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

Indeed a Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all you Mums out there!

Today was a really great Mothers Day for me too. It started off with being allowed to sleep in late (I didn't even hear the family wake up and they had already been through the entire movie of Open Season before I woke up). I then got showered with home made cards and hugs and kisses.

For the first time in a while I actually felt like going for a run and there was opportunity to match, so I did a leisurely 3ker and boy did it feel great! We then set out for coffee & cake on the square. When we got there, we noticed people at the top of the church steeple and decided that it was a good idea to join the tourists (since we are still tourists ourselves) and climbed the 300+ stairs (more like a rickety wooden stepladder) to the top, being dragged up by the very eager Saz. The view from the top was stunning as we had a crystal-clear day. It always amazes me how small our little town is when you add some perspective to it.

The climb down had Saz a little less enthusiastic and she ended up being piggy-backed down by Colin. Next the hunt for coffee and cake (with some photo opportunities on the side ...)
Saz's good shots - like the one below - are pure chance and all thanks to my very automatic little camera. Most of the pics end up without heads and generally without anything in particular actually. (St. Bartholomew Cathedral behind us)
In the late afternoon we set off to investigate the little forest path we had seen perchance from one of our bus rides the other day. The forest opened up quite quickly into a very large clearing where a family were gathered playing soccer and a whole play ground was just waiting for us. The girls charged off and began to play.

Through the clearing into the forest on the other side, we found some trails that headed back down in the direction of home. The girls obliged me with some "poses" for the camera and then they just let rip, running like hooligans in the forest. Making way too much noise for a peaceful Sunday afternoon.

(Colin trying to find satellites for his GPS navigation - he never goes anywhere without it!)
After we left the forest trail, it was still over a km to get home, so we stopped over at the local "Billa" supermarket for water and chocolates (for energy of course... not to mention that it is a great bargaining tool for tired and near winging babies).

Fields of Gold

The first time that we saw the yellow fields was while George (my boss) was driving us to the airport for us to catch our Paris flight. I was speechless for the rest of the journey (a whole hour to Prague) as every field was a blaze of yellow - and far more spectacular than any of our SA sunflower fields. With us having been Plzen bound for 3 weeks, during our last trip to Prague the fields were all a very nondescript green with no hint of the glamour that they were about to give the country. Driving back from our Paris trip on the yellow bus, I was adamant to capture a glimpse of the scene on film. So, hence the very blurry, window smudged photos ....

On Sunday, we were privileged to be invited to one of my Czech colleague's home. He has a 2000 m2 plot and has horses that his wife show jumps. After telling him about our 2 horses in the family that occasionally pose as children (only when it suits them), he insisted that we come around for them to visit his horses. We caught the train to a station near him and he picked us up from there. As yet, I had not satisfied my hunger for the photos of the yellow fields, and so was feverishly snapping away from the violently moving train window.

When we arrived at his home, we were welcomed by very excited dogs and his 2 horses in their stables right by the gate - in fact their kitchen window looks right into the stables. It was an incredibly homey scene with his wife in her riding breeches grooming the horses and the hay in piles nearby. They led their horses out of their stables and My God!!! their one horse was HUGE!!! I think he said that he was 18 hands, but Goliath is a better description. The horse paddock was across the road so we all traipsed back out of the gate and across the road and watched as the horses went bazerk playing in the field, bucking and prancing and generally playing very wildly (all the while being chased and nipped by the very over excited terrier). The girls were gobsmacked. It was like watching the movie Spirit up close and very personal.

When I pulled out my camera to start taking some shots, the very large horse saw the shiny silver thing and decided to investigate, coming straight for us, practically bulldozing A&S (who were rather annoyed at his lack of respect for their personal space) - pic of his approach and the less than approving expression of the Saz below :)