Welcoming the New Year

As a propitious ending to 2011 the coffin of Vaclav Havel was majestically carried down the Vltava River yesterday-and today- on it's way to his home.

The imaginary life journey of the first Czech president Vaclav Havel, who died earlier this month, will be symbolically closed by a boat voyage along the Vltava and Labe (Elbe) rivers on December 31, Sabina Tancevova from Havel's office told CTK yesterday.

The boat will set off downstream the Vltava from the pier near the National Theatre in Prague at 10:00.

It will carry flowers and wreaths that people laid at Havel's coffin on the days preceding his funeral last week.

The boat with the flowers will go down the Vltava and the Labe, into which the Vltava flows to the north of Prague, via the towns of Melnik, Roudnice nad Labem, Litomerice, Lovosice and Usti nad Labem to Decin, the last town on the Labe before it leaves the Czech Republic for Saxony, Tancevova has written in a statement that has also been signed by pop musician Michael Kocab and artist David Cerny.

Havel died at his country house in east Bohemia on December 18, aged 75.

And to welcome in the New Year, I've moved into a new and very charming apartment on the river with a 10 square meter terrace overlooking a green hillside. A perfect retreat away from the bustle of the city, where I can write and reflect over the coming year. I hope to have internet service up and running by next week and hope to resume blogging at that time.

Best wishes to one and all for a fulfilling, peaceful and hope filled New Year.  

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