A rhapsody of nature in the Bohemian hinterland

Not an icicle or a snowflake have we seen here in Central Europe since we arrived on December 21. Over Lower Bohemia in the Czech Republic, the skies have been peerless blue and the sun so bright that, in the towns, the cobbled streets shine as if shellacked and I feel the need of sunglasses more than I ever do in Spain.

In this small city where we have been spending the festive season with my son and his family, the days are warm but it is cold in the evenings and one can get deeply chilled when standing around in front of one ancient church or another (often founded by Irish monks), watching nativity dramas with small grandchildren. This, in spite of the traditional hot, spicy punch dispensed in polystyrene cups.

It’s great walking weather and, in the countryside, one can ramble across enormous open fields that ascend, with no let or hindrance, to hills blanketed in conifers. Besides this Czech policy of “allemansrätten” (the Swedish law enshrining “everyman’s right to roam”) there are countless marked paths through forests and fields.