Sep 30, 2009

Our town - Open doors and wine

The last two weekends have been busy in the town of Litoměřice where we are living. Throughout the month of September many town and cities in Czech held a day of open doors. On this day local historic sites, galleries and muzeums were open and free for the public. We were delighted to enjoy more of our town on September 19th.

Litoměřice is rich in history and full of many historic buildings, the oldest of which dates back to the 15th century. You can read a brief history of the town here.

We began our afternoon by climbing the old wooden stairs to the top of the Chalice, one of the view towers overlooking the main square. Miro took a number of great photos of the towns rooftops and hills while I made sure Isaiah didn't jump out of any of the open windows.
View of St. Stephen's church from the Chalice. The hill behind is Radobyl. Miro runs up here each week.
After climbing the chalice we headed to the local theater named for the famous Czech poet Karel Macha. He lived in Litomerice for a short time and died at the age of 26 after writing the poem "Maj" or May. The theatre itself has been beautifully restored since the end of Communism and hosts Czech theatrical performances for children and adults. Here I am teaching Isaiah the fine art of projecting into the microphone.
We moved on to the local area archives. Isaiah found the pencil sharpener and under the desks to be the most interesting part of this stop.
Next we headed to St. Wencelas church. This is the town's orthodox church. Although it is on the smaller size it is adorned with beautiful paintings of the saints inside.
Outside St. Wencelas church.
Next we headed up the hill to visit the inside of St. Stephens church. This is one of the few living churches in Litomerice. There is a large congregation who meets here weekly. When we first arrived in town they had a large banner outside the church announcing their 1000 year anniversary. It makes Canadian church seem very young in comparison.
While inside we were treated to some organ music on this beautiful instrument.
The last stop on our tour was a very small church building. After all that walking we needed a rest and headed for our new favourite cafe for lattes under the old city walls. A fantastic day!

The following weekend we were treated to the lighter side of Litoměřice at Vinobrani, the yearly local wine festival. It is two days of outdoor music stages, craft and food vendors and lots of burčák (sweet and delicious early wine that is only lightly fermented). Below Isaiah and I are smiling at the outdoor fire with Bethel house staff that kicked off our weekend.
Swing orchestra performing at the musical stage on our street.
Isaiah riding the kid train and ringing the bell. Notice the very large kid sitting next to him.
Waving to mom.
The whole family after a great day on the square. Notice the two women in period costumes behind us. The history of Charles the fourth (one of Czech republics most favoured kings) was acted out throughout the day.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Christy, just fantastic. Miro :-)

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  2. Miro,
    It does not count when you leave messages on your own blog!! Leah

    ReplyDelete