An (un)ordinary weekend

Hayley got the bug in her bonnet to go "Castle Hunting" for the weekend, sounded like a good idea to the rest of the family and so we hired a car and off we set.

Castle hunting in the Czech Republic is not a really challenging thing, you can drive in any given direction for 15 minutes and drive right up to a castle of some kind. If its not a castle it'll be a monastery, church or some other amazing building.

We have a picture map of the CR with the major castles and chateaux in picture on the map. One can scarcely make out the towns for the castles! Anyway, you can point to any point on the map and you'll find a castle or 2 under your finger, if you like the sound of it, then you've got a good place to start, it's really that simple.

To begin with we went to the Karlstein Castle via the Koněpruské Caves. We got to the caves expecting to freeze down below - apparently the average temp in the caves is about 10 degrees even though its a cooking summer outside. It was actually quite refreshing to walk into the cool caves.

There are a bunch of quarries nearby and on the way to the cave mouth we came upon this quite unique little display. People have arranged stones into shapes and messages on the valley floor, and viewed from the top, looks quite amazing.

The Czechs love their graffiti and will mark any surface you give them, walls, floors, covers, bus stops, chairs and I would say they are one of the most tattooed and pierced cultures on the planet - I've not seen anything like it. So I guess, why should a valley floor be any different? In this case i think its quite creative - Its when they spray paint every building and wall etc wherever there is a gap it gets a bit much - they definitely could use a Giuliani here!

Bugz and the babies descend into the depths... Most of the tour occurs on the middle of 3 levels at about 40M below the surface, but the known depths go to about 70M.

There are dozens of stunning calcite formations in the cave - this one called "The Organ" because it looks like the pipes of an organ hanging from the ledge. The scale is difficult to see here, but the width is about 3M where the stalactites hang. There are a lots of other examples of "Pigs Ears", "Roses" and I can't remember what else. Very pretty to look at and in the main, very very old.
This stalagmite has disintegrated from internal pressures - it is about 250 000 years old and you can see the strata in detail layer by layer in the broken rock. Some of the roses we saw were over 1.5 million years old! Better not tell Kent Hovind though, I wonder if he has a theory on how these geological formations can be completed in 6000 years. He sure has time enough to think about it now - 10 years in jail is a long time...
As the tour came to an end Amber began to get restless, she kept telling me she was afraid and then the defining moment came... The tour guide said they would like to show us one last thing on the tour - "The darkness of the caves" with this she switched off the lights. That darkness is so deep... Amber couldn't cope - good thing she was close to me and I could talk her through it, but those lights couldn't come on soon enough. Poor thing, by the time there was light again her little face was wet with tears and everyone in the cave knew with no doubt that there was a distressed baby in there with them.

We soothed strained nerves with some ice cream and went on our way. Next on the itinerary was Karlstejn Castle. One of the more important castles in CZ - it was Charles IV summer home and keep for the jewels of the empire. Lovely place, well maintained... This is the view from the approach.
From the car park to the castle is about 3 Kms uphill through the town of Karlstejn. Needless to say this is a great opportunity for parents to get some unscheduled exercise in as we cart hapless kids up the hill on our backs... Bugz and the babies at the beginning of the trek, castle in background
Any distraction will do if climbing hills is on the cards! Here the kids are in one of the dozens of shops that line the road to the castle. This little town must make an absolute mint from tourists - there are hundreds of them, and they are all buying something.

There are taxi services that run to the top of the hill, many of them horse-drawn much to the delight of our horsie people. This one approaching has a wedding party aboard - they are going up to the castle for the ceremony. Now that's cool! What a venue.
Another reason to stop - the almost perpetual need for refreshments and then the consequential stops to offload the refreshments again. Here, in the very welcome coolth of a rockface I am a quite willing table...
View of the castle courtyard from the main gate. There was a lot of restoration work going on when we were there - scaffolding everywhere, not pretty on photos, but a great sign.
The girls catch up with the horsies that brought the bride to the wedding - they were convinced that she was a princess.
From the other side of the courtyard, the view back onto the castle - stunning

Although the castle is on a hilltop, the hill is lower than others nearby, defensively a bit weird, but apparently effective enough. The tower in this view from the battlements is the well tower - the original huge wheel use to hoist the water up all those levels is still in place from Charles time - 1300's My favourite 3 girls in the bell tower
After dinner at the foot of the mountain in a very pleasant pub we had a bit of a drive to Kutna Hora (Cowl Hill) for our doo doos.

Our diggs for the evening - Penzion Centrum turned out to be an interesting place. I think the newest piece of furniture in the room was from the early '70's and not in any worthwhile condition. There were only gauze curtains hanging on the windows which faced the road, so no nakedness allowed and when the sun comes up, we are going to be awakened by merciless babies who have no problem jumping on their sleeping parents and whose boredom is very unsympathetic to the state of the tired old people in bed.

There was a Jacuzzi bath in the bathroom (with no plug - this had to be requested from the tannie at reception), I think it was one of the first ever made, but when I saw it I could imagine soaking for a bit in the bubbles... there was gonna be some time spent in the tub! So Hayley turned on the jets while the girls were in the bath to show them what a jacuzzi is... and as one would expect, 30 years worth of rust and what must be the beautiful remains of 500 other people's baths rushed out... let me stop telling the story here.

This old church was in front of the penzion - pretty by street light, this shot is from our balcony.

In the morning we went down for breakfast, and here in the dining room is some dude passed out on the couch with a full ashtray the size of a fruit bowl on the table next to him, some arbitrary cartoon channel on the small TV against the wall playing, curtains still all drawn and the room smelt like someone had left an old tractor idling in there overnight. Needless to say, we opted to have breakfast in the garden. If anyone is planning to stay the the Penzion Central in Kutna Hora - DON'T!

Kutna Hora is an unusually pretty little town, originally wealthy from the silver mines here and steeped in history - it seems that there isn't a town anywhere that isn't. This is the view down the boulevard that leads to the Church of St Barbara an amazing building behind me in this shot.

The girls are checking out all that's going on in the valley below

This is the church - it took a little over 500 years to complete due to a stack of delays, wars and other things, glad they did finish it though... have a look
This is a view from the side where the lighting was better, the shot above really needs to be taken in the late afternoon when the intense back-light has gone away.

Inside the place is stunning and also undergoing lots of restoration.

View over the town from near the church

This is the Corpus Christi chapel near the church. It was an ossuary previously but they had buried the remains beneath the floor, until the renovations (which included excavating the floor) were underway. They had photos of the piles of bones dug up on display absolutely unbelievable! I'm glad that this decorating style has gone out of fashion. There is another ossuary in the neighbourhood where the remains of about 40 000 people decorate the building! We decided against visiting it though - can you imagine trying to explain something like that to Amber and Saz? "Well sweetie, some people just like having lots of dead people's bones on the walls to make the place look pretty... you know, we have posters of winnie and barbie, plants and teddies - they have dead peoples heads in rows because they think it looks nice... "

Here the girls draw up a storm while we looked around

Below is the "Stone Fountain" built in the 15th cent, and originally used to store drinking water for the towns folk. Water still running perpetually and you can't get past any water without A&S getting a bit wet...
It's nearly lunch time!
We found this stunning restaurant along the road to the Church - really great location, the view is down over the valley - I didn't want to leave...
Peekaboo...
There was going to be another castle on the way home, but we had difficulty finding the one we wanted and instead discovered a new sleepy town built on the banks of a large river with people swimming and generally having a ball - we'll be going back to do it some more justice soon.

We drove past this one without even expecting it - never mind it can be a day trip for another weekend.

The kids still wanted one more castle, so we stopped in at Hrad Radyne, our local ruin - and had a look around. This one has been re-built in large part, but not roofed or anything and the open floors have fallen through so its cavernous inside - I'd love to be a time-travelling fly on the wall!


Short walk in the surrounding forest and its time to go home and get ready for another week.

Castle Hunting in the Forrests of Bohemia

Blog on it's way. Here are some photies so long ...

Going to School

Amber & Saz love riding their bikes to school ...

One toy has the privilege of riding in their baskets and is always carefully chosen before leaving the house.



Dad is the one who is either pulling them up the hills; holding them back on the downhills; or running after them on the flats.

Let the countdown begin...

Amber (particularly) and Sarah have been hounding us to get out of the house so that they can travel some place!
For whatever reason our kids can't figure out what past and future are, I don't know if this is normal, but they can't even talk accurately about yesterday or tomorrow!

Anyhow, to smooth the frayed minds trying to grasp the meaning of "2 more weeks before Italy" we created an "Italy Worm" to help.
My Mom used to make "Sally Worms" way back during the '70's civil war in Zim counting down the days till Dad got back from army. I remember how they worked for us back then so I figured one had a shot at working now.

Saz and Amber decorated the worm and we hung it up this evening - have a look...

Visit to Tomáš

Apparently, it was "World Childrens' Day" on the 1st June. Now please tell me why no-one ever told us about this at the tip of Africa while I was a children ???. How we used to think it was so rude to have a Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day and everyone forgot about us children!

Tomáš' village was celebrating the occasion with a "Fair" in their local playground and we were invited to join in the fun and games. The children had the most kiddies type fun that they have had in a while with us - painting; shooting water guns; playing skittles; sliding; being dished out handfulls of sweets; blowing bubbles; and riding in a horse-drawn cart!

Tomáš and his wife Elena to my left:





After all the games, we went back to Tomáš' yard for our first "non-South African" braai - a "grilovaný". Which, quite frankly was absolutely no different to the way we do it back home. Absolutely devine! I also had my first glass of wine since leaving the fair cape, and ironically it was not even Czech, but Hungarian white wine.

The "horses" even came to supper that evening ...


Tomáš and Elena:

After supper, Tomáš took us to see the local "castle" in the village. It was a chateaux that was linked to the local monastery and has been neglected for a few decades....

Thanks Tomáš! Next dinner date will be boerewors, pap and spinach relish at The Woods'!!

More Pics

File this one under "Misc.."

Adjustments!
So, the summer solstice is nearly here and we currently have close to 20 hours of light per day - the dawns and dusks are extended though so i guess the sun is not technically "up" for more than about 18 of those. It finally gets dark at about 10pm and then light again around 4 am - being a bird in Europe must be a drag! Imagine having to get up before dawn! That's like 2 hours sleep per day - I know I'd complain!
Getting the girls to sleep is also a challenge as you can imagine with broad daylight outside - we still have the blinds drawn at 9pm to keep the sun out coz its so hot. First of all, we continually underestimate how late it is, and secondly, you try tell 4 & 5 years-olds that they need to go to sleep while the sun is still up and see if they believe you. Then of course, getting them up in the mornings sometimes needs creativity because they've not had the needed hours of outage to regenerate those baby batteries.

Soon we'll be in Italy! It's peak tourist season and I expect to have to mill around with the other million people who also want to see the wonderful sights, I think Paris was a good enough training run though.
But I can't help wondering about our little formalities that we'll encounter at the airport this time. I joke not when I say that every time we've been on a plane since we left, the regulations covering what you're allowed or not on the plane has been different.
One thing I must admit is that the volume of liquids allowed in carry-on luggage has remained constant - 200ml of this, 50ml of that and so on.

What has been of some interest is how you can treat liquid and gel articles and the logic behind it. The reason for the liquid restrictions is not so that, if a cosmetics fight breaks out on the plane the participants have more ammo at their disposal than can be cleaned up by the staff before the plane has to get going on its next flight.
C'mon, you know how many times you've wanted to start the game by squirting the guy across the plane with your hair conditioner. Or anointing the smelly guy in the row in front by tipping your cologne over his head. Then, the little girl across the way engages the combat by flicking stripes of toothpaste at you off the end of a toothbrush, and well, its just mayhem from here on isn't it.

But rather, the rationale is that, using a diabolical mixture of readily accessible items you can craft a cocktail of destruction and blow a hole in the plane. I thought it was smart that they only allowed small containers. So, even if you only have a little shampoo left in the bottle, but the bottle is, say a 300ml bottle, this is not allowed. Makes sense, coz, then you could mix the agents in the bottle and blow up the plane! These guys think of everything. But then they said, you have to put all your items in a clear zip-lock bag. At first this was puzzling, but I figured that, you must be able to see them better if they are in a clear bag than by individual examination. Non-zip-lock bags are not allowed. Also, it conveniently gives you a new place to mix your explosives - conveniently held together in a zip-lock bag to avoid those unwanted spills! I wonder how much of a Nitro-type mixture can go bang seriously enough to make a hole in a plane, or kill a few people on board - you know, critical ones like the pilot. Surely a few hundred ml's could do the trick.

Also, you can pack all you want in you check-in luggage! This is perfectly sound thinking, now, you can avoid all the bother and nuisance of large explosions in the cabin as they are all safely contained in the hold.
One last tip for aspiring arsonists - if you forget an ingredient at home, or if security confiscated your product you can buy any volume of it after you've passed security and carry it right onto the plane. I think this is because they only sell non-explosive glycerin gels in the pharmacies after security.

Still, I guess any obstacle to people wanting to blow up planes is a plus though - at least we won't have any dim terrorists on the plane - only smart ones.

"La Dolce Vita"

We are planning a 10 day trip to Italy!!! This really is "the sweet life!"

p.s. If you have any friends we can shack up with in Florence, Rome or Venice please let us know ... the accommodation bill is killing us! :)

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.