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!
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