Plzeň

Ok,

I know you all got the e-mail with the extreme weather conditions and are dying for the pics of our noses freezing off and the likes, so here goes... Oh, and Michelle, to answer some of your questions:

1. Can humans live there? Yes, I do believe we have seen one or two of those, although we are still trying to communicate with them
2. Will your life expectancy lengthen if lived under a semi frozen state? I do hope that it will slow down the wrinkles, not to mention the varicose veins - will keep you posted on this one.

So, after only 2 hour sleep the night before and some hectic logistics to get onto the aeroplane, we find ourselves at our apartment in Plzen (80kms from Prague) with a welcoming committee with flowers and some basic groceries. The downside we discovered, was that although expecting a furnished apartment, the furnished term meant 3 beds, 1 couch, 2 chairs and a table. We had no knives, forks, toaster, washing machine (and a weeks worth of laundry), plates, potato peeler, fridge, kettle (and an extreme thirst for a cup of tea), etc. Petra (part of the welcoming committee) had foresight of this logistical issue and had planned to take us back to Prague to shop at the one-stop-buys-all-at-really-bargain-prices IKEA. And so, we make the 80km journey back to Prague with 2 very worn out babies and bought knives, forks, toaster.......

And so, just after midnight, we have finally got to the point where we can have our first cuppa tea.

Our apartment is really fantastic. It is is very spacious and brand new. I am one bus stop away from the office (probably about 800m) and there is a 24 hour Tesco (like a PnP hypermarket) about 4 bus stops away (2Kms). Our block of flats is the one that wants to get noticed on the streets ...

We are on the 4th floor, so we have a great view:

From the back balcony:

From the front balcony up and down the street:

We arrived at the most magical moment. During our first full day in Plzen, while we were having lunch, it started to snow.

And by the next morning, the view from our balconies looked something like this:

And the girls immediately took to the spirit of the occasion with a frozen dessert from the window sill

When we saw those extreme weather forecasts, we immediately and forthwith went out and bought the girls snow suits as their tracksuit pants and jeans were just not living up to the task of keeping them dry in the snow -

and we were not able to stop them from finding the biggest, tallest pile of snow wherever we were walking and piling though it up to their knees. We also took the opportunity to get them a sleigh and bum-boards.

From us, till next time, Dobrou noc! (Good night!)