Czech Republic: August 30, 2009

We woke up early and went to breakfast just after 0730. The restaurant was basically an old fashioned family kitchen. It was a nice warm way to start our day.

Another walking day around Praha (Prague). We headed out and around Stare Mesto (Old Town) into Nove Mesto ( New Town). Sunday mornings are a very quiet time in cities, where you can actually get out and see the main attractions without the hubbub. We had a better look at the Astronomical clock and walked to St Wenceslaus square to see the statue (did you know Vaclav means Wenceslaus?) and the façade of the National Museum. Carol went back to the hotel to read while Marisa and I looked around some of the shops. We then checked out of the hotel and headed across the river to go to visit Hradcany (Castle Quarter).
It was quite a strenuous hike up to the castle, especially the steps. Carol especially found it hard going. At the top, we were just in time to see the ceremonial Changing of the Guard at the Presidential Palace, which was quite interesting. We then had lunch at the Café in the Garden and then entered the Prazsky Hrad (the Castle).

We visited the Old Royal Palace, walked around St Vitus’ Cathedral, into St George’s Basilica and walked along the Golden Lane, an exclusive shopping district for the elite of the day. I then walked down the hill to the hotel and picked up the car and our stored luggage and drove back up the hill to pick up Marisa and Carol. Then we drove back to Zlin, with a quick stop at Tescos to pick up some supplies.

Czech Republic: August 29, 2009

Well, for me, the day was going to be a long one. We had breakfast end and left Zlin at 0930 in the rain for our long trek to Prague. The initial part of the trip kept us on the D1. Except for road works, we made good progress. We drove just west of Brno and then called Oonagh in Hluboka nad Vltavou. As Carol had a gift from the Rochesters with her for Quinton, we made the detour. The GPS calculated the change in route and took us towards Ceske Budejovice (the original Budweiser), about 140 km south of Prague. I am not sure what criteria it uses, but the GPS apparently calculates the fastest route. This involved driving through a bunch of tiny towns and villages, up and down hills and through forests. Sometimes I wonder exactly how much faster it is, but it takes the map reading stress out of driving and if you miss a turn it recalculates, which is great in cities.


We met Randy at the Spar in Hluboka and headed up the hill to Townshend School. As school starts on Monday, they were in the midst of receiving students. Randy had to drive a friend of his into the town, so I went with him. We drove through Ceske Budejovice and saw the Budweiser factory and the place where the harvest festival was taking place. Then through Hluboka and back to the school. During this time Carol and Marisa were given a tour of the school by Payton and were able to spend some time with Oonagh. We’re glad we were able to see them again, this time in their home.
We then continued on our journey to Prague on the E55. We arrived at our hotel at about 1800, checked in and had the car taken to the guarded car park. For the next 24 hours it was walking for us. The room was very spacious and we dropped our things and headed out. We visited the Powder Tower (where they used to store gunpowder), the Astronomical Clock (I still haven’t figured out how it all works, but it measures time, seasons, star sign among others), the Bethlehem Chapel, St Martin’s in the Wall (we missed the start of the classical concert but the music coming out of there was excellent) and the Charles Bridge.


As with most European historic town centres, the place was crammed with tourists. We had dinner at a small café on a quieter side street on Uhelnytrh namesti (square), saw part of the 6th Annual Folklife Festival (we saw the dancers from the Democratic Republic of Congo) and visited a couple of shops. I was falling asleep standing up so we headed back to the hotel around 2200.

Czech Republic: August 28, 2009

We started the day doing separate things. I was my mom’s alarm clock at 5am because she was going to be picked up at 6.15 by her driver to take her to Uhersky Brod for her first dialysis treatment at 7am. She said that the clinic is in a modern hospital building. The patients each have lockers and most change into pajamas or something comfortable while they undergo treatment. There were about 9 chairs and a few beds and each had their own television, etc. she said the doctors spoke good English and the nurses were trying their English on her. She had her translator and tried to speak Czech back to them. They provided her with a sandwich (a large chicken sub) and cookies She said that it was a pleasant experience and much better than she expected. She is quite happy with the facility and the experience.

Aidan began his day fighting (again – but in our room this time) with the Garmin (the GPS). He decided to upgrade the European maps since there are so many new roads in the Czech Republic. This simple task took all morning and the maps are still not updated. He was able to do a software upgrade and a communications upgrade but every time he went to download a map he received a compatibility error. He finally contacted customer support and they said it was a problem o their end. So right now we’re still stuck with Czech maps from 2006.

I decided to try Thai Massage. Aidan dropped me off at Zlin’s main square – namesti Miru (translates to Peace Square) and I took the elevator to the 5th floor and entered bai mai. I had Masáž hlavy (Head Massage) because I had been carrying a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders from the last few hectic weeks. I was taken into a room with a brightly coloured orange mattress on the floor and green pillows and towels. I wore a sports bra and sweat pants because I had been warned about the physicality of Thai massage. The therapist was just about 5’ tall and did not speak any English. She had me lie down and covered my chest and shoulders with the towel. She began with my face and moved to my neck, shoulders, scalp and back. In the 60 minute session, she ultimately included my arms, legs and feet because I was so tense. The massage hurt at times but was also blissful. It was like a massage with yoga with a partner. My aching neck felt much better afterwards and I was amazed at how relaxed I felt. It was very inexpensive so I am going back for another session on Monday.

Once we all came back together we decided to visit Kromeriz for the afternoon. The town includes an Archbishop’s castle and phenomenal gardens that are registered as a UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Inheritance monument. We first visited the town square as there was a crafts sale. We saw everything from pottery to animal pelts to wood carvings. We were craving shade as it was over 90 degrees so we headed to the Archiepscopal Chateau. The historical rooms were closed so we visited the galleries. There were perhaps 10 rooms with artwork from the baroque up until the 19th century. Additionally, there were amazing sculptures throughout the rooms. We then visited the gardens. They were truly breathtaking. While my mom sat in the garden café, Aidan and I walked the perimeter of the gardens. There was a small lake, a children’s zoo with deer, donkeys, goats, chickens, etc, rose gardens and other garden features. Little kids were able to puttering around in electric cars and bikes. We also saw a number of red squirrels in the gardens.

Once we left the Chateau gardens we walked around the town. We saw the Church of John the Baptist and the Church of St. Maurice, before heading back to the car. We then decided to visit the IKEA near Brno. It was my mom’s first IKEA experience and she appeared to really enjoy it. After walking around the showroom floor, we had dinner in the cafeteria. Aidan and I could not pass up the Swedish meatballs while my mom had fish. The food was amazing, as always. We then headed back to Zlin and ended the night checking emails and looking for a B&B in Prague for Saturday night.

Czech Republic - Slovakia - Venna - Slovakia - Czech Republic: August 27

We’ve been here for a week! It is amazing how we now feel like old pros (sort of) after a week here. Still, today was the day that we would leave the Czech Republic and venture back into Austria to pick up my mom from the airport. Yes, the trip that took us more than 5 hours to do last week…. We prepared with a lovely breakfast, confirmation from Hana that my mom would be in the room next door to us and the Czech, Slovak and Austrian maps packed into my bag.

We left early, around 9.00am. The roads were clear and the skies a bit overcast. The Czech leg of the trip took us through Uhersky Brod and a few small towns on our way to the D2 and then to the D1 into Slovakia. The difference in scenery between the Czech Republic and Slovakia was noticeable. The Czech Republic just looks more put together. In any case, we still saw Soviet era watch towers as we drove through both countries. As we went through Bratislava, the striking difference between old and new was so very clear. We were happy to see familiar sights, the Danube in particular. Crossing into Austria, we were greeted by the windmills that cover the border between the two countries. They look so modern and then they still seem out of place in the countryside.

We arrived in Vienna about 2 hours before we had to meet my mom’s plane. We decided to visit the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Natural History Museum Vienna) on Maria-Theresien-Platz. We saw this museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum) when we were on a city tour in 2006 and I really wanted to go back to visit. We truly enjoyed visiting this very thorough collection. My favorite was Maria Theresia’s bouquet made from precious stones (it would be, wouldn’t it) but I also enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit, the collection of meteorites and the Venus of Willendorf. Aidan liked the dinosaurs, taxidermy and our lunch in the café (Sprit and Coke in the traditional bottles – wonderful!). With all the effort we have made to learn some Czech, our German was awful! I couldn’t even remember the basics. Thankfully, our waiter was understanding. We had to leave after we ate. It was a shame that we did not get to go to the Art History Museum yet but we will be back.

We made our way to Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) and after a short wait, my mom came through the EU door. She had a long and tiring journey but came bearing magazines and Doctor Who novels (lovely!). We settled her into the front seat, showed her how to use the GPS as Aidan’s navigator and we were on our way. The drive back took about 3 hours and was quite nice. We arrived back at the Penzion Uno a little after 6pm. Hana checked my mom into room 7 (just up the stairs from room 8) and she got unpacked. She has a lovely room with a great view.

Once she was settled, we went to Kaufland’s for a few supplies – replenishments for us and snacks for her when she goes to the clinic. We then went to the Sunflower restaurant (I can’t find the card with the Czech name at the moment). Aidan and I had meats that were grilled over a charcoal fire in the restaurant. I also sampled the sour cabbage soup. It was amazing. We enjoyed the excellent food, and the price. My mom tried out her Czech with the waitress and will probably do better than us in a few days, which won’t be difficult because our Czech is pretty bad.

    

Czech Republic: August 26, 2009

Aidan has done a great job with our vacation journal (as usual) so I thought he deserves a break – at least for a day. That said, we spent Wednesday close to our home base doing that relaxing thing that all vacations should include. After another amazing breakfast (the best scrambled eggs I have ever had and don’t let me start on the sausages), we decided to head to the market for some fresh bread. We’ve wanted to do this for a few days now but always seemed to get caught up with mapping routes to our destination of the day or dealing with emails. We headed to Tescos and they were just putting out the bread for the day. The smell was amazing. Aidan picked out a nice warm rye loaf while I got some Eidam cheese. Lunch would be a treat!

On our way back we visited Obchodni Dum, which translates literally into ‘department store’. It looks like an office building and as you get closer, you can see curtains in the windows which makes you think it may be an apartment building. When you enter, you see that it is 6 floors of stores, ranging from electronics to fabrics, crystal to furniture. All of the shops are separate and divided by what appear to be cubicle walls. It is next to the University of Tomas Bata (named for the shoemaker who set up his company in Zlin) so it is very busy. We walked up each flight of steps and discovered the variety that the department store had to offer. The Bohemian crystal caught our eyes and we spent time in the fabric and yarn shop since you don’t see that much at home anymore.

We headed back to the Penzion Uno but had to defer lunch a bit because our room was being serviced. We took a short walk down another one of the residential streets in our neighborhood. The houses and gardens in this area are so beautiful. This street allowed us to also see the full extent of the orchard that is next to our hotel. I ate a few plums off of one of the trees that was on the road and they were the sweetest plums I’ve ever eaten. In addition to the many varieties of apple trees, we saw blackberry bushes and a few peach trees (not in season), a walnut tree and what I assume were black currants.

Lunch was lazy with the rye bread and cheese. We finished off most of the loaf and followed that with some fruit. Afterwards we went back out to walk it off. There are walking trails in the woods that are further up the hill. We walked past lots of new construction and then apartment buildings before we got to a field that had many trails leading into various parts of the woods. People were walking their dogs or walking around with their kids. People are so fit here so I was not surprised to see so many people walking about. We took the first trail and it appeared that someone had been there to re-cut the trail. We came across a manger and a lookout for hunters. The second trail took us into woods covered with blackberry bushes and other types of fruits. The third trail led us to an apple orchard. I counted at least 6 varieties of apples in the orchard. The last trail was truly the woods. People were cooking food using campfires in areas that had been cleared, sitting on logs that had been placed there for that purpose. We looked at the trees that appeared to be ‘tapped’ for their sap but weren’t that sure about the types of trees that we were looking at. We followed the trail until we got to the main road and then walked back to our hotel. Again, we admired the gardens and window boxes of the people in the neighborhood.

The evening was another quiet one. Our laundry was delivered (160 KC or $9 for 3kg of laundry washed, dried & folded) and we went to the town square to find dinner for the evening. We walked around a few of the shops and ended up going for fast food for the evening.

Czech Republic: August 25, 2009

We decided to travel to Olomouc & Ostrava today. So far, we have had clear, dry, sunny and warm conditions, which will hopefully remain. I think that our maps need updating as we tend to get on routes that the GPS says don’t exist. Mind you, they are building so many highways here, it seems between just about every town is getting one, that I don’t think any mapmaker would be able to keep up. However, our routes tend to be very picturesque so, except for time – of which we have a lot, it is not a problem.

Olomouc is a university town, but most of the historic city centre dates back to the 1700s and the Hapsburgs. We tried to park, but the machine did not like our change, so we had to settle with a drive about instead. I have decided that I don’t like trams in cities. It makes driving a bit nerve racking. We might try to go back though since the Old Town looked interesting.

We then drove on to Ostrava, in fact to IKEA outside of Ostrava, we actually never made it into the town itself. However, from what I have read, it is an industrial town, and certainly judging by the number of factory chimneys that were visible on approach, I would have to agree. We enjoyed our first visit to IKEA since before we got married. Marisa says that IKEA is like visiting someone’s house and being able to look into all of their cupboards, etc. Their displays are definitely thorough. We then visited the attached mall and saw a few brand names that we’re familiar with (H&M, Marks & Spencer, Sephora). We then took yet another road back to Zlin as the sun was setting. Amazing countryside and indeed, an amazing country!

Czech Republic: August 24, 2009

Our first order of the day was a visit to the Zlin Zoo and Chateau Lesna. It was originally set up as a private zoo and gardens by a local family in the late 1800s. There are many walking trails which lead to the various exhibits. The rainforest exibit was exceptional as everything happened in a greenhouse, with misters etc. You then walked on three levels, one to get you into the upper trees, the second at ground level and a section which essentially put you under the river to look at the fish (piranhas and the like). The monkeys were a bit disinterested in the onlookers, but were generally running around in the trees around us. There were several other walk through aviaries as well.

One of the great things we have found in the Czech Republic is that they create a lot of areas for the kids. In shopping malls they have play areas where you can dump the kids with a minder and go shopping uninhibited. At the zoo for instance, there was a play area with camel and donkey rides and a really cool treehouse with ropes and ladders and a zip line. In fact, we were thinking of trying to bribe the person in charge into letting us have a go.

The tiger was as usual it’s lazy self. In fact, this one even had CCTV in its home, so I guess it has a history of not getting out much. All we saw was 2 hind legs and a tail on the monitor. The lion was a bit more lively and put on a show by roaring the place down. One of the last areas was the lemur exhibit. This was quite interesting as they had an area enclosed by an electric fence and the lemurs ran about amongst the visitors. Even the mother with three babies didn’t seem to have a problem darting in and out of peoples’ feet .

The Chateau Lesna was a beautifully appointed building and with its surrounding gardens makes a superb complement to the zoo. We plan to go back to take a closer look at the Chateau.

Following the zoo visit we decided to take a drive to the spa town of Luhacovice. The underground wells produce mineralized water which is supposed to good for treating diseases of the digestive tract, diabetes and the respiratory system. Can’t say it did anything for us, but it was a very pretty town. We had lunch at a café, in fact lunch for two, which probably should have been billed as lunch for about 7. When it came out, it consisted of two sword skewers containing (each) ½ tomato, ½ red pepper, 2 chicken breasts (each marinated differently), a piece of steak, a pork cut and a slice of gammon. On top of this was a 9-10” platter of salad and a similar size of mixed vegetables, complete with 3 hash brown patties and a mountain of fried potato pieces. Needless to say, we packed one of the skewers in a Ziploc bag and it is presently in our fridge.

We then drove out to Uhersky Brod, before heading back to Zlin. I tested a route which I hope will serve as an alternative route to Vienna (and probably quicker too) as it leads to a major highway in Slovakia.

We had another quiet evening. Didn’t need to have dinner after that lunch. We caught up on emails and then watched a few more episodes of True Blood.

Czech Republic: August 23, 2009

Well, I think I am going to stop talking about the breakfasts. Unless I write otherwise, just assume that they are great. This is Alexis’ birthday in Malaysia and would have been my Granny’s 99th. After breakfast we went for a walk up the hill behind the hotel. It looks like high end housing estate is being built on the hill overlooking Zlin (zleen). Marisa took many pictures of the flowers and fruits that we saw this morning. We plan to walk another route after breakfast tomorrow morning.We went to Tescos to get a few provisions and also managed to get a card for the cell phone. So we now have a Czech number.

In the afternoon we drove to Brno (pronounced Broon). Using the GPS made things so easy. We got to the Spilberk castle in about an hour. We walked around the grounds firstly and then bought tickets for entry. We toured the dungeons, which were used from everything from state prisons to barracks for Nazi soldiers. In fact, there was even the remains of the Nazi telephone exchange. Then we went to the main part of the castle, where we climbed the lookout tower, which gave a great view of the city below and also to the main exhibition halls. Marisa, I think, liked the 19th Century Baroque Apothecary best. The castle has seen a lot of history and this was documented in detail within the exhibition halls, from wars with the Swedish and Prussians to the history of the different additions to the castle itself by its various occupiers.

There was also a rehearsal by the European Youth Orchestra for a concert to be held this evening. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay, but it was an incredible sound. The conductor was Vladimir Ashkenazy. We then headed home, via a very different route, which ended up entering Zlin from the east, which was very interesting. It avoided driving through the town, which appeared to be quicker. At one point I thought I would try my own way, but ended up adding 10 mins to our journey via a detour, but at least I proved the system worked as it found me back on the right road very quickly.

We had another quiet dinner in our room and another relaxing evening.

Czech Republic: August 22, 2009

Another very nice breakfast. Quite a lot of variety again this morning - cereal, bread and toast, fried eggs and bacon, beans and then a plate of cold meats and cheeses. Excellent.

Oonaugh & Randy and the boys came over by about 11:30 and we headed out into Zlin. I was interested in observing how seasoned veterans dealt with the country, but it was pretty much the same as me, point, grunt, gesticulate wildly and eventually you get what you want. The only difference was that they had quite a few more words under their belts. We visited a rather good mall and had lunch. I had fajitas, which were very good indeed. Oonaugh and Marisa went shopping and Randy and I took care of the boys. Quinton is a bit of a daredevil and climbing on the railing with a 3 storey drop did not seem to bother him, however, we managed to keep him on the correct side.


We then attempted to get to another mall, but we ran into a traffic jam, probably due to the rally, so we turned back to the hotel. R & O had a 3.5-4 hour drive back, so we said our goodbyes. We did get to see a number of cars who are participating in the Rally race.

We then spent the rest of the day rather lazily as it had begun to rain outside. We checked in on family and friends to see how they got through what was Hurricane Bill. We also watched the last two episodes of season 5 of Angel while we ate fresh bread and some fruit. I think we’re finally starting to relax a bit…

Czech Republic: August 21, 2009

The breakfast was very good in the morning and we met a couple from the US who are stationed in Germany. Marisa discovered that she had forgotten some of her meds, so we had to visit a pharmacy. We visited a small shopping mall to pick up a few items for meals, as our room conveniently has a kitchenette. The Zlin motor car rally is this weekend, so there were lots of supporters lining the streets ready for the evening race, when we went for our afternoon walk. Also there were lots of apples and pears (not stairs) on trees all along our route. People just seem to ignore them, which is quite amazing as they are ripe and look like they might be very good. We managed to order pizza for dinner and settled down for another night.

London - Austria - Slovkia - Czech Republic: August 20, 2009

Still on BA, we had a breakfast snack. We landed about 6:45 and made our way through Immigration & Customs etc and to the South Terminal. It was crowded with the usual British discount holiday goers and we pushed our way through to the Aer Lingus check in. We were pleasantly surprised as Aer Lingus has a separate check-in area away from the mele of the main concourse. From here we spent a few hours in the duty free area until our flight at 11:35. I slept on a bench with our hand luggage.

We had quite an uneventful flight over to Vienna. At one point I recognized the Rhine river below. We landed in Vienna and collected our luggage and our car. There was some scrabbling to find things we needed for our drive, as we didn’t pack very well and we finally set off at about 4pm. Due to our not having a charging cable for our GPS, we had to save battery power, but it finally died around the Slovakian border. We bought a couple of maps at a gas station and continued manually.

Our travels took us just to the west of Bratislava and then north towards Brno. We then branched off on a more direct route to Zlin. More direct, but perhaps slower as it was a country road. We finally arrived in Zlin at about 9pm (about 2.5 hours after estimate) and somehow managed to find our hotel rather easily. We checked in and went to sleep.

Bermuda - London: August 19, 2009

After both of us raced to get work done before we left and final meetings, inspections etc. we arrived home, did our final packing, moved the kayak and equipment to higher ground and raced out of the house at about 5:15. We checked in at the Airport and made our way onto the plane (G-VIIB – the “Bermuda 777” as it appears to be permanently assigned to our route). The evening meal was very nice and we settled down to get as much rest as we could.

Off We Go (Sorry We Can't Stay to Meet You Bill)

We're almost packed to start our Eastern European Adventure. Needless to say, we were not expecting that we'd also be preparing for a hurricane in the midst of packing. Hurricane Bill's closest point of approach to the island is currently calculated at 12 pm Sat, Aug 22, 2009. Distance: 184 nm to the west. So that means we're getting the house prepared so that William and Emily don't have to worry about it as much as they might.

Anyhow, we're on BA tonight and will land at London Gatwick in the morning... and then off to Vienna and then into the Czech Republic!

Watch This Space....

Guess what... It's vacation time!!! We'll be heading to the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and London (for 2 nights) on Aug 19th and we'll head back to Bermuda on Sept 13th. It promises to be an amazing adventure! We've started packing, purchased a Garmin since we'll be driving and even will have to pack things like our own sheets and pillows (we'll explain more about that in future posts).