A relaxing evening and woke to a lakeside view. An early morning walk around the lake before driving to Ceske Budejovice (Budweiser), the main city of Southern Bohemia, perhaps the fact that it was where Budweiser beer gained its name was a little enticing.
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| Lakeside for afternoon and night. |
It has an interesting history which become evident through many of the buildings. The Europeans played a very rough game of power politics over the centuries - makes modern politics tame in comparison. This town developed out of a need to counter balance the power of the Rosenberg family at Ceske Krumlov in 1265. Special permission was granted to Jewish families to settle here in 1341. The city remained a German speaking enclave until 1880. It is all so fascinating. It was also a stronghold of Catholics during the Thirty Years War.
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| Ceske Budejovice (Budweiser) town square largest in Europe |
No we didn't try any beer - I'm driving!
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| Photograph display - Ceske Budejovice (Budweiser) |
After lunch we followed the route a little further to the town of Tabor - another gem with an interesting history but no ATM machines!
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| Tabor - Hussite leader |
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| Tabor |
Tabor started when a group of followers of the Catholic reformer Jan Hus came here. Jan Hus had already been burnt at the stake by the Popes men because he was preaching against the excesses of the clergy - and they didn't like it! But as it turned out the Hussites became quite powerful and had an army and made foreign policy - one was that the wouldn't recognise the Bohemian king! And on it goes .. but all very interesting - do we today have the same level of belief as these guys did? Would we put it all on the line for Abbott or Rudd?
Anyway the town was interesting.
Finished the day near the castle of Archduke Franz Ferdinand - the guy assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 - which intern led to the start of WWI. The irony of this historical curiosity was that Franz, the heir to the Habsburg's throne, lived here because he married a Czech noblewoman and was subsequently ostracised by the Court in Vienna!
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| Rich farmland north of Tabor |
Sun is still shining and we are going along fine - another red will help!
And this ...
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| If you've got to go, you're got to go! or Dog with sense of the absurd! |
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