Thursday 27th September 2007

Wavelets on the lake, the occasional swaying of the van in the wind and light showers during the night, indicated a change in the weather. A very light drizzle started over breakfast and we decided that the long walk along the valley of the windmills from Slavonice to Dacice was not a good idea. The rain was only light and it might improve, so we implemented Plan B and set of for Zvikov Castle and Pisek. Zvikov was 1.5 hours away but we encountered a major road closure that put 20 minutes onto the journey and involved crossing the Vlatava river twice. This meant that we arrived after 12:00 and the Czech sites always close between 12:00 and 13:00 for lunch, so it was lunch for us – Greek Tyropitta courtesy of Lidl earlier in the holiday and stored in the freezer. Given the delay and the fact that it was Piseking it down with rain, we decided to concentrate on Zvikov and miss out Pisek.
Zvikov is in a romantic setting above the confluence of two major Czech rivers, the Vlatava and Otava. At least it used to be until they built a dam, raised the water level by 40m and combined the rivers into a lake. As with all of the Czech castles that we have visited, it had a Czechered (sic) past although this one seemed to have changed hands more than most. At one point it fell into disrepair and a large part of it fell into the river. Most of has been restored but original 14th and 15th century wall paintings can still be seen and a good attempt had been made to furnish some rooms in mediaeval style. The weather had improved slightly before we left and we were able to see the views from the castle.
On the way back to Trebon we saw over 100 Great White Egrets feeding in field either side of the road. Given that w had never seen one Great White Egret, seeing so many at one time was very impressive! We ended the journey in sunshine, a good omen for the next day and ate a dinner of the innovated goulash – quite good, although nothing like the real thing!
From having the campsite virtually to ourselves, tonight the site is heaving. This is due to the fact that it is the Czech National Day tomorrow and a bank holiday. This weekend is also seen as the end of the season, so many Czechs are having their last trip of the year to the campsites.