This morning we trekked down to a town called Telc (that is with a Czech "č" which is pronounced "ch") which is 100+ km West of Brno. Telč has a wonderfully preserved group of Renaissance buildings and because of this is a UNESCO site.

We toured the chateau, which was founded on an ancient castle. By 'ancient' I mean 14th century ruins of a Gothic castle, though the chateau was mostly built and renovated in the Renaissance. Some Moravian nobles traveled to Genoa and came back with some wonderful ideas about decoration and architecture to apply to their own home.

It was pouring down rain when our tour started, so we all dashed across the wet inner courtyard and made it to the oldest part of the chateau relatively dry. The lower floor had a long hall, several smaller rooms that served as kitchen and treasury. The most striking room on the ground floor was a little chapel with a highly decorated vaulted ceiling that had turned black from years of torch and candle smoke, though the original deep blue showed through in a few places. The ceiling was covered in carved figures and the symbol of the chateau's owners, the five petaled rose.

Of all of the chateau tours we have done so far this one ranks up with Namast ne Hana as my favorite. Namast ne Hana was wonderful because it seemed possible to imagine people living there on a day to day basis, people who did so not seem so far from the present. The old section of the Telč chateau was wonderful for exactly the opposite reason. The rooms were so exotic and strange and ancient. The ceilings of most of the rooms had intricate wood carvings, one of the rooms even had carved deer with real antlers attatched. Most of the rooms have been restored to their Renaissance state in that wing of the house, though the African Room remains as it was decorated in the early 1900's, with hundreds of hunting trophies from Africa. An entire crocodile skin hangs from the wall. A lion and lioness, a hyena, elephant tusks and the head of a zebra completed the impression that I was in the costume room for The Lion King Broadway show.

We toured the more modern wing of the chateau, too, but that was more Rococo than I fancy. Fresh flowers in both wings of the chateau made the rooms seem more lively and not quite as musty and old as the other places we have toured. The lilies were practically intoxicating they smelled so sweet.

After the chateau we ate lunch and explored in the town square. It was full of little souviner shops and restaurants painted in what I consider "San Francisco" colors, pale greens, pinks and yellows. Most of the stores sold ice cream (smrzlina) and beach toys for kids, since the town is situated on three waterways that are big enough to call lakes, I suppose, but were fairly placid and full of slow fish and ducks.

I'm missing the Czech vs. Portugal game, so I have to run and grab a gyro and then join the crowd in the square to see how the game goes.