Flying visit to the Oktoberfest 08

Making assumptions based on the name of an event can leave you high & dry.

Last year, we casually let October pass us by, with all the best intentions of getting to Munich as some point during October to witness the Oktoberfest.  It was only somewhere in the last 3rd of the month that we realised that it was actually held in September and that we had missed the whole thing by a factor of weeks!

This year we were determined not to live within 400km of the biggest beer festival and to miss it for a second time.  Well, we nearly did again.

We again woke up to the fact that it was indeed October and that the coming week-end would be the closing week-end of the festival.  So, come Thursday and we are frantically trawling the web for accommodation for the week-end.

Saturday morning and it is freezing.  We join the throngs entering the grounds and are immediately stunned by the impression of a theme park rather than a beer festival.  There are more rides “than you can shake a stick at” and the girls very suddenly perk up.

We inevitably end up promising rides and subsequently spend most of the day with our stomachs upside down.     

This event brings out the pride of yesteryear, with every manner of traditional fashion on parade (when most of them should be kept in the closet or thrown out a few centuries ago).

We eventually made it into two of the great beer halls – although with kids in tow, we ended up taking a few snappies and then leaving it to the grown ups.  (We made a mental note to come back next year without the girls :))

Spot the jugs on the chick below…

Little tummies signalled “supper time” and we left the grounds in search of a restaurant.  I think we were scaring off the camera man or something.

And believe it or not, this was when we raised our first pint of beer for the day, in an Italian restaurant in Munich after leaving the world’s largest beer festival!

A frauline posing with the girls who though she was the most beautiful princess ever!Sunday, and off to the festival again.  More rides; still no beer!  And some very strange sights on the road!

Octoberfest Time!

We are going to Munich for the Octoberfest this weekend! We'll raise a pint for you!

Update:
I just made a Photosynth of one of the beer tents - it's not a great synth, but you get the idea - have a look here...

Meeting friends for dinner @ Petřín Hill

Some friends of Colin were in Prague for a week after sky diving in London and we planned to meet them for dinner on Petřín Hill. 

It is one of the tourist stops that we have been meaning to do since we moved to the CZ, but never got round to it.  It is a hill with a tower and is covered in park land and a very reputable restaurant.  There is an old funicular that takes you to the top that was first opened in 18somethin.

We got there a few minutes early and after posing for all the regulatory photo shoots quickly found out that the restaurant was closed. 

The girls below are pointing to the “babies” tower in the background (in the very far distance), which is the tower next to our apartment.

A closer view of our “babies” tower…

This is the restaurant that we almost had supper in…

And this is us doing our best to “strike a pose” And this is me and my hunny (in case you couldn’t guess).

Play date with Anička and Josefinka

It has been over a month since the girls left Eufrat school in Plzen and there has been much pining for their friends.

Anička was Sarah’s good mate from school and when their parents let us know that they would be in Prague on the Sunday, we jumped at the chance to meet them for a play date at McDonalds at lunch.

The gang together:

Sarah with Anička:

Sarah with Josefinka:

Our Gorgeous Red-Head

For the friends and family who remember a wiggling baby Sarah... Look again!

First day at Ballet

There has been a massive count down after we enrolled the girls and bought their kit. There was great excitement last week after we bought all their gear as we came home and tried it all on, with Mom carefully sewing elastics on to ballet shoes and little bows on to leotards. The girls dressed up in their costumes; their hair was all done; and we paged through their new ballet book trying out all the moves.

Finally, the big day arrived for the first ballet class! Today teacher Helena picked them up from school and took them to their first lesson.

I think they were pretending to be kittens in their class, but either way, the 2nd pose definitely looks more appropriate...

Knoodeling down the canal

Canoeing down the Ohře, more precisely.

One week into Amber's new school term the first outing is planned. It is to be a canoe trip. The parents are keen to go along to meet other parents and school peeps, and mingle a bit whilst having some fun with the girls.

What is more, faaaall (as the Americans say - to the English-speaking world "Autumn") can be seen storming down on us and this is a good time to enjoy the outdoors before it arrives.

The trip is going to take up Saturday, and is scheduled to begin about an hour south of Prague at Tynec, but there is not enough water in the river, and so we will paddle the Ohře between Hrad Loket (a very nice castle) and Karlovy Vary, our oft-visited haunt.

The country out there is picture pretty and so we are all looking forward to it.

All the necessary prep was done on Friday, which was simultaneously our anniversary date night, and so it was a late and somewhat wined night.

Needless to say, the Wood household, slow in the mornings when speed is in the air, was out of the starting blocks about an hour after the pistol sounded. Our trademark haste was in evidence as we scrambled for the subway to the meeting point. However, as we left the apartment, it became clear that summer, which has been ruling unopposed for the last weeks had abdicated, faaaaall was negotiated out of the deal, and winter seemed to have everything under control.

Ignoring the immediate exclamations from the girls as we left the building, we somehow convinced ourselves and out offspring that it would warm up as soon as we got into the sun. Problematically, the sun didn't show up.

Chilled, we arrived at the departure point, a full 30 minutes late and, thank heavens, not the last to arrive! Logistics sorted, we make for the hills and, apart from Sarah returning her early-morning Mc Donalds chocolate doughnut partly digested into a cardboard cup, the trip went along smoothly enough.

Upon arrival at the river, the temperature was a bold 7 degrees, and I'm not talking about the water. 7 degrees is not ordinarily any kind of problem at all, but when all you are prepared for is the mid 20's, 7 is a challenge. 7 with wind is even worse... we had wind.

*sigh*

Leslie (the principal) giving the law and safety drill to a shivering crowd.

It was cold! The change of clothes we'd taken in case one got wet were put on, with the raincoats over that to keep the wind out.

That, with the addition of a life jacket worked long enough to get us onto the river, and then, with all the exercise, the warmth came back... slowly.

We 4 were on a raft with another couple, so remained together for the duration. We had considered taking 2 canoes instead of the raft, but the thought of being lone paddlers for the entire trip seemed a tough ask and so we opted for the raft thinking it would be easier...

Praise the Lord, Hallelujah and glory to God... the sun came out almost as soon as we were on the water. The river lit up and was a real beauty...

Enlarge the one above... moments before, or should that be minutes before, all the leaves you see on the surface of the water were falling from a tree on the river bank, right in the middle of a sunbeam. It looked like giant, golden glitter bits falling onto the water. I wanted to capture it on camera, but you know... the camera was in a zip-lock bag as a precaution and, as with so many other precautions, by the time I had finished dealing with them, the magic moment had passed! Bother! From that moment forward, the camera ran the risk of swimming precaution free! It's close enough to upgrade time to take a little risk ;)

We stopped for some well-earned lunch at this wonderful spot on the river, opposite a rock-climbers paradise, with a good number of them in paradise.

All my girls attending to hunger on the river bank.

This was the lunch stop, looking ahead from the previous shot - BTW, all these photos are geotagged, so, you can have them show up in Google Earth, MS Maps etc if you feel inclined. I want to find an easy way of doing this right here in the blog, but haven't gotten around to that just yet.

Now all filled up, back to nature and the shallow river Ohře.

Job (the organiser), his wife Jana and their mutt Alex, enjoying the ride.

Apart from stopping to go around a weir (which would have been WAY more fun to go over) we didn't stop until we got to Karlovy Vary and the endpoint.

De-boated, and in the little remaining sunlight of the afternoon, the kids had some fun running around while we waited for everyone to arrive and trek all the way back to Praha again.

Only 2 of us were awake by the time we got home, and we all 4 will be sleeping well!

9th Anniversary

This year’s anniversary crept upon us in stealth mode with all the goings on of moving house and finding schools…

We managed to organise the au-pair for the night and so we set off for din-dins at “cowboys”. The restaurant is set just below the castle wall and has a fantastic view of the city from the terrace.

We approached the restaurant from the top of the castle wall and here it is below:

And the view of the city…

Homework Time

School is only a few days in and we are already into homework mode.

In the girls new bedroom though, we are really organised with desks and mini office chairs for them to work at.

Dad the homework director: