Amber & Sarah's Trip to the Country

For the first time since November 2006, Colin and I had a night out. Now for those of you who know us well, we zealously used to guard our weekly "date night", but since bidding farewell to Gina, we have not been "out on the town", not even once!

Eventually, we were given a "valid excuse" for taking the plunge and asking for someone to babysit as George invited us to attend his daughter's graduation dinner and ceremony, which took place over a Friday night and a saturday. So, on Friday evening, Petra (Our Project Administrator at work) was very kind to oblige and on Saturday, Teacher Hanka took them to visit her parent's home in the country (Bezvěrov). She asked if we would like them to stay with her the night to give us a morning off on Sunday, to which we hesitated only for a moment before proceeding to pack their pj's and toothbrushes.

When the girls came home on Sunday evening, and in fact ever since, they could not tell us enough about all the things that they did, from the fact that "Teacher Hanka's daddy has a big red tracktor with no roof"; about all the horses that they fed; the rooster that jumps on you; the chickens that had just hatched and the egg hunting that they did; and about the mommy and daddy doggies that have puppies.

Amber says: "There are dogs and horses and we were helping them to do their garden and then we blew eggs. She had a rooster and sometimes it hops on you and bites you and sometimes it just hops and doesn't bite. It is a little one but it is a rooster".

Sarah says: "We were going outside and cutting some grass and building up a big tent and we were balancing on a wooden hill. We went back into Teacher Hanka's Parents' house. We went to see the baby horsie and the mommy horsie in the stable and we saw some horses outside with Teacher Hanka. It was starting to rain and it was nearly stormy and we went to look in the cow's house and there was no cows living in the garage."

... they very obviously had the time of their lives! - Thanks Teacher Hanka!

Sarah's 4!

The long awaited, anticipated day arrived for our ex-3 year-old on Wednesday. We've been doing the sleep countdown for about 6 weeks now and its had to span trips, visits and all kinds of "delays".

One morning, about a week before the actual day arrived we heard Amber wake up, and in her characteristically loud whisper (loud enough for it to wake us up, but still a whisper you understand) announced "Seewah! Wake up! It's your birthday!" A few seconds later the usually sluggish-in-the-morning Sarah, bypassing all of her usual surfacing inertia asked in part amazement and part disbelief, "But where are the balloons?!"

Needless to say, before a serious break-down had time to take hold we were out of bed assuring her that her birthday was still approaching on the appointed day... phew! Close one! So, when the day did arrive, I sat in the kitchen busting a gut trying to blow up them long thin balloons, you know the ones that make cute animals in the hands of a pro, just embarrass everyone else and confuse children who can't decide whether you just made them a horse, a giraffe or a daschund! With some grace and the inventive use of a bicycle pump I managed to get this crude rendition of my birthday girls name out...

I thought it was quite cute, but it didn't hold interest for more than a few seconds... well, how do you compete with unopened presents? You can't!

Let the games begin... about to embark on the best part of the day!

With Michael, if you're ever in doubt about what to get him for a birthday, Christmas, or whatever, you can rest assured that anything that flies is going to score you kudos, with Sarah, anything that has 4 legs and neighs, or who does stoutness exercises and eats honey will do the same.

Hayley, the genius that she is, hit the button with this set of gifts... first up, a "Pegasus Flying Horse" Stunning model horse that we get here, there's a range of them, super high quality, items, really great toys.
She likes it!

Notice the theme? This is a "Doodle Pony" a funky looking fabric pony with pink in all the right places, and you can write on it! Comes with markers that wash out, so when you're bored with the way your horsie looks, you toss it into the washer and it comes out clean, ready for the next round.
She LOVES this one!

And without any ado let the doodling begin!

This year a Tinkerbell cake was ordered and given the technical difficulties we'd experienced in the past trying to get figures onto a sloppy icing surface we decided on a new approach - do all the art on grease paper, freeze the figure and then peel it off and move the entire item to the cake - we will be sticking with the strategy.

Hayley is the artist behind Tinkerbell, Saz is a happy puppy

On the way to school - the girls are on the bus sporting the necklaces they made with one of the other gifts



The Tinkerbell cake went to the new school and there was a celebration held in honor of the birthday girl with all her new friends gathered about...


Look at all those candles! You know, there should be speed regulations on how fast children are allowed to grow up. Saz is still putting on more than a cm a month in height, is eating like a horse and the other day even complained about what we think are growth pains.


Teacher Shahla in attendance on the right, Hayley's ample cleavage skillfully obscured by her head...
Since we now have 2 schools with friends at both we need 2 cakes to share with those friends (obviously) so another cake was commissioned, this time, an aeroplane cake, I take what credit is available for the plane... not much I fear, still it was a hit and between them they polished the entire thing off in one morning!

Here are the Czech mates all set about on the grass about to tuck in

Some poses with their art on the sidewalk to color the day in.

To top off the day, Michael and Mandy dropped in to say "Happies" which was greatly appreciated and the kids reached their first ever spontaneous combustion over skype video, normally there is a bit of apprehension, not being used to the media or something, but this time they were in their own little elements, speaking like professional 2-5 year-olds and having just a good old time.

Adele's visit

Adele's visit was preceded by a rather large amount of anxiety and speculation as to whether she would actually be allowed across the border or not.

Aparently, she did not need a visa if she she came in from 1 country and left by another and stayed for a max of 5 days. So herein lies all the stress: Adele will be arriving by train, would not be able to communicate with the Czech Foreign Police - no, don't gasp in disbelief, the "foreign" police do not speak English - and would also have no visa!!

Anyway, she did arrive and we had the most divine week-end with her here.

Friday 18th & Sat 19th, Karlovy Vary:
Adele arrived on Friday afternoon and we took the extended daylight that Europe has to offer and drove straight through to Karlovy Vary. We arrived at around 7pm but still had a couple of hours of daylight to meander a bit through the town and to find a restaurant for supper.



The next morning we set out on foot, ready to spend the day meandering the small village, really excited to see Karlovy Vary again in the sunlight (it was freeeezing the last time we were here).

The girls remembered everything about the place and as we got close to the first spring, they both dashed ahead to find the "snake spring". I had completely forgotten already, but the water sprayed out of the snake and the girls took great delight in showing "Aunty Adele" how is was done.

Now the water here is world renowned for its healing properties, and there are even doctors just specialising in the prescription of the various springs for any ailment. What they don't warn you about however, is how bad the water tastes - according to Adele (and the face vouches for it), it tastes like hot rust would probably taste if you were to lick it off an old car (she was very quick to emphasise the "probably").

Sarah had the right idea though as she discovered that the water really didn't taste too bad if you alternated sipping with licking lollies.

The rest of the morning was spent pretty much just ambling ...

We took the trip up the funicular again to the Diana Lookout and enjoyed a forest walk before having lunch at the foot of the tower

Did we mention that the beer is really good in the CZ?
The girls (all 4 of us) had goulash soup in bread for lunch (and that was not a grammatical fault).

The afternoon was spent ambling up side streets; sitting at coffee shops (drinking beer); ambling down side streets; eating ice-cream on main streets; and finishing off with dinner along the canal.
Sunday 20th, Loket:
We headed back to Loket and sincerely hoped that this time round there would be a little more life in the tiny town of Loket. Our last trip was also on a Sunday and it was a ghost town with only the Vietnamese shops open. This time round we were in luck with a gorgeous day and the town had a very different feel about it. We even had some eye-candy with some road workers working on the bridge (funny, you can actually say that in Europe and not be joking!!!!). We did the tour of the castle and then continued on to the Monastary.

Klaster Tepla:

It had been a very busy week-end already for the tikes and Adele had her share of parenting practice in the back seat with the girls
The Tepla monastery was founded somewhere in the 1300s and is still in use with around 10 monks in residence.

Sarah giving her mother a mild cardiac arrest below while Dad took photos ..

We signed in for the next tour which was in about 30 minutes time and so took the opportunity to walk around the grounds for a bit. We got exactly half way around, however, when we realised that it was time for the tour to start and we ended up running around the grounds to get there on time.
Adele setting up the camera for one of her famous group shots
A view of the monastery and chapel from the back (it was exactly at this point we started to run)

The inside of the monastery showed a former glory with the building severely needing some TLC and millions of Czech crowns.
The room below was the dining room with a really beautiful fresco on the far wall, painted as though the room continues around the corner
After the tour finished, we walked back to the grounds behind the chapel and had the most soulfully refreshing hour or so wandering around the garden and forest beyond the lake. We could quite clearly understand how anyone could be a monk and spend everyday in meditation and prayer in these conditions.

Plzen:
After the monastery, we headed back for Plzen and got home around 6pm. Adele and I then took the gap to go into the centre of Plzen for Adele to see our sleepy little town (which it definitely was at 6pm on a Sunday) while Colin took care the bath and bed routines back home. (I have the most amazing husband!!! He even had to wash and dry their hair while Adele & I sipped coffee and shopped!)

After coffee at the square, we headed off to the 24 hour tesco down the road. Although we went in for bread, milk and jogurt, we spent a good couple of hours extra while Adele revelled in being inside a supermarket from the first world. In every ilse (of which there are MANY), Adele could be heard oohing and aahing over the choices, exclaiming often "if only there was a shop like this in Bangalor ....". Adele used to be my professional shopper back in SA and was my first point of call for advice on perfumes and pretty much the purchase of anything in general. I couldn't believe it, but she was in Tesco for one evening and was already able to provide me with shopping advice on the availability of thai green curry in ilse 10 and peanut sauce in aisle 12!

Monday 21st May, Prague:
On Monday morning, the girls' teacher picked them up for school and we got on the early bus for Prague. We were able to cover a lot more ground without A&S and even got to fit in a good couple of hours sitting soaking up the shade with a beer in hand.

The first port of call was the Prague Castle:

Followed by a walk through Small town, over the Charles Bridge, through New Town (where we stopped for MacDonalds for lunch) and then to Old Town - the Czechs are not altogether creative with their naming of suburbs in this place!

A view of the castle behind Charles Bridge:
Adele on Charles Bridge:

By the time we got to Old Town Square, we were very hot, sunburned and very eagerly ordered 3 large beers.
It was so hot that we were not even too skaam to take off our shoes under the table:
After the recovery rest, we took a walk through Jewish Quarter and took a peek at the old cemetery. There are something like 20000 gravestones in this tiny little cemetery:

With an hour or so to kill before we needed to catch our bus home, we sat along the river bank at a coffee shop to end the day.

Photos of Karlovy Vary

Photos of Loket

Photos of Klášter Teplá

Photos of Plzeň

Photos of Prague