Yorkshire Tea with Vítek

Today has been a rest day between mountain hikes so we all slept late and then took time over breakfast before driving in to Sumperk. Tomáš had some work to do at his school, the Gymnasium, as they are celebrating their 100th Birthday in September and there are many preparations to be made in advance of the new term. This includes the arrival and staging of a huge artwork by a previous student and famous artist, Sklenář which has been sponsored for the school. Before Tomáš set to work he gave us a tour of his school which was in many ways similar to our UK schools, but in others very different.

Marketa, Tony and I then left to have coffee and cake in a local park before heading in to the centre of Sumperk where I bought some flowers to place on the grave of Tomáš mother. We also made a return to the craft shop to stock up on buttons for my twiddlemuffs, a winter project.

Tomas caught up with us and we toured the Witch Trials exhibition in the Geschader House. This was a quite graphic story detailing the Inquisitions which took place in Sumperk during the 17th Century, basically a means of making money by accusing the richest people in the town of holding black masses, torturing and burning them, then acquiring their assets including houses at much reduced cost. These unfortunate folk were also charged for their time spent in prison before their deaths!

We then walked the streets of the old part of the town and admired the newly renovated Town Hall before eating dinner at the Istaria Restaurant. The day came to a close with a drive to Tomáš’s home village of Ruda Nad Moravou where we met with his father in the family home and gave him some Yorkshire Tea and biscuits from Betty’s Cafe. We had tea and conversation, going backwards and forwards between Czech and English, then it was time to visit the cemetery to pay our respects to Tomáš’s mother and light a candle before returning to Loucna.