Moravia, the southern region of the Czech Republic, was our most recent trip in our adopted country. We were extremely lucky to have the chance to see it with friends who have been living there for the past year, the Rockwells. Heidi is a fellow Fulbrighter, on a teacher exchange program. She is a high school English teacher in Chicago and swaped places with a Czech teacher for the year. Her husband, Mark, is a PhD student in philosophy, and their two children, Mariana (15) and Elise (7) have been in a small town in southern Czech Republic living a true cultural immersion experience. We are lucky to have gotten to know the Rockwells through our many Fulbright events and had an incredible few days visit with them exploring Moravia.
This region of the Czech Republic reminded us a little of our home in central Virginia: rolling hills, vast fields, gorgeous countryside. What was extremely different was the way the villages are spread out throughout the countryside. There isn't any American "sprawl", just separate villages that may have a few hundred people or a few thousand, but not much more. Right now, the countryside is in bloom with shockingly yellow fields of canola flowers (yes, for canola oil). So as we drove along from village to village, there views are yellow and green as far as the eye can see. 
Pretty impressive. This picture is from Mark and Heidi's balcony (they live on the 8th floor of a panalacky) in Moravske Budejovice, a town of about 8,000.
In addition to visiting the Rockwells, our goal for this trip was to see a set of paintings by Alfons Mucha. Mucha is a late 19th/early 20th century Czech painter, most famous for his colorful stylized paintings and posters of women. Late in his life, he took sixteen years to create 20 paintings encompassing the history of the Slavic people. These weren't just any paintings, but were gigantic canvases, a few of which measure 6 X 8 meters! If you look at the photos below, you can see Mark standing in front of one on the paintings. The photos shows how massive the paintings are. Phil was particularly excited about seeing these national treasures because his guy, Jan Hus, and the story of the Hussites are included in a few of the paintings. Mucha uses these paintings to tell the story of the Slavic people, extending from Russia to the Balkans and spanning time from the 9th century until the end of World War I. Below are a few of the paintings
The baffling part about seeing these paintings was their location: they are kept in Moravske Krumlov, a tiny town with not much else happening. Furthermore, the "castle" where the paintings are displayed is completely falling apart. So these national treasures are hidden away in a small town in a dilapidated building. I have no idea why these paintings aren't in the Mucha museum in Prague. At the very least, they should be housed somewhere where they might be better appreciated and visited. It just seemed strange to me.
One last perplexing note about this museum: we had to put on "booties" over our shoes when we walked in. Seriously? The building was in disrepair, yet we were supposed to wear slippers over our shoes...slightly incongruous if you ask me...
We also went to Znojmo (pronounced Znoy-Moe), a picturesque town situated on a river near the Austrian border. There are castle walls and a tower that date as far back as the 11th century. We had a gorgeous day for exploring, so we walked through town, stopped at a park so Elise (and Phil;) could play for awhile, walked up to the church (there is always a church to see) and took in the views.
Our next stop were some beautiful castle ruins along a river. You just don't find castle ruins along the side of the road in Virginia...We ended our day with a fantastic dinner at a restaurant that looked out over the ruins. What a day!
Our trip to Moravia was wonderful, from our hosts to the countryside. We felt like we got to see the more rural side of the Czech Republic, which is very different than urban life in Prague. We love those country roads...
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