Visiting friends in Plzeň

Anička and Josefinka are Amber and Sarah’s mates from the Eufrat school in Plzeň.  We have met them for play dates since we have been in Prague (Play date with Anička and Josefinka) and during the last meeting, Jiri and Martina suggested that we go to a hockey match with them during the winter season.

Having never been to a live ice hockey match, we eagerly accepted.

Jiri organised us the tickets and on Friday night, 21 November, we planned a trip back to Plzen to watch the match and then to spend the night with them in their home.  Amber and Sarah would spend the evening playing with Anicka and Josefinka with Martini staying home to watch them.

As we left Prague on Friday evening, the first snow of the season started to fall.  It was a great welcome to the winter, snow and an ice hockey match!!  We walked to the stadium during the hardest part of the snow storm and so arrived pretty wet and cold.

The match was phenomenal!  Plzen was playing Znomo and the crowd was wild!  There was even a professional crowd section, where the hard-core Plzen supporters were all dressed in gear and chanting and stomping in time and rhythm – incredible experience!  Unfortunately Plzen lost in the penalty shoot-out, but hey.

This is morning breakfast, with Jiri and Martini at the head of the table and Anicka and Josefinka in the front.

The girls all playing up a storm in the bedroom:

Jiri plays in a jazz band and treated us to some music:

On Saturday, after leaving Jiri and Martina, we headed out into the village to visit Tomas and his horses (previous visit to Tomas).  The road sweepers / snow ploughs are not working on Sundays in his village, so we navigated a very slippery, slidey road to his house and were unnerved by the sight of abandoned cars already in the ditch along the road.

His horses were very sociable today, expecting a treat to emerge:

This one took a special fancy to Sarah’s hood and kept nuzzling his nose right into it – even her hair was taste-tested: Tomas very kindly gave them both a ride before we left as him and his wife were about to go for a ride before evening.

Last day at School in Plzen - Eufrat Skolka

The very sad day arrived when Amber and Sarah had to say good bye to their school and to their most loved teachers and friends, especially Teacher Hanka. The girls planned their party on the Thursday of the last week, taking gifts for the teachers and goodies for treats. Their last day would be the Friday, but it would be spent riding horsies on a farm, so not ideal for flowers and cakes.

Teachers and classmates posing for the camera (before the festivities began)

Class in action

Ever wondered how "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" sounds in Czech?...

(waiting for video)

The girls were very spoilt as they were showered with gifts from their class mates and teachers, thank you so much everyone!

The Eufrat teachers know how to get the class in high spirits and ready for games, inventing dress up themes that the kids love. Not sure what manner of princesses these are, but you can be sure that princesses they were.

I don't think that Teacher Hanka was trying to imitate a princess here - more like an air guitarist...

Teacher Katka behind the mountain of chocolate gifts and flowers

Thank you Eufrat for making our last 18 months in Plzen memorable and enjoyable for our 2 girls - you will be missed!

Week-end in Plzeň

The first week-end of the folks stay with us, turned out by chance, to be a very social week-end with a dinner invitation on the Saturday night; and an afternoon tea invitation for Sunday.

My Boss, George, was celebrating his birthday, and so invited a number of people around for a Saturday afternoon braai, and had his new HD TV shipped in just in time for us to watch SA beat Wales. George in true South African fashion laid on a feast of a braai, with boerewors, sosaties and even the grilled tomato/onion sandwiches.

One of the other couples, a Czech colleague, has daughters about the same age as Amber and Sarah, so they took to the garden instantly and played games all afternoon, and the lack of common language was no problem at all.

Motherdux enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the Czech couple and plied them with questions the whole afternoon about life growing up in the CZ, under communism and out of it. Mom was in her element!

On Sunday, Granny spent some time playing games with the girls:

while the boys spent time discussing important matters downstairs:

After I got back from my run, we headed out to the local parks to let the girls ride their bicycles and get out of the house for a while.

We first went to the park a couple of hundred metres from our apartment, but when I saw Grannie on the distant horizon, eager for a walk, I suggested that we take a walk further and go to the "witches hat park", that has a nice forest as well for the folks to enjoy.

Even though it was a 2km slog uphill, it turned out to be a successful outing: Motherduck propping up a tree






On Sunday afternoon, we were invited to Michal & Štěpánka's house for afternoon tea. They have a huge mansion on the outskirts of Plzeň with a swimming pool and all.

Michal has built his house right next door to his parents, whose garden is a little bit more established than theirs. Michal is also building a pool, but the whole garden is a building site still, so the parent' pool is it.


Mom & Dad surveying the scene:

While Dad works up a sweat:


After swimming, Michal's mom invited M&D to join her for some coffee, so the old folks enjoyed a good chit chat on her patio - while she could speak no English and they could speak no Czech. Needless to say, the conversation was short lived and they soon came strolling back over bearing cakes.

Back home again, and the family enjoying supper in our kitchen.

What to do when the TV no longer inspires...

Running in Plzen

I thought I would share with you some of the spectacular scenary that I get to see on my morning runs here in Plzen...

After about 1km, I reach the forrest. This forrest opens up into a open field where there is a park, so the girls and Colin ride this far and then play until I get back:

On leaving the forrest, you get to an open field at about 3km:
From the field, you have a stunning view across Plzen, with the Rape crops in bloom:
After this field, there are some more forrests and then if you double back, some windy back streets of the suburb and then you pop out into fields of gold:

By the time I got back to the park (about a 9km round trip), the girls were well into the biscuits and juice and were ready to head back home:

Not too shabby, hey Nige!

Sunday at Bolevec Lake and Radyně Castle

The best way to do a 20km run, is to pack the kids bikes, head to the local lake, and let the Sunday run become an entire family outing...

Bolevec lake is the same lake that was completely frozen over in winter where we were ice skating
Believe it or not, there were actually people swimming here this morning - although I think the water temperature did not even pass the big toe test - it is really cold!


In the afternoon, we did an outing to our nearby castle - the view from the top is magnificent!

12th-13th Jan - Tour Day 16-17: Final Roadtrip Home

After leaving Samoëns on Saturday, 12th Jan, we took the route through France, Switzerland, and Germany with an overnight stop at Karlsruhe, roughly halfway to home. The next day we saw a Concord followed by a Tupolev on display, which rapidly caught Pierre's attention, followed even more closely by the "Auto & Technik Museum" sign. We were doomed. There was no way we were going to just drive-by this one.
It was an excellent unscheduled stop: "Situated on an area of over 30.000m² indoors, and in open-air grounds comprising in excess of 50.000m², the Auto & Technik MUSEUM SINSHEIM offers you more than 3.000 exhibits. Among them the original Concorde of the AirFrance plus a russian supersonic-jet Tupolev TU-144 and 300 vintage cars, 200 motorbikes, 40 race- and sports cars, 27 locomotives, 50 airplanes, 150 tractors, steam engines and trucks."

Mishi's favourite was the sea-blue Amphicar: After looking at all the exhibits, we loudly declared that it was lunchtime, followed closely by treats.
(Mandy got Michael's ice cream in her hair)
(which was of course, very funny)
(deserving of the incredulous "look-what-you-did" look)
On arriving in Plzeň, we stopped off at the local uMansfelda Restaurace on the square for din-dins.

Monday, Michelle and Pierre were planning to do Prague and Michael and Mandy joined our girls at school. Michael came home reporting that it was "the best school ever" and when Mandy suggested it took a long time (a full day at school compared to their customary half day back home), Michael explained that they were very lucky because they were given extra time to play.
On Tuesday to Thursday, Michelle, Pierre and Mandy took a train trip to Vienna, giving us an extended family for those 3 days with Michael taking up residence with us, much to the delight of Ams & Saz.
Unfortunately, Friday was pack-up day as the Marais Clan boarded flights back to SA at the crack of dawn.

WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!!! Here's to the next vacation!