Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Šumava: The definition of peaceful

In the winter, when summer seemed so far away, we began to imagine a holiday. We don't really do conventional holidays. I tend to travel with friends or alone to new lands. My Other Half likes driving day trips around his homeland. But we decided this year to really take a week off and go "somewhere".

As we had started hiking last year, we had a vision of being in the Czech mountains and doing lots of walking trips. We invited along our dear friends who live in Germany and everything looked ready to go. We found a cute little apartment complex in a tiny village in the Šumava Mountains, tucked into the south-west corner of the Czech Republic on the German border.

The first set-back came with my legs. With the medical problems I had in the spring, hiking was out. Secondly, we had expect late spring/early summer weather. We got an autumn chill at the end of June. But not to be deterred, we had ourselves fun and adventure anyway!
Bog viewing, Chlapuská slatˇ

The name "Šumava" has an onomatopoeic quality in Czech. The soft 'shh' sounds reflects the wind blowing in the trees. This background noise created a peaceful soundtrack to our daily activities. Some of the highlights were a walk in the historic Prachatice square, exploring protected marsh lands and bogs, finding a free owl sanctuary in our village, skipping rocks across a cold mountain river, eating Czech dumplings nearly every day, walking amongst the trees on the German side of the border and watching "Večerníček pohádky" (Czech nightly cartoons and fairy tales for children) with dinner.

This will not be the last week we spend breathing in the good mountain air. We already have a plan for next year...


Skipping rocks, Rechle u Modravy


Rechle u Modravy

Šumava mountains

Tree Top Walk, Bavarian National Forest, Germany

Prachatice

Rechle u Modravy