What? You never hear of Slavonice? Neither had I, until this trip. Centuries ago, however, Slavonice was a “happening” place. On the road between Prague and Vienna, it was a popular overnight stopping point for travelers.
Check out the “graffiti” that still exists on the buildings in “old town”.
One of the reasons I keep choosing to travel with OAT is because of hidden gems like Slavonice, places I would NEVER have discovered on my own.
We were able to visit a beautiful restored building that was once used as a gathering place for the Lutherans. Supposedly this artwork illustrates that Jesus’ word is more powerful than the sword. Clearly this artwork was done well before both world wars.
Can you believe the ceiling in this building? How did they DO that?
We were the only guests in a lovely little hotel in old town, complete with a restaurant and wine cellar.
Here is Pavel, the owner, chef, wine merchant, cleaning crew, sommelier, ( he’s EVERYTHING!) greeting Tomas, our guide and welcoming us to his hotel.
Our first evening was memorable indeed. The town lost electricity during a hailstorm and with roads flooded, Pavel had to figure out how he was going to feed us. Fortunately, his wine cellar was very well stocked, so in addition to soup and bread we were offered unlimited beverages. SOME of us took FULL advantage of what life had thrown our way.
I took these photos of posters outside my room especially for my favorite sommelier (he knows who he is).
We were lucky that the 13th century wine cellar didn’t flood. The water from the storm that DID make it into the building had receded enough for us to enjoy a wine tasting on the second night of our stay.
The fact that the ceiling was dripping on us didn’t dampen our spirits one bit.
Yes, we are all bundled up— it was COLD in the centuries old basement.
But once again, I’m getting ahead of myself, talking about dinner before describing our “day in the life” experience at a farm about an hour’s drive from Slavonice. Olga, our host, runs a horse farm.
Like my wonderful cousin Kristy, she provides a home for horses that can no longer be ridden. Her oldest horse is 30, which is significantly more than the average life span of a horse.
In addition to breeding horses, Olga also works with horses that are thought to be “difficult”. She demonstrated how she communicates with them using only her eyes and fingers. When she asked for a volunteer to learn the technique, I thought I was going to have lots of competition. I thought wrong.
Could the amount of water and mud have been the reason for my companions reluctance?
Being the ONLY volunteer, I got to get up close and personal with this magnificent creature, who was once thought to be “difficult”.
Olga is demonstrating the proper shoulder technique to get the horse to follow you. Nailed it!
Yes, our day time activities were fantastic, but there was even more awaiting us.
That night, we had the PLANNED dinner at the hotel,
complete with local musicians who got us singing along to “Country Roads” and “Roll out the barrel”.
Of course, the wine flowed freely, but the show stopper was when our host used a sword as his bottle opener.
On to Bratislava. Yes, I know. Add Cesky Krumlov to the list of places I’ve skipped over.
Destination NOW 