Telč
The Czech Republic has a startling number of UNESCO sites. One of these is the town of Telč, which Jesse and I decided to visit on Sunday (I had hoped to visit some Czech friends over the weekend, but there was a scheduling problem, exacerbated by automotive issues). Sunday, as we should know by this time, is not really a great time to visit pretty much anyplace except museums and parks, since outside of Prague pretty much everything else shuts down around noon on Saturday. Fortunately, on the whole this is not a major issue in Telč since the main things to do are to look at the houses on the square and to go on the castle tour.
Telč is indeed an architecturally pleasing spot...
with Baroque facades added to older buildings...
meaning that the top front of the building does not bear much relation to the structure behind it.
A few of the houses have elaborate sgraffito decorations.
Overall, the square is very agreeable. I also recommend the castle tour and the park behind the castle. The castle grounds also house a gallery devoted to the work of Jan Zrzavý, a painter whose work I am rather at a loss to describe. He seems to have had only a tangential relationship to Telč, but the gallery has nice examples of various of his works, including an early self portrait, quite a few Breton landscapes, and Melancholie II, a work I was rather taken with. I am also partial to his Antichrist, which is on display in Prague. (Perhaps I will do a separate post on him one of these days.)
Genuine Renaissance bankomat! The average visitor to Telč probably won't need to visit one of these, but at least they are easy to find.
Every Czech town has its Vietnamese stores, where the general populace clothes itself. As one devotee of the Vietnamese stores informed me, the quality is low, but so is the price.
According to the schedule, a bus was supposed to leave from Telč at 4:50, but this proved not to be the case. Some detective work on Jesse's part revealed that the torn-off lower portion of the schedule had mentioned that this bus doesn't run in July and August. After all, the town doesn't want tourists leaving early on Sundays when they could stay another 40 minutes and have a few more beers. Entertainment during the extra 40 minutes, since we were already at the bus stop, primarily involved watching the bus driver change a headlight. I have never in my life seen anyone take so long to change a headlight (although it was not 40 minutes' worth of headlight-changing). Yet again, the weather was in the 90s. Perhaps the bus driver's energy was as low as ours.
Telč is indeed an architecturally pleasing spot...
with Baroque facades added to older buildings...
meaning that the top front of the building does not bear much relation to the structure behind it.
A few of the houses have elaborate sgraffito decorations.
Overall, the square is very agreeable. I also recommend the castle tour and the park behind the castle. The castle grounds also house a gallery devoted to the work of Jan Zrzavý, a painter whose work I am rather at a loss to describe. He seems to have had only a tangential relationship to Telč, but the gallery has nice examples of various of his works, including an early self portrait, quite a few Breton landscapes, and Melancholie II, a work I was rather taken with. I am also partial to his Antichrist, which is on display in Prague. (Perhaps I will do a separate post on him one of these days.)
Genuine Renaissance bankomat! The average visitor to Telč probably won't need to visit one of these, but at least they are easy to find.
Every Czech town has its Vietnamese stores, where the general populace clothes itself. As one devotee of the Vietnamese stores informed me, the quality is low, but so is the price.
According to the schedule, a bus was supposed to leave from Telč at 4:50, but this proved not to be the case. Some detective work on Jesse's part revealed that the torn-off lower portion of the schedule had mentioned that this bus doesn't run in July and August. After all, the town doesn't want tourists leaving early on Sundays when they could stay another 40 minutes and have a few more beers. Entertainment during the extra 40 minutes, since we were already at the bus stop, primarily involved watching the bus driver change a headlight. I have never in my life seen anyone take so long to change a headlight (although it was not 40 minutes' worth of headlight-changing). Yet again, the weather was in the 90s. Perhaps the bus driver's energy was as low as ours.
posted by Karla at 12:31 AM
2 Comments:
Yes, they definitely need to rethink the concept of keeping visitors at the bus station for 40 minutes extra, especially since the guy at the refreshments counter seemed to close whenever he pleased (including when we arrived at the station to wait for the bus). Of course, I did find out about the "Kolicola" from Kolín town (haha, how witty!) eventually.
I have to say that you look pretty happy at the station...
Well, you know I am easily entertained.
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