Čtyři cestopisy – Čapek Karel (2018)

In his travelogues, Karel Čapek observes the foreign lands he visits with a childlike fascination and wonder, exploring their essence and peculiarities, selecting the most characteristic features, and effortlessly conveying his impressions to the readers. The texts and illustrations balance on the edge of seriousness and uncontrollable joy, capturing the country more accurately than lengthy guides. The author's exploratory instinct leads him to avoid the most common tourist spots and beaten paths. With his fresh, playful, and humor-inclined perspective, he manages to discover surprising and magical aspects even in familiar, seemingly mundane things. The journey into the unknown evokes in the author and in us, who follow him on his travels, a delight in the world's diversity, an euphoric feeling of being outside a specific place, and brings us back to ourselves – these are moments of perfect happiness… "The gardens of the Alcázar are in a way typical of Spanish gardens; there are indeed many things that are not found anywhere else, for example, the baños or vaulted bathing chamber of Doña María de Padilla, the mistress of the Christian king Peter the Cruel. It is said that the courtiers were required by the etiquette of the time to drink water from her bath; but I do not believe it, for I have seen few caballeros in Seville drink…