Jane & Rog’s Eastwards Coddiwomple (4 Viewers)

[Jane And Rog]

Day 9

The idea of codiwompling is to slow ourselves down. We have a tendency to over-plan and race around.

Sleeping in a car park doesn’t help so by 8am we were off to visit St Barbra’s cathedral, a full hour before it opened. To be fair we didn’t really want to see inside: St Barbra’s only ranks as the “second best cathedral outside Prague” so that’s enough qualifiers to put us off.

The outside is nice though.

St Barbra patron saint of errant pigs and parsnip wine​

Then off to Litmošyl via a supplies stop at a huge supermarket. Litmošyl Is similarly qualified “possibly the second prettiest town within this region of Czechia”. It’s actually very nice - and reportedly not as over touristed as first place. Sadly no photographic evidence.

Then to Autokemp Primator. Reception was off sick so after we waited two hours for it to fail to open we had to get in via Google Translate conversation with a gardener, and a remote manager with magical control over the gate.

It’s getting really hot so we don’t do much other than sit around all afternoon. Flynn didn’t even feel up to chasing tennis balls at the next door court - barking at them was fine though.

Dinner was steak and garlic potatoes looking over the slightly surreal 1970s sci-fi cover glamping units.

Fahrenheit 451​

beefy goodness​

 

[Jane And Rog]

Day 9

The idea of codiwompling is to slow ourselves down. We have a tendency to over-plan and race around.

Sleeping in a car park doesn’t help so by 8am we were off to visit St Barbra’s cathedral, a full hour before it opened. To be fair we didn’t really want to see inside: St Barbra’s only ranks as the “second best cathedral outside Prague” so that’s enough qualifiers to put us off.

The outside is nice though.

View attachment 911567

St Barbra patron saint of errant pigs and parsnip wine​

Then off to Litmošyl via a supplies stop at a huge supermarket. Litmošyl Is similarly qualified “possibly the second prettiest town within this region of Czechia”. It’s actually very nice - and reportedly not as over touristed as first place. Sadly no photographic evidence.

Then to Autokemp Primator. Reception was off sick so after we waited two hours for it to fail to open we had to get in via Google Translate conversation with a gardener, and a remote manager with magical control over the gate.

It’s getting really hot so we don’t do much other than sit around all afternoon. Flynn didn’t even feel up to chasing tennis balls at the next door court - barking at them was fine though.

Dinner was steak and garlic potatoes looking over the slightly surreal 1970s sci-fi cover glamping units.

View attachment 911582

beefy goodness​

 

[Jane And Rog]

So good he posted twice!

Just going to add that Autokemp Primatúr (canoed.bakeries.taker) turned out to be very good value for such a swish place - £19. And an easy walk into town for the museum (to be described in today’s post) and castle, for those of you with intact fibulas.

 

[cliffanger]

You said you didn’t go into the Cathedral Jane. Do you think we should take her aside Mousy Dawn, and explain the wonders of relic hunting?

I could never walk past a cathedral without looking for something!

That bbq looked good though, what’s the make please?

Enjoying your trip.

 

[Jane And Rog]

The curse of the hot weather! We couldn’t leave Flynn for long enough. We shall try our best for relics though, promise!

The bbq is a Nomadr grill / smoker thing. At the time you could get them in the UK, but I’m not sure you can any more. You can get them in orange now though, grrr.

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[Wanders from Glos]

They’ve always put a chock under my wheels
Have a great trip

They normally have with us, but didn't this time.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Came a bit late to your trip, but as entertaining as ever. Have a good time.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

A Weber A fracture in my left ankle. Blame it on a German pothole and over loose walking boots. The German A&E were excellent but have told me I have to wear the ankle support for 4 weeks, use crutches, and inject my stomach with an anti-coagulate every day for 4 weeks too.

Looking at the NHS advice, this seems overkill - they mention weight bearing as soon as there is no pain, and don’t mention the anti-coagulant injections.

Any medical professionals on here? I need to decide whether to carry on or go home, and if i thought I could bear weight sooner, I’d be more likely to carry on.

Oh dear what bad luck but glad to see you have pressed on. Your trips are always very eventful. DVTs are always a risk with legs in boots or plaster, but of course the NHS doesn't neutralise the risk, I assume because it is such a small one. A daughter still went skiing with her leg in a boot, and in one picture was seen crowd surfing, crutches and all, though I don't advise it!

 

[Jane And Rog]

Wednesday dawned every bit as hot as Tuesday. Honestly, we’re never happy - it’s been miserable weather for ever back in Blighty and now we’re complaining about it being 28 degrees and sunny. Though to be fair, it’s more about Flynn than us - we can’t leave him in the van unless we are plugged in to a reliable power source for the air-con, so our coddiwompling is much constrained.

However, we got lucky today at the Portmoneum in Litomyšl (///adventurous.sociable.voicemail) - a memorial of the art of Josef Váchal (1884–1969).

From the outside, the museum looks like an ordinary bungalow. Rog nervously rang the doorbell, and the friendly curator ushered Flynn and me into the pretty garden while Rog had the first viewing.

I got ChatGPT to translate a plaque by the garden’s linden tree, and this is what it said:

TARZAN'S LINDEN, 1993

The linden tree was planted during the ceremonial opening of Portmoneum in 1993 by Ladislav Horáček, the mayor of the town, Miroslav Brydl, and the Prime Minister, Václav Klaus. Unfortunately, the tree did not survive long. Shortly after the ceremonial event, the unscrupulous dog Tarzan, belonging to Portmoneum's caretaker Lenka Krůšová, chewed through it. The new tree was not planted by Mr. Horáček, Mr. Brydl, or even Mr. Klaus, but by Tarzan, as an act of repentance by his owner.

Tarzan’s tree

After a while, Rog took over dog sitting duties, and it was my turn.

First, up a flight of stairs to the attic, where a fantastic short graphic novel type film (in English) was played.

My overwhelming impression was that Josef Váchal was seriously boo loo. You can tell I’m an expert by my technical vocabulary I used. Josef indulged in mysticism and the occult, was inspired by Eastern philosophies, Christianity, but also Satanism, and penny-dreadfuls.

The house itself was decorated for Josef Portman, who commissioned murals and painted furniture to this effect:

Bland it is not. Neither was the small exhibition of erotic art. I’d like to know when Rog managed to smuggle this artist into our bedroom…

We stopped for lunch near some woods, and Rog walked Flynn while I washed up and did some vanwork.

Rog and I know two words of Czech. One is “pivo” - beer - and the other is “pozor” which I think means something like “beware.” You see it on the roads a lot, and now we shout it to each other at any opportune moment. Mine tend to be at roundabouts, Rog’s to me tend to be on uneven surfaces.

Road sign

Talking of beer, people in Czechia consume more beer per capita than any other country in the world. A whopping 161 litres each per annum.

Our next stop was the National Open Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm . This caused a lot of consternation - first parking difficulties with lots of Czech signs telling us we could only stop somewhere if we were a temporary independent trader on every third Wednesday of the month, except July. Pozor!

Next dog difficulties. A muzzle must be worn - seems this is a thing in Czechia. The only one we have is far too plastic and tight to wear in 28 degrees, so the museum would lend us one. But we had to leave a deposit and it had to be in crowns, which we don’t have, after using our final two “shower tokens” yesterday. Finally, they kindly offered to lend it to us free. Flynn was not so impressed with their kindness.

In the heat, and with a dodgy fibula, all we saw was the old town part of the park. It did have a church though, with a rather flamboyant interior and this gothic gravestone outside.

Our campsite for the night is Camp Sport (///managed.hobbit.leave) which is described as being a little faded glory but has showers without tokens! Hoorah! And they had massive water pressure, what more could a camper want? We’re carrying on with the campsites while it’s so hot, for the doggy air-con.

After showering, and chilling, we headed off into town. I’d estimated it was about another 400m from the Open Air Museum, but sadly I was wildly out, and by the time we got home I had 12,400 steps on my watch. I’m a brave girl, but this is a bit much, and I need to cut down a little. Perhaps Rog could do piggy-back?

We were aiming for Rožnovský pivovar, a brewery, restaurant and chocolate shop (sadly closed).

Dinner was good. To rehash an old joke, Rog hasn’t has a Czech sausage inside him yet, and this was a good one. I managed a pig knuckle at last, as a 300g one was on the menu.

But the star of the show was the starter - ChatGPT claimed it was picked cheese, but Rog’s googling found that it was Nakládaný sýr, made from Hermelín (a soft cheese similar to Camembert), that is marinated in oil with various spices, garlic, onions, and sometimes chilli peppers. It was definitely an unusual taste and something I’d want to have again.

Coddliwompling rating: Pozor!

Ankle rating: I now have a strange yellowish left sock. Should I worry?

 

[Wanders from Glos]

As a postscript we are in the Dordogne and today walked up to a castle at the top of a cliff in Beynac, probably a few hundred feet up. On the way down a man was carrying his wife piggy back style (I assume it was his wife and not a random stranger) because she had her foot it a boot. Just saying .....

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[Jane And Rog]

As a postscript we are in the Dordogne and today walked up to a castle at the top of a cliff in Beynac, probably a few hundred feet up. On the way down a man was carrying his wife piggy back style (I assume it was his wife and not a random stranger) because she had her foot it a boot. Just saying .....

I think you’re saying Rog needs to man up…

 

[Wanders from Glos]

I think you’re saying Rog needs to man up…

I wouldn’t dream of saying such a thing

 

[Peavy]

now we shout it to each other at any opportune moment

We do the same when we're abroad. We find something funny in the language, we use it constantly
By the way, it took me a few posts to understand what the /// thing was about

 

[Jane And Rog]

We do the same when we're abroad. We find something funny in the language, we use it constantly
By the way, it took me a few posts to understand what the /// thing was about

Yeah, sorry - I never used to write it that way but Rog is a stickler for doing the right thing. Well, for computers and cars anyway, for some reason he has a blind spot about washing machines.

 

[PP Bear]

The curse of the hot weather! We couldn’t leave Flynn for long enough. We shall try our best for relics though, promise!

The bbq is a Nomadr grill / smoker thing. At the time you could get them in the UK, but I’m not sure you can any more. You can get them in orange now though, grrr.

And doors, you know how some Funsters love an old door

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[paddymcc]

. Perhaps Rog could do piggy-back?

How about a doggy trailer. Flynn could pull it

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Yeah, sorry - I never used to write it that way but Rog is a stickler for doing the right thing. Well, for computers and cars anyway, for some reason he has a blind spot about washing machines.

No idea what it means

 

[Jane And Rog]

No idea what it means

What three words. https://what3words.com

 

[Jane And Rog]

Yesterday’s maps.

The town we stayed in.

The day’s journey.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

What three words. https://what3words.com

Every day is a school day... I ought to know that given I work for the emergency services

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[nicholsong]

Yesterday’s maps.

View attachment 912428
The town we stayed in.

View attachment 912429
The day’s journey.

You are geting quite close to us in Katowice, Poland. We have a yard with all MH services if you want to drop in.

If so send me a PM and I will respond with contacts.

Geoff

 

[Jane And Rog]

Coddiwompling day 11: It’s like another country over there

Flynn took me for a walk up the hill behind Camp Sport. The main part of the folk museum reaches the top of the hill where we found this (sadly closed when we arrived) viewing tower. It reminded me a little of a Japanese Pagoda.

木塔を持つ犬​

Coincidentally, on my return I spotted that the campsite has a kiosk selling this enticing oriental beverage.

Red is beef, yellow chicken and green lamb​

We skipped the beefy bubble tea and drove west then south for a day of decorated architecture that would leave the Czech pagoda in the dust. First up, an outpost of the Folk Museum. Libušín a Maměnka (///sunshine.calibration.shuts) was built in 1899 by the Czech architect Dušan Jurkovič - another of your art decosits. The small cluster of art decorated buildings were built as a hotel but fell into disrepair under communism. After the velvet revolution they were restored and operate again as a cafe and hotel.

Outside a hotel​

Inside a cafe​

Jane mentioned yesterday that the Czechs drink more beer per capita than anyone else. That accolade requires hard work and dedication. The Guinness book of Records do not just examine the Heathrow Weatherspoons on the day school holidays start, they look everywhere at all times. At 9am whilst we were eating a local cake for breakfast (delicious thanks), the next table arrived with walking sticks and frames and tucked into this breakfast.

As the old joke goes, “could you fit a whisky in that?”​

One painted building down, one to go. Or rather, a whole village of them… but first into Slovakia. If you blinked passing the border, you’d not know the difference. Maybe the accents on Slovakian are different. The big difference for us is that we’re able to use our good English Euro Dollars again. We managed through Czechia with only 200 crowns: an ice cream, two sandwiches and a shower.

Čičmany (///obsessively.pulsates.appealing ) in Slovakia is, following a fire, a modern rebuild of a tradition that only started 200 years ago but you wouldn’t know - and maybe you wouldn’t care - we didn’t. It’s a tiny village where nearly all the houses are decorated with repeating graphics rendered against the dark wood in lime white. The effect is enhanced by the village’s location high in an alpine meadow. We paid a euro to park up for an hour and wandered around. It brought Mr Doodle to mind.

Another architecture/paint combo​

It’s such a small place, I even had time to buy a nice woolly hat to keep me toasty in the ~30C weather we’re having.

Man with devilish grin and splendid hat​

We’re camping at Camp Pacho (///bobble.underscore.reissues) tonight. We planned to stay two days but price (€42 once all the extras are added on), location (surrounded by a loop in the main road out of Preividsa) and general vibe (dunno but definitely not J&R) put us off. Still, for that €42 we do get a free go on the washing machine so today is wash day.

We had to move pitch because the game of football (there’s the general vibe problem, ed. It’s full of drunk teenagers) being played next to our first pitch was a strong distraction for Flynn.

For dinner we walked an ankle friendly 50m over to the campsite holiday resort’s restaurant. The menu was pretty good with a large selection of Slovakian specialities. On translation they were all variations on “goat cheese dumplings with sausage/bacon/lard/goats cheese/other cheese/smoked other cheese/different type of lard”. On the house specialities page they had “goat cheese dumplings with all of that” so we had that.

Pork with your pork?​

The restaurant closed at 8pm so we tried to have a pud back at the van. We picked this up in the supermarket earlier today.

ChatGPT translates as: “The image shows a packaged dessert from Ervin. It is a confectionery item made with curd cream and blueberry glaze, handcrafted with love.”

I must admit I couldn’t taste the love. Perhaps it was mixed into the curd cream. Anyway, we ditched it after a few spoonfuls.

Codiwomple rating: S’Loveactually

 

[Jane And Rog]

You are geting quite close to us in Katowice, Poland. We have a yard with all MH services if you want to drop in.

If so send me a PM and I will respond with contacts.

Geoff

Thanks for that lovely offer - will definitely do so if our coddliwompling stars align.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today’s map.

 

[Jane And Rog]

The longest day! And with ankle-induced inactivity, did it seem it…

We persevered with our idea of taking a couple of rest days, and drove the sort hop to Konibar Camp (///transports.grab.sweetens).

This turned out to be much more our sort of place, small, informal and surrounded by forested hills. The owner, a cheerful Brit called James, endeared himself to us by saying, “Let the dog off! It’s his holiday too.”

“Better not,” I said. “Have you any chickens? Do you like them much?”

We had a quick salady lunch, and then walked up to the little lake (which looks like a reservoir to me), where Flynn swam. It was just 5 minutes of normal two-legged walking up the hill, so it took me five hours, and I had to have oxygen.

Then I hobbled back to camp alone (6 hours, mountain rescue needed to be called), while Rog took the dog on a proper walk.

The down days are going to be a bit of a drag, when I can’t hike, run or swim.

Rog returned 2 hours later, after a good long walk with some getting lost, some hill climbing, and at the end back at the lake to cool Flynn. It was 30 degrees today!

I then read through and marked up Jim’s document on motor-homing. It took me over an hour, and then I found that my edited PDF was too large to upload, so all that time was wasted. I’ve asked Jim how I can get it to him, but no reply. Grrrrr.

After a shower each, we had a game of Seven Tribes. It only just fits on our outdoor table! A good game with a lot of depth which we’re only just starting to appreciate - we’ve only played twice before.

As we played, Slovak families started arriving one by one for the weekend. The family next to us were putting their tent up for the first time, and it was clear they hadn’t a clue. The bloke, who to start with was pretty much being left to cope alone, asked if he could join our mifi network so he could download tent-based instructions.

Either he couldn’t find any, or they were useless, because no more progress was made. We both offered to help. “Where are the pegs?” I asked.

“We use wood.”

I tried using a stick but the ground was solid and the mallet a child’s toy. We lent them some of our awning pegs.

Rog gets his cub badge for “lending a hand”

Dinner was barbecued pig pieces, but the star of the show was the big bucket of freshly pickled veg - delicious.

Flip-flops model’s own

Coddliwompling rating: Yawn
Foot rating: Fetching yellow sock remains.

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[Jane And Rog]

Yesterday’s map, zoomed out for more context.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Coddiwompling day 13 part one: a rookie error

The day started with a bang. Or rather a clap, a thunderclap and then a patter of rain. Now, we know to put the awning away and the chairs under the van but for some reason we hadn’t (laziness: ed). I leapt up, gathered everything under the awning, checked the straps and scurried back in. I thought the rain would pass quickly - it wasn’t even that heavy and better not to put the awning away wet.

Then the rain came on really heavily and suddenly bang! One of the awning arms buckled under the weight of water pooled on the canopy. The monkey metal hinge between the two arms had sheared in two and the arm was only held together by the cable that winds the arms in - under considerable tension. I dumped the rest of the water off the canopy as Jane got dressed and strapped her leg brace on. The nice Slovakian chap we’d helped last night turned up to offer a hand. Between the three of us, we managed to wind the awning almost fully away (never put your awning away wet!). At the very least, it looks OK to drive.

Vlad gets his cub badge for “lending a hand”​

So, today’s task is to find a Thule repair centre or Adria dealer. There’s maybe one an hours drive east or, we could resurrect the idea of moving North and try Krakov.

Snap!​

Codiwomple rating: 10/10 did not plan this.

 

[Rob Turner]

Coddiwompling day 13 part one: a rookie error

The day started with a bang. Or rather a clap, a thunderclap and then a patter of rain. Now, we know to put the awning away and the chairs under the van but for some reason we hadn’t (laziness: ed). I leapt up, gathered everything under the awning, checked the straps and scurried back in. I thought the rain would pass quickly - it wasn’t even that heavy and better not to put the awning away wet.

Then the rain came on really heavily and suddenly bang! One of the awning arms buckled under the weight of water pooled on the canopy. The monkey metal hinge between the two arms had sheared in two and the arm was only held together by the cable that winds the arms in - under considerable tension. I dumped the rest of the water off the canopy as Jane got dressed and strapped her leg brace on. The nice Slovakian chap we’d helped last night turned up to offer a hand. Between the three of us, we managed to wind the awning almost fully away (never put your awning away wet!). At the very least, it looks OK to drive.

View attachment 913092

Vlad gets his cub badge for “lending a hand”​

So, today’s task is to find a Thule repair centre or Adria dealer. There’s maybe one an hours drive east or, we could resurrect the idea of moving North and try Krakov.

View attachment 913093

Snap!​

Codiwomple rating: 10/10 did not plan this.

You’d expect the metal to be better quality to be fair.
Don’t want to rub salt in the wound but maybe drop one of the legs slightly so the rain runs off. The same happened to us years ago in Switzerland.

 

[Jane And Rog]

You’d expect the metal to be better quality to be fair.

Yes but I suspect if this hadn’t broken, the arms would have buckled - they do need to be fairly thin aluminium.

Don’t want to rub salt in the wound but maybe drop one of the legs slightly so the rain runs off. The same happened to us years ago in Switzerland.

I thought of that too - about six hours too late. Also, do not worry about the salt.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Coddiwompling day 13 part one: a rookie error

The day started with a bang. Or rather a clap, a thunderclap and then a patter of rain. Now, we know to put the awning away and the chairs under the van but for some reason we hadn’t (laziness: ed). I leapt up, gathered everything under the awning, checked the straps and scurried back in. I thought the rain would pass quickly - it wasn’t even that heavy and better not to put the awning away wet.

Then the rain came on really heavily and suddenly bang! One of the awning arms buckled under the weight of water pooled on the canopy. The monkey metal hinge between the two arms had sheared in two and the arm was only held together by the cable that winds the arms in - under considerable tension. I dumped the rest of the water off the canopy as Jane got dressed and strapped her leg brace on. The nice Slovakian chap we’d helped last night turned up to offer a hand. Between the three of us, we managed to wind the awning almost fully away (never put your awning away wet!). At the very least, it looks OK to drive.

View attachment 913092

Vlad gets his cub badge for “lending a hand”​

So, today’s task is to find a Thule repair centre or Adria dealer. There’s maybe one an hours drive east or, we could resurrect the idea of moving North and try Krakov.

View attachment 913093

Snap!​

Codiwomple rating: 10/10 did not plan this.

You are having some bad luck. But every cloud has a silver lining (tactless analogy?), it makes your blog much more interesting and entertaining. There’s a book or tv series in your travels.

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