Don't Go There

Ok, well you can GO there, but stay in your car.  The wheel chair can not handle the stairs, steep hills, or gravel paths.  I had mapped out a route for the day, including several castles, and some caves.
Breakfast first, for 4 Euros.  You can order eggs OR bacon OR sausage OR a ham and cheese omelet but not more than one.  Omelet sounds like the best deal.  But you can have unlimited rolls, bread and jam, and this meat pate.  Coffee is latte or espresso only.  If you want American coffee, you can have hot water to pour in with your espresso. 

 The first stop was actually a chateau called Slatinany. It has been made into an Equestrian  Stud Farm and Museum.  They breed horses, and there are tours of the farm.  The Kladruber is one of the oldest breeds in the world, very rare, and begun in Czechia. 

We got there at 9:30 and the farm tours didn't start until 11.  What about the  Equestrian museum?  Well, maybe you can get in there with the wheel chair.  Can we drive to it?  No, you have to push the wheel chair half a kilometer on a dirt/gravel path.  Killer.  At least it was flat, right?  Well, most of the way.  It was hot, thirsty work, but we made it, and there was a lovely chateau with an inner courtyard.  One wall had a window where you could buy tour tickets and souvenirs.  The tickets were 100 Kc, or about $5.00.  Any discount for handicap?  No.  Any stairs?  Couldn't understand thee answer.  Can we go?  Yes, yes, you can do the first floor.  So Bart paid for our tickets and when the next tour started we got in with the crowd.  The tour guide stopped us.  You know there are stairs?  How many?  50 to get to the first floor.  Aren't we on the first floor?  No, in the Czech Republic the first floor is up one flight from the ground floor.  That's why my first apartment was on the third floor but I had to walk up 4 flights of stairs to get there.  Well, there is no way I can crutch my way up 50 stairs.  Back to the window; insist on a refund, and push the wheelchair half a kilometer back to the car.  Thanks for nothing, and over an hour of our day shot.

We drove around the area for a bit anyway, and found a neat forest with dirt roads that reminded us of  the top of West Mountain back home.  Poor rental car was terrified of the pot holes and one lane, two-way traffic pathway.  We saw ponds where people were fishing, and some vacation cottages.

Some workers at the horse farm were training the horses to pull carriages.  One breed of horse, called the Kladruber, was used to pull the big, heavy carriages for the Hapsburgs.  They are very large, and black or grey.  Another breed are all white, called 

  Nove Hrady Palace has free parking for handicapped people, even without a pass or sticker.  Also entrance is free.  That's nice, since I can't see most of it due to gravel paths on hills.  The wheels won't even turn on that.  Bart parked me in the shade by a rose arbor, and went exploring.  He took lots of pictures so I could at least see what he was seeing second hand.  

They had a museum for antique European motor bikes.  Very cool.  

It is called Bohemia's most beautiful Rococo palace, or the Bohemian Versailles.  It is salmon pink!  

Ok, back on the road again, through farm land with a new village every few miles.  We had lunch in our cooler, and stopped at a roadside shelter with a picnic table in the shard, surrounded by farm fields, and littered with cigarette butts.  SO MANY people smoke here.  As a matter of fact it is only this year that people finally started obeying the law to not smoke in bars and restaurants.  

Next Next stop, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Litomysl Castle. There are 12 in the Czech Republic.  There is only one in Poland and one in Hungary.

It was up a big hill in the city, above a museum of local history.  So Bart sent me off to see the museum while he scouted possibilities to get me into the castle.  

By now we were exhausted, and didn't have the energy for the Javoricska caves.  It was still a long drive to Olomouc, where we would spend the next two days.  

Our hotel there was smack dab in the middle of downtown, within wheelchair-pushing distance of the sites we wanted to visit.  It also had a wheelchair lift at the front door, and an elevator to our room.  There was a little fridge, and a fan in the closet (no air conditioning in the 80s - 90s weather).  We could open windows, but there was a lot of street noise, especially from the tram stop right below us. 

By now my left front wheel was in tatters, hanging on by a thread.  And of course, all the streets and sidewalks were paved with small paving stones. 

Time for a beer.  Or two.