Mikulov, Lednice & Nemcicky in Moravia

This will be a long post but a very satisfying one if you're able to make it to the bottom! It describes a trip our USAC director planned for us to Moravia, the wine country of Czech Republic.

Czech Republic is made up of two areas, Bohemia which makes up 2/3 of the country and includes Prague and the other western areas that produce beer and then Moravia which is comprised of mostly small medieval towns that produce wine. Moravians say there are three types of wine; white, red and wine that Prahans (people who live in Prague) drink. They think that Prahans have drank so much beer that they can't tell wines apart! Of course, this leads Moravians to offer Prahans the lower quality stuff. This is becoming less and less true though as Bohemians travel and become more acquainted with their Moravian neighbors.

We started from Prague and hit the small town of Mikulov, Lednice and then a wine tasting and sleepover in Nemcicky. I'll describe each of these magical places but let me start off by painting the picture of how we got started. It's not hard to imagine 19 hung over Americans waiting for a bus to appear at 7:30am. What will surprise you is the white miniature "bus" and its comical driver that would take us to Nemcicky. The bus was tiny and yet all 21 of us fit into its 7 rows of three seats. The tightness, however, was not my concern. It was only when we started moving toward Moravia, the coldest region in Czech Republic, that I had several upsets. 1) The windows had a bad habit of freezing over. The windows around us were covered in frost and the driver continually spread a smelly chemical on a small spot to his left and in front of him to make a clearing of the ice from which he could see. So our driver sat squishing his neck down to see out the tiny whole, grabbing constantly for his spray bottle to melt the white frost. 2) Our water bottles froze! The driver pulled his new water from the holder on the door only to find that the water that he thought would quench his throat had clumped into an iceberg that hit the rim of the bottle with a thud. 3) Suddenly, a sequenced thumping of the bus made me feel as though the back right tire had blown! Struck in silence as my mind and body tried to make sense of the feeling, I finally realized it was just an uneven road with a bump every 3 tire rotations, great road development out here :/ . 3) Probably the most upsetting is when I started to mentally prepare for what I thought would end up being a three hour wait in freezing weather on the side of the highway for help to arrive (I do have my AAA card if we needed it, they'd come and get me right?). We had stalled, and were going around 30 miles per hour on a highway because the engine had frozen! 4) After lunch our driver had a considerable amount of alcohol, I would have been more serious in doubting my safety if I didn't have complete faith in this man's tolerance level, he's Czech no doubt! 5) And finally, I don't wine too much when I'm the one not prepared. You can't wine and say your feet hurt when you're the one who decided not to buy good shoes but I was prepared for the cold and yet two pairs of heavy wool socks didn't stop my feet from turning into Popsicles, no heating in this puppy!

Our bus looked like this! Fit 21 people!

Despite all this-we made it safely to wine country and what easy ride makes a good story?

Mikulov is a very charming city with a lot to see. This is a great destination for a summer day trip. Not that it isn't beautiful in winter but many things are closed and you can walk around an not feel like your nose with fall off at any minute. We ate lunch here and took a small hike to St. Sebastian Capel on the Holy Hill passing Mikulov Castle and Dietrichstein Tomb. This city started back in 1249, when Ottokar II of Bohemia granted the land of Mikulov, including a castle, and the surrounding area to the Austrian noble Henry I of Liechtenstein (like from a Knight's Tale!). The town is primarily known in history as a Jewish settlement where Jewish refuges from Austria came to live. Our hike to the Holy Hill was very interesting as the path leading up to the chapel is The Way to the Cross on Holy Hill; comprising of 14 chapels with monuments that depict symbolic representations of the suffering of Jesus Christ on his journey under the cross. The trail is one of the first places of pilgrimage in South Moravia and the oldest Way of the Cross in the Czech Lands. You can read more about the different chapels here http://www.mikulov.cz/tourism/monuments-and-sights/church-monuments/the-way-of-the-cross-on-holy-hill/chapels/?contentId=117534. For the extensive occurrence of rare plant and animal species the territory has been announced nature reserve. The creation of the Way of the Cross was inspired by an endeavor to express gratitude to God for overcoming the plague epidemic that tormented Mikulov in 1622. The first structure was evidently the chapel consecrated to Saint Sebastian, protector against infection with the plague. The hill is dominated by St. Sebastian's Church, the Bell Tower and the Holy Sepulchre. See pictures below!

Town Square

Dietrichstein Tomb and Chateau

One of the chapels on The Way to the Cross on Holy Hill

St. Sebastian Church

Our next stop was Lednice which in English means Refrigerator-and that it was. I had on seven layers of long sleeve t-shirts, sweatshirts and coats, I had on pants and two pairs of long johns, 2 heavy socks, gloves, hat, faceguard ect. and I was freezing my ass off! But to see this city, even in this terrible cold, was worth it. In 1996 Lednice was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (together with the twin manor of Valtice) as "an exceptional example of the designed landscape that evolved in the Enlightenment and afterwards under the care of a single family." It contains a palace and the largest park in the country, which covers 200 km². The park is home to over a dozen hunting lodges, monuments and temples. We experienced some of these sites by walking on the Lednice Ponds which were completely frozen! It was really neat to walk on the ice to these different monuments. Our walk ended with the Minaret a structure of Moresque architecture that has never had an equivalent in Czech lands. Fun fact: Josef Hardmuth, who designed the Minaret also founded a pencil factory!

Minaret

We ended our day at Nemcicky where we checked in at a hostel/ski resort/theme park/pool area. There we had a wine tasting at a small winery called Vinařství Pavel & Radim Stávkovi. The owner reminded me of a Czech version of my dad! The wine was very good and like all wine tastings they like to tell you things about the wine and area that you will no doubt forget by the morning-and I can't hold a notebook and a wine glass at the same time, so guess which one I chose?! The wine was very good and great priced, I bought two to share with my family. I, however, learned that I cannot drink red wine. It reminds me of what Audrey Hepburn said about pearls in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She says that she wants to love them and hopes that one day she will but it is an older more sophisticated version of herself that will wear peals. I hope to one day love red wine but I am too young for it. Does that make sense? The winery has a website www.vinostavek.cz. We were offered unlimited wine and food until 2am, great scott! The hostel is close by so when we were drunk with wine and laughter we bundled up to brace the cold walk back home.

Me with the owners (back and right) and one of our USAC coordinators Geiger (left)

A wonderful weekend of wine!