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.