Last stop in Czech Republic - Slavonice
SLAVONICE
Our last stop in the beautiful country was the small village of Slavonice. This lovely village had such incredible history and architecture. Underneath the city is a series of tunnels. In order to keep the center of the village alive and well, tour buses and other large trucks and vehicles are no longer allowed to enter. With the tunnel system below, it can be quite dangerous to have these heavy vehicles driving on their streets.
We stayed at a beautiful inn called Hotel U Ruze. The owners are a lovely couple and treat all of the 12 or so rooms and their guests with such warmth. If you're lucky, they'll even take you to their wine cellar below the hotel, one of the most creative uses of the sub-village tunnels! It's stunning and the wine selection is fantastic.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
One of OAT's (Overseas Adventure Travel) signatures is their "Day in the life". On each of their tours, groups are taken to visit local villages and families to truly get an understanding of where they are. This was a particularly special time as we had two home-hosted meals with the local families of Slavonice.
JANA
Our first dinner host, Jana, was a lovely, entrepreneurial woman who was building herself a business and hosted us to a lovely meal. She had a surprisingly large space, but was known in the village for hosting many occasions (and travelers) in her home. Out back, she had a stunning garden. Using much of what she grew in her own yard, she makes all natural soaps, creams and even liquors (many of which we tried). She told us about her family, children, grandchildren.
She answered question after question about going through the Soviet occupation and the Velvet Revolution - how they may or may not have been affected and her life today. We even asked about what she thought about what is going on politically in our country. Most people didn't quite want to answer that question. But she did turn it around on us a bit, asking us what we enjoyed the most so far on our journey. Of course, my answer was the music.
THE HORSE FARM
I wish I could remember the name of this farm (and if I find it, I'll update this post) because we had such a lovely day. After breakfast at the hotel, we spent the day learning about a local horse farm, their daily chores and I even got to "train" a horse. Well, the horse was trained, but I learned some signals to get the horse to move this way and that and show my appreciation. It was pretty awesome actually!
Later on, we helped them make lunch and take care of their daily chores. We again asked question after question about their life on the farm, their life the Czech Republic and how they built this wonderful business of theirs. It was such a treat.
LOCAL SCHOOL
When school is in session, OAT makes sure we get to see one. Even though school had just ended, the local school principal allowed us a short visit. Their school was big, well equipped, well funded and quite beautiful. But their struggle was that being slightly outside of the city, they had trouble getting and keeping students. If I remember correctly, they didn't even have 20 in the entire school and there was PLENTY of space. The principal asked us for some ideas, of which she did take note, in case we had ways of bringing in new students.