Horní Planá, Czech Republic

Pic of Vera on her "white" beach at Horni Plana. She wasn't too keen for a swim tho lol

Spent the next day vegging (we having found the Czech translation of that yet!) and the day after went for a REALLY long walk/hike for 16+km. Saw the river, some towns, lovely pine forest, farms, strange mutant cow we thought was a rhino/bear (well we had been walking for ages at this point!), lots of sludgy, snowy mud and eventually traipsed back into our penzion to collapse :P

Left Horni Plana for Volary this morning on a very cute little 1 wagon train :) Also spent 1&1/2 hrs wandering around town with our packs searching for a penzion (or pretty much anywhere that would have us!!) that was open. Most towns around here are summer tourism only :( We figured all the walking yesterday was probably good training! Eventually found an apartment which we can go to this evening so we are ignoring the probably price and just being thankful we have a bed!

český krumlov, czech republic

Pics from our 13km hike round Cesky Krumlov after all the snow the day before.

Cesky Krumlov

It is snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so it was snowing yesterday too but it melted as soon as it hit the ground which was rather dissappoinmting :( Today tho it has actually hung around for a while! When we woke up this morning we decided to leave the school work till this arvo and immediately got to the highest point we could get to, to see if there was more snow. Headed up to the castle gardens again where we saw a few other tourists also posing in the snow and attempting to make little snow balls lol. All of us grinning like mad and no doubt making the locals think we are all insane :D We made a huge snowman you can see in the photo ... ok it was about 25cm high, but we stuck it on top of a hedge to take a pic :P then wandered up a nearby hill so we could actually "walk" through the snow - did you know it actually squeaks when you walk on it!?! Anyway great excitement round here and the tourist bureau reckons it will be snowing for a week so we might get enough for a real snowman! Not exactly counting on it tho as it is snowing continuously but melting just as fast :(

Cesky Krumlov

Ahoy! (hi in Cesky) We are now in a beautiful little town called Cesky Krumlov in the southern part of Bohemia (still in Czech Republic). Thankfully our Czech is a lot better now (we bought a proper phrase book in Prague) so we can at least ask for things etc. I must say it let me down last night tho as i had to ask "have you seen a small black dog" and didn't have the phrase book with me. Long story but at least pretending to bark seems to universally convey "dog" or possibly complete insanity so she denied all knowledge and went back inside lol

The hostel we are staying is absolutely gorgeous! It is called Hostel Skippy but is actually named after one of the ladies who owns it (Skippy :) and nothing to do with kangaroos. It is a tiny little place with drawings and paintings all over walls, doors all over the place, lots of exposed wooden beams etc and mismatched bedspreads. The ladies (who live downstairs) play mellow (or reggae) music all the time on cd or actual instruments, the kitchen is tiny and cozy and there is a wooden outdoor area (with chess tables) overhanging the river. Very homely (complete with two little dogs who Vera adores) and we love it :)

prague, czech republic

Well Prague did grow on us like everyone said it would, but we still reckon it is too touristy :) The walking tour of the city was great (thanks Mum ;) and knowing the history of the buildings etc made us appreciate it all more. Did a ghost tour one night as well which was pretty funny! Was just Vera, me, a Welsh mum and daughter (tho the daughter was my age lol) and the guy who did the tour, who was dressed in a long black cloak and carrying an old fashioned flame torch (well like the ones you get in bunnings to go in your garden lol). We had various "ghosts" jumping out at us from around corners as we went which was hilarious as we all screamed. Funnily enough the older Welsh lady and i both confessed afterwards we spent the whole time paranoid he was going to set his cloak on fire with his torch! Must be a Mum thing :P

Also my advice for anyone else coming here is to not attempt to cook dumplings bought from the supermarket when all the instructions are in Czech ... lets just say that having cheese and crackers as a fallback dinner plan is always a good move ;)

Berlin, Germany

Next caught cheap flight from Basel-Mulhouse airport which was an experience in itself :) Flight was fine but the airport is actually ON the border so the board of departures has checkin gates listed as gate1, gate2, France, gate3 lol We had to show our passports to go the the Newsagency 3m away in "France" LMAO

Anyway arrived in Berlin no probs and the next day caught up with Siggi, Reiner and Helen who we stayed with for nearly a week. Berlin is an interesting city and so easy to get around in especially as after a week in France the German was sooooo easy to speak (in comparison). Helen and I had a night on the town which was great fun and Siggi and Reiner took ve out the next day (since we had only gotten home at 6:30am!) while Helen and I sat on the couch all day and chatted and watched Greys Anatomy. Yes i know i'm turning into a "girl" :P

Had a wonderfully relaxing few days with Siggi and Helen both playing tour guide. Then headed off on Tues to Prague.

BTW can't seem to get the mem stick to work (tho it did 5min ago ... a common prob at net cafes we have found :\ ) so will put berlin photos up next time.


Hope you are all well and having as much fun as we are :)

Strasburg, Colmar, Mulhouse, FRANCE

Ok clearly i am very slack at updating! No surprise there considering my usual record of keeping up with emails etc :P

Have included photos of the huge cathedral in Strasburg, Vera being a turtle a the science centre Strasburg, a beautiful little canal filled with old half-wood houses in Colmar and Ve on a trampoline thingy in the town square in Mulhouse (all of which are in France). Unfortunately i'm not much of a graffic artist but at least you can see the pics (well if you turn your head side ways lol)

Anyway, Strasburg was lovely, Colmar was also a very nice little town. We hung out with some of the guys we met at the hostel which was fun - a definite novelty to be able to speak English for a while!! Strangely enough there were no girls at all (besides us) staying at Colmar ... hmmm ... we were too scared to ask why ;) Had a couple of days there and also finally bought a huge slab of nougat we have been seeing in heaps of shops. They make them like a large cake then just divide into wedges!!! OMG sooooo good :) Also did a walk in a nearby town up above the vinyards etc which was beautiful and actually got quite hot! Had fun getting back though cos the town was soo small it didn't even have a ticket machine to get a train ticket home! Thankgoodness we were with a Canadian guy who spoke French to explain to the guard.

Mulhouse was pleasant, tho we went there mainly to access the airport. Made friends with a Swiss mum and daughter from the hostel and Ve had a great time playing with someone her own age. Luckily daisy chains are universal and not dependant on speaking much of the same language :)

Strasburg, France

Meg: In wireless net cafe in Strasburg and have finally got the #$%* mp3 fixed :) Thanks to wonders of modern technology and the help desk at iriver lol. Not to mention am using own keyboard not a french one so life is goooood!!

Ve: We've been to 2 museums, one was the Alsation museum and the other was the zoology museum. My two latest crazes are weaving and metal work - yes i know they are very different, but i think i'd better stick to weaving because i'd be hard pressed to find a forge these days. But it worked out well going to the Alsation museum because we saw a forge, all the kitchen sets, the toys and the wine cellars. We went to the top of the Strasburg cathedral and the view was really really good!