opportunity for a lunchtime snack before I started my walk. I dined on an open sandwich of ham and "Russian egg" served with a raspberry lemonade (available on draft beside the beers). Suitably replete I walked through the village of Suchdol nad Odrou, a ribbon development beside the roads each side of a stream. It boasted two churches, one with a bulbous spire and the other with a neogothic tower. 

Everything was green, a contrast to the straw coloured grass, burnt brittle by the sun and starved of rain, in the fields I left behind in England. Apples, rosehips and the berries of hawthorn added colour to the wayside. Apart from Suchnol  and the village of Kletne I walked through woods, grassland and fields where something harvested a long time ago left lines of pale stalks standing.

A short walk today of 12 kilometres with only a modest amount of ascent over low tree-covered hills. At times, looking back, I could see the higher Carpathian Mountains that I had walked down earlier in the year.

I discovered from an information board that I was also on part of the "Via Exulantis" or the "Steps of the Exiles". The exiles were Evangelical Christians from Northen Moravia, the region I was in. To escape persecution in the 18th century 550 of these Protestants fled north west to found a settlement at Helmhut and contribute to the development of the Moravian church around the world. The trail followed their path.

Coming over a ridge approaching Fulnek I was confronted by Fulnek Castle, a large, pale yellow, 16th century rennaisance building. A cement tank stood outside, maybe for renovation or conversion of the closed building. 

Down the hill I found the 18th century Holy Trinity Church. Its inside was in the Baroque style with numerous domes, angels painted on the ceilings, and side chapels with white statues and extensive gilding.

This large church looked down on a square surrounded by attractive pastel coloured buildings. Young people sat on benches and a lady was sitting at a stall hoping to sell fruit and vegetables.

At my bed & breakfast I took off my knee brace, removed the plaster covering the blister it had caused the previous week and examined the wound. A little moist but it sermed no worse, although tomorrow will be a bigger test at 22 kilometres. 

For dinner I ate at a Vietnamese Restaurant as it was the only place I could find where I could sit down to a meal on a Tuesday night. After, having read in a guidebook about the importance of Czech pubs, I visited a "Hospoda" for research purposes (and a beer). There was a bit of confusion as to which beer I wanted, as I was not familiar with any of them I could not really care, which only added confusion. However one of the freedoms that a long walk like this gives you is that no matter how stupid they think you are, you are unlikely to ever meet them again!