Bicycles, Nudists and Fountains

We did not catch the 6.55am train as dutifully planned for the night before. At approximately 5am, my alarm went off and I heard a groan above my head from Lucy. We came to the mutual decision that life was too short for such stupid times and promptly went back to bed. As a result we just missed the 9.47 train so had to get the 11.47. This gave us a lot of time to kill in a very silent Krakow. Thankfully, the Easter Monday tradition of boys throwing water at girls did not seem to be happening (I'd have thumped them if they had come anywhere near me with my giant rucksack on!) and we arrived at the station dry and in one piece. With so much time to kill,we persuaded ourselves that the only thing to do was to have a leisurely coffee in the station cafe.

Our train journey involved two changes,one in Katowice and one in Ostrava. It is a sign of how far we have come in terms of travelling that this prospect didn't particularly bother us. Both were fine, although we did make the error of having a station cheeseburger for lunch. That neither of us got food poisoning is a minor miracle! We arrived in Olomouc around 5 ish and jumped on the tram to the Poet's Corner Hostel. Although it is up 4 flights of stairs, it is an absolutely fantastic place to stay; small, brightly coloured, lovely rooms and bathroom and the nicest staff we've met on the whole trip, who really knew and loved the city. Greg, the guy who manages the hostel also gave me lots of book suggestions regarding my family history, which was really helpful and has helped me put their experiences into more of a historical context.

After a cup of tea with a guy called Sam from Montreal, we headed out to the supermarket for veggies and to have a quick wander around the town. It's very beautiful - quite like Krakow but without the crowds and tonnes of fountains in all the little squares, including one which the guidebook says is a woman and is certainly not female. We headed back for food and showers and had intended to go out for a drink at the micro brewery. However, we ended up talking to some girls from Wroclaw (a point later on in the trip), Beth and Maria who offered to show us round when we got there. Several hours later, we called it a day and headed to bed.

We woke up reasonably early the following day and after an interesting breakfast of toast with garlic cream cheese, we spent the morning exploring more of Olomouc. One of the most impressive sights is the Holy Trinity Column in the central square (we think erected after a plague, but we aren't entirely sure), a huge mass of dark stone and gold. Inside there was a very cool nun who pointed all the reliefs to us, including a presentation of the Crucifixion where instead of Jerusalem, the background is Olomouc, we also popped into the church for a little bit of a wander which was beautiful.

Leaving the main square (and its slightly underwhelming astronomical clock) behind, we headed up to the University area. Again we popped into a pretty baroque church, although I found it unsettling due to the seemingly anti-Semitic paintings of the Stations of the Cross which were displayed in the cloisters,particularly given that they were only painted in 1937. Perhaps we were both over-sensitive to it given our recent visit to Auschwitz.

The University itself was beautiful; we pottered around the quad where everyone was getting ready for the film festival which was starting that night and had an awesome astronomical sculpture to Copernicus and then dropped down to the gardens which surround the city. It was very reminiscent of Durham which perhaps explains why we loved it so much. Greg had advised that we try some of the chocolate cake, particular to Olomouc, so we headed for coffee and cake, before going back to the hostel to grab bikes and go for a ride.

The lovely thing about Olomouc is that it is surrounded by very beautiful countryside and there is a very easy 5km cycle to a lake which can be done from the hostel. Having spent most of our time in cities, getting out into the countryside really appealled. However, neither of us had been on a bike in years,and this proved interesting... Lucy's bike was very low, whereas my seat was very high and, being us, we couldn't work out how to adjust the seats. This had added hilarity given that because of a slightly dodgy hip, I could only get on the bike from one side. We must have looked a little bit peculiar, heightened by the fact that neither of us could quite summon up the courage to cycle anywhere near other people and so wheeled the bikes for an exceptionally long time...

However, it's true what they say, you don't forget how to ride a bike and once we finally got on, it was brilliant - sunny, with the wind in our hair and beautiful surroundings. We ended up spending ages just cycling round the lake and accidentally ended up cycling through the nudist beach. It was quite a surprise and I'm quite proud that neither of us fell off the bikes. A bird also pooed on my head, but Lucy tried to assure me that it was tree sap which magically appeared miles away from any trees. It was a lovely gesture, but I wasn't convinced!

The evening was spent with tea and books and good company, in the form of Francie, who worked at the hostel and a mother and daughter team from Australia who were travelling round Europe. After a really lovely evening we headed to bed, ready for Prague the following day.