Usti nad Orlici to Olomouc

Day's Summary
"It was raining when we awoke so headed straight for Olomouc, getting there at about 11h30. After parking in another free area we walked into the old city. It started to rain again as we got to the upper square. The old town essentially around the linked upper and lower squares. We enjoyed the many sculptures, particularly the Baroque fountains. Went to the cafe Mahler for lunch, quite reasonably priced, very local and on the upper square. Then walked to the Cathedral and down to the gardens below the old city walls. We made our way back to the old town through the lower square. It had rained virtually the whole time we were in Olomouc and as it was getting late we decided to camp at the local campsite, where we encountered a strange group of Irish campers."

It was still raining hard when we woke up so any thoughts of going for a ride had to be abandoned. We had really been looking forward to this. We were quite sorry for the young couple in the tent, but they seemed to be quite on top of things and their tent was down before we left. We wondered how they were travelling. Our new coffee press gave us good coffee for breakfast. We decided to head for Olomouc. I had read that this was one of the best Czech Renaissance cities and managed to convince Marianne that it would be worth going to.

The drive to Olomouc was fairly uneventful except few a few tunnels. These are quite exciting for South Africans, but we were to clock up many in the coming weeks. If we had known this we would have started counting!

Park4night directed us to another excellent parking place, close enough to be able to walk to the historic centre. It was grey and threatening as we walked in. Light rain soon started to drift down. The town square or Horni nam was quite spectacular, or would have been if most of the city hall and astronomical clock hadn’t been under covers! But it was still a very impressive space. Olomouc is known as the city of fountains and this was very true. There are seven major fountains, as well as the Holy Trinity Tower which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Marion Plague Column, in the lower square. All are dramatic, but the Holy Trinity Tower even more so. It is after all the biggest Baroque sculptural group in Central Europe. It is a fun monument too with some of the figures sitting on the flat top to the tower. There are also a remarkable number of other sculptures in the city.

In the Horni nam were Holy Trinity Tower, the Caesar Fountain, the Hercules Fountain and the Arion Fountain. The latter is as recent as 2002. It was just ironic that we should be visiting the city of fountains on such a wet day! We walked around the square and the rain started to get heavier, so our Rome umbrellas got to be very useful. We then explored narrow streets running off from the square. Buildings were generally quite ornamented and brightly painted. The Czechs are certainly not afraid of decoration! The Dolni nam was another impressive square. This has the Plague Column and the Neptune and Jupiter Fountains. There were also lots of grand buildings, many of them now part of the university. The rain was now coming down hard so we decided to go into a restaurant for lunch. Cafe Mahler on the main square looking very inviting.. It looked quite fancy, and so it was, but the prices were thankfully reasonable. We enjoyed toasted sandwiches and coffee and spent over an hour there, using the free wifi and watching the rain through the windows.

When it started to let up a bit we set off again and went past the house where Gustav Mahler stayed for a short period when Olomouc was still called Olmutz. He was the conductor at the Royal Municipal Theatre in Olomouc. Walking down Denisova, the very substantial buildings made us realise what an important center this must have been. We passed the Triton Fountain that was dry (except for rainwater) and looked a bit forsaken, despite being considered artistically the most important of the town’s six fountains. A turn to the right took us to St Wenceslas’ Cathedral. This was a dramatic and big three steepled building, with an undecorated interior that made the beauty of the structure stand out. The third steeple is the second highest in the Czech Republic.

The building next to the cathedral had a memorial to W A Mozart. The town has a very active musical heritage. Mozart was taken there by his father to escape the smallpox epidemic in Vienna. He did contract smallpox while the family was staying in the Black Eagle Inn, which his father described as terrible, and was taken to the deanery next to the cathedral where he recovered and composed his Symphony No. 6 in F major. He was 11 years old! We had also walked past the Black Eagle Inn without knowing this.

We went back along Denisova and went down some very steep steps which took us through the old city wall down to the gardens and river that lie adjacent to the old city walls that are still standing on this side of the historic city. The famous Art Nouveau house Villa Primavesi stands at this point. The wall was very high at this point. The gardens were lovely with a river flowing through. Marianne made use of the very clean toilets. While she was away a fellow came downstream in a kayak, turned at the bridge and paddled away upstream. We walked along the path through the garden and enjoyed the tranquillity of the place.until found an easy way back to the town. There was still an uphill walk back to the square, from where we made a beeline back to the camper. Moving from the old town to the new was like travelling in time. Visually the past was much better than the present!

It was about 17h00 and this meant that we had to find a nearby campsite. Fortunately there was one in Olomouc and Google Girl took us straight to it. There was space although there were lots of GB registered cars and caravans there. Very expensive cars and very big caravans! The owners were common looking people, the men dressed in black and speaking a funny language. Almost English but so accented that we could barely recognise it. The children were also completely undisciplined. They made a mess of the potentially very neat ablutions and ignored us completely. We made supper and skipped showering. It had been a long rainy day and it was still drizzling. The wifi worked once we got the code so we did phone research and checked out what was happening weather wise before putting the lights out early. Tomorrow Slovakia waited. And the weather forecast did not look good!

Geschreven door Leartravels