“I like to prowl ordinary places
and taste the people-
from a distance.”Charles Bukowski
Saturday
A day of driving.
Breakfast in the apartment and then on the road.
Our destination is Šumperk, but I am in dire need of a coffee. I finished the bottle of Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner last night and Shell selfishly refused to help.
Kaffee Campus Krems looks likely. We do not linger due to parking illegally.
Once we leave the Wachau Valley we enter the wine regions of Kamptal. The region is not as picturesque as the Wachau and has worked hard to build a reputation for great wine. Like an unattractive man who is a really nice person.
Weignut Hiedler is in Kamptal.
I don’t want to talk about it.
Austria becomes Czech and the vineyards become rolling hills of wheat and corn. The road side lined with giant apple, pear, and apricot trees.
Free food when the time is right.
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche.
Herman Hesse
Shell continues her success by finding another great place for lunch in the middle of nowhere.
1754 Roastery is a coffee roaster in the tiny Czech village of Pražírna, population 1000.
For a coffee roaster, it makes excellent pizza and has great beer on tap.
Shell orders an affogato because 1754 also makes ice cream.
I order a beer and a Pizza Margherita. Shell the bruschetta.
She takes a mouthful of beer and orders one for herself.
It is warm today but cool in the shade of the tree at the front of the restaurant. It is a surreal feeling sitting in a tiny Slavic village. Drinking great beer and eating excellent food. There is some guilt about driving through Europe instead of public transport, but we would never sit under trees drinking beer in tiny villages like Pražírna without wheels.
A near miss on a very narrow bridge and we are in Śumperk.
Of all the cities I have arrived in, this seems the least impressive. Industrial decay for the architects.
Yet we turn a corner, a park, a town hall and our accommodation and it is like we are in another city.
So impressed we book a second night.
A Brazilian jazz singer is performing on the terrace tonight, we might go down and have a drink purely to explore this oxymoron.
“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”
Sylvia Plath
We head down to the restaurant underneath our apartment called PERK.
Shell is not hungry and orders an Aperol. I am starving and order the chicken.
Our waiter is new, and it is a more difficult procedure than you would think. I ordered a local Pilsner and he delivered more foam than a beverage.
Shell heads up to the terrace to listen to the live act.
I order another beer but the new waiter does not know how to tap the new keg which is fine.
I join Shell on the terrace and it is a beautiful night. Warm with clear blue skies. We order a Moscow Mule each and listen tot he music before heading back to the room.
Great day.
“If it could only be like this always – always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper…”
Evelyn Waugh
Love the head on your beer🤣 Food looks delicious. You are so right about ease of exploring small towns with a car. It is a no brainer for you especially being so used to driving on the same side of the road as Europe.
If you can drive in Dubai, you can drive anywhere.