Alena, our guide, told us about the "zone" established between the two countries by the Soviets. For years, there were shoot to kill orders for anyone seen in the zone. It wasn't as elaborate as the one built in Germany, but it was lethal.
It was a very windy day. The good thing about hybrid bikes is that they are unaffected by the wind because they are heavy. The bad thing about hybrid bikes is that they are a bear on the hills. I was pretty dang slow climbing into the wind.
I forget where we had lunch, but it was a restaurant that is known for its dumplings. Dumplings are a major food group in the CZ.
These are dumplings. I was expecting something completely different, like the dumplings one sees in chicken soup. That's not how they do them here.
This is pork and cabbage in a sauce, the sauce had caraway in it. One takes the dumpling and puts it on the plate and lets it soak up the sauce. On their own, they don't taste like much of anything. Note the coffee in the background. It's called either hobo coffee or cowboy coffee. Grounds are put in the cup, and then boiling water is poured over them. Before drinking it, you must wait for the grounds to settle to the bottom of the cup. This is a common method of making coffee here.
After lunch we rode over to look at an un-restored castle. This used to belong to the Liechtenstein family. That would be the same family that now has their own country. Beginning in 1140, the Liechtensteins bought up huge swaths of what is now the CZ. However they always considered themselves Austrians, and never assimilated into the culture of Moravia, which is part of the CZ. After WWII, under the Soviets, there was no more private property, the state owned everything - including a lot of castles. Funds were lacking for maintenance, and many of them fell into disrepair. This castle is completely empty, as the Liechtensteins took everything that wasn't nailed down when they left.
This is a restored castle, which also belonged to the Liechtensteins, Zameky park Lednice. It, too, was left empty upon their departure. It's stone, but it's painted.
One of the family wanted to build a mosque on the property, but the ground was too boggy to support its weight. So the minaret was built instead. The story is that the workers did not like being that high on scaffolding, so the prince would ride his horse up it to show them it was perfectly safe. This dates from the 1400s or so. It's the tallest minaret outside of the middle east. The family enjoyed putting large monuments out in the middle of nowhere. They enjoyed traveling, and when they returned, they would build or bring back really large souvenirs to remind them of what they had seen.
So, the most interesting thing about the Liechtensteins is that they wanted all of their property back. It's not enough to have a net worth of $4.5B and your own country, they wanted a large chuck of the CZ as well. The following is a cut and paste from this site.
- The Liechtenstein family have always argued they were neither German nor Nazi collaborators, and have tried to win back their property in the courts; the Czechs have always refused to reopen their past. The implications of restitution are mind-boggling: what’s at stake are not only some of Moravia’s finest castles but also one and a half thousand square kilometres of land; that’s ten times the size of the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Czechs are unlikely to give it back, but the two sides have agreed that the dispute should no longer serve as a barrier to a proper diplomatic relations.
That night we overnighted at a 13th century mansion formerly occupied by the Knights Templar. They met their demise after loaning the king of France a large sum of money. When they requested repayment, he jailed them for 5 years and then killed them. They have an enormous winery there. The barrels are just huge and really old. I have no pictures because I forgot my camera.
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