Isabel is home from the cottage, Sam is home from football camp, and all is right with the world. Had a very nice afternoon.
Caught the train from Masarykovo Nádraží at 1:40, our friend Bill just made it at the last minute. We got to the station in Roudnice nad Labem and I thought the plan was for Helena to be there waiting for us, which she wasn’t, but it’s not a big place and I could see from the train station where the camp was, across the river, so we walked and they were there. Because it’s close, we made the pilgrimage to Řip Hill, which is nothing really special, but it is a site of great significance in Czech folklore.
Praotec Čech on Řip Hill – apparently before the invention of trees
Here is the story. Around about 644 or so, Grandfather Čech and his brother Lech were trudging across Europe, with families in tow, and they got to Řip Hill and walked up to the top and they looked around and Praotec Čech said “Yeah, this’ll do.” And everybody cheered and decided to name the country after him.
That’s it. That’s the whole national legend.
But, actually, it works because it lets you kind of imagine what was happening, and as you look down from the hill today, you see a prosperous valley, with fields and woodlands and villages. So, they chose well.
But still, I wonder what the rest of the story was. Were they on the run? What was it they liked about the place? My guess is they’d arrived at a place where nobody else was yet, and were tired of moving, so they stopped.
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