Prague Journal

Friday, October 15, 2004

We rented a small car -- a manual-transmission Skoda with about 50,000 miles on it -- and headed to southern Bohemia toward Červena to spend the weekend with Ales and Jitka. Ales Pultr is Rick’s long-time collaborator and host at Charles University. He has visited us for a week in February on five occasions since our last sabbatical. Rick had visited Ales and Jitka’s country house last October when he spent two weeks in Prague (trying to establish the right theorem with the wrong proof), and he had been eager for me to meet Jitka.
The Pultr's country house had at one time been a pub. It has four large rooms with two kitchens (a new kitchen with electric oven, microwave, washing machine and modern stovetop now occupies the room that had until last year been a rather large pantry and storage room). They recently converted the attic space to three rooms and an elegant bathroom. Each room (except the kitchens and bathrooms) has at least two beds (most of which have lovely antique wood-carved frames) and a table and chairs. In all, there are fourteen beds and an additional six mattresses! The large yard has a garden, some fruit trees, lots of flowers, and a huge woodpile.
The Pultrs really live in Jetĕtice, a small village of about twenty houses, only six of which are inhabited year round. The village of Červena doesn’t really exist. There is one house remaining on the bank where Červena used to be before the dam was put in that raised the water level.
After a delightful lunch, we drove to Zvikov castle, at the confluence of the Vltava and Otava Rivers. We had hoped to go to the museum there, but it is only open on weekends until the spring. Undeterred, we walked around the castle grounds and drove through the lovely countryside.
Back at the house, Jitka proceeded to prepare a lavish dinner, complete with dessert and Becherovka and Fernet (Czech liquors) after the meal.

posted by JWinn @ 7:57 PM