Mnichovo Hradiště

We spent a week at Liba's (Franny's mom) home in Mnichovo Hradiště. According to wikipedia this is

"a town in the Central Bohemian Region in the Czech Republic. Its population is 8,500.
The town was first mentioned in 1279 and contains a Renaissance castle which used to belong to the Wallenstein family. The remains of Albrecht von Wallenstein were moved from Jičín to the castle of Mnichovo Hradiště in 1723."

We were joined by a family, the Edwards', who are friends of Stan and Franny. They too have 6 kids so it was crammed but fun. Luckily the house has a huge garden!

Raph is going to tell about his week's experience:

"When I got there I thought 'this is definitely definitely not as fun as the mill' but it turned out I was completely wrong. The garden was huge and very good for playing 123 block in, a game which we loved to play.

Then we went into town for the first time. It was not the same as Cape Town or any SA city cos of its old buildings and colourful houses. The shops were completely random. They threw in CDs, a bunch of books, and clothing and that was one of their stores. But it was fun to browse and look around. Then we met up with the Edwards family. And then things started to get really fun. So by the time we had finished our stay there I didn't think what I had first thought any more.

There was a big manor house with a clock that struck every hour - very handy for knowing the time. We walked there and it was massive and full of old statues cos I looked through a crack in a door and instead of a hall with seats there was a stage and all these massive statues of animals and people riding them and things like that.

When we left there, Joseph, Daniel and I (the 3 oldest boys) caught a bus without any adults to the metro station. Then we continued on on the underground metro and caught another bus through to Prague. But the metro went really fast! We looked out and all we could see was pipes whizzing by every second.

The place at Prague (Liba's flat) was a bit weird cos when we went into the street everything seemed deserted. (It was in a residential part of Prague, Praha 6). Mom stayed in Prague but I went back to the mill. We're going to Prague again before we leave so I will get to see the proper Prague.

So far I have REALLY enjoyed my stay at the mill and outside of the mill.

Heading off to A Place Near Prague

No idea what it's called... where there won't be internet so will play catchup here once we're back online.

Prague itself, plus the church with the bones, will be visited at some point this week (all being well) so there will be plenty to tell and show next week.

Till then...

Cesky Krumlov

Today was a quiet one at the mill after 2 days ooot and abooot.

Yesterday we visited Cesky Krumlov, which Wikipedia tells us (she said, lazily) "a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, best known for the fine architecture and art of the historic old town and Český Krumlov Castle. Old Český Krumlov is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was given this status along with the historic Prague castle district."

I call it a very picturesque and fascinating medieval town crammed with gorgeous original buildings lining winding cobbled streets, loads of shops full of lekker tourist items, books, art supplies and of course marionettes, and a place where I lost Raph for the longest 20 minutes ever. But he wasn't lost, I just thought he was. However it was still scary running through confusing alleys and into every shop looking for that one familiar face in a crowd of non-English speaking weekenders. Big up to Stan & Franny for remaining calm and helping me search...

We enjoyed lunch together and made quite a dent in our 'gift buying' list.

Afterwards we went to collect Emma and Jan from the summer camp they'd been at and watched a play (in Czech, 3 scenes from a CS Lewis book) and ate some roasted pig.

A great day all together :-)

This morning was hot hot hot then we had a wonderful, long thunderstorm with warm rain (i love that) I sat in the garden in the rain watching the chickens.

One of which I later watched being cut open and cooked for broth.

Uhuh. True story.

Aaah country life :-)

:-)

Pilzen, Home of Pilsner :-D

Today we caught a train to Pilzen, where the Pilsner factory holds a prime position. The historic centre of the city has some incredible buildings including a massive synagogue and a large black cathedral that dominates the town square.

After spending time in this part of town we went to the Pilsner factory for a long but mostly interesting tour (in English by an old, very proper gentleman who seemed pretty strict in his suit complete with Pilsner tie, but turned out to be quite sweet.) Parts of the factory were boiling hot but it ended in these long underground tunnels (9 km of them!) where the temperature is kept at 6 deg. C - very cold! The reward of the 90 minute tour was a cup of the amber nectar served straight from the huge barrel.

We then enjoyed sausage with mustard and very strong horseradish and more Pilsner (not for the kids :)) in the courtyard of the factory and made our way back to the train station.

Another 24 hours in paradise...

Highlights of the past 24 hours include a Czech style braai / BBQ which consists of a sitting around a fire in the garden and 'roasting' fat juicy sausages on long thin pointed sticks. These were devoured with Czech mustard, raw garlic (!) blue cheese and cucumbers on bread. Pungent but delicious when enjoyed with a glass or 3 of red wine around the fire.

Today after an early start (Raph and I doing some schoolwork before the others woke up) we had a chilled day at the mill, sitting around in the sun reading, swimming, walking into the village (I took the baby, Gabriel, for his sleep-walk in the pram). There was a sad lost hour spent hunting for my retainer believe it or not but at least Franny found it so catastrophe & trip to the local dentist were avoided.

I played 1-2-3 block myself with Raph and Daniel, reliving my childhood by teaching them the "1 potato 2 potato" method of deciding who was on.

Lunch, made by 'Baba' (Franny's gran) was a traditional dish of ravioli-type pastries made from potato flour and stuffed with a think jam, deepfried and served sprinkled with toasted crumbs. Raph wasn't all that mad about it but I enjoyed it.

Raph, Daniel, Franny and I just came back from a beautiful walk to the 'source' - where the family gets their drinking water - ice cold fresh water gushing from the ground via a handy pipe. Delicious and ice cold.

I saw that woman yesterday.

You know the one - she's old, plump, a little bent over and wearing a red and white checked apron and is always photographed outside cottages with a windowbox of red flowers behind her. You can see her in most photography books of old European towns and sure enough I saw her as we drove from Prague airport yesterday through the enchanting countryside of Bohemia.

In fact the little villages the narrow road wound through with their old, rustic houses looked like they belonged on the set of some movie. But this is a real place, a beautiful, unrealistically charming, yet authentic place that exists like something frozen in time.

The mill where we are staying is just the same - tumbledown, rustic, looks like it was made to appear as it is but it's genuine, not a reasonable facsimile of something from a bygone era.



These are just a few images from where we are staying thanks to Franny's dad and grandmother's hospitality.


ps sadly I didn't get a photo of the red checked apron woman as we drove by too fast.

Catch up time - the flight over ...

So we've been here at the Mill for 24 hours & it's time to catch up on our flight over here. It was as all flights should be - half empty, new & comfortable plane, good inflight entertainment, minimal bumps along the way & even a decent supper (we'll not talk about the breakfast tho). The flight from Frankfurt to Prague was dull and made unpleasant by the man next to me having abominable breath.

Some pics from the trip - inside the plane & waiting at Frankfurt for the interconnecting flight.

As you can see we didn't sleep all night and were VERY tired by the time we got to Germany.

Sitting at Jozi Airport

first bit of the flight from CT was uneventful and calm. forgot to ask for window seats but luckily we have them for the next flight. remembered why i hate landing so much, all that descending...

have made the obligatory stop at the purfume counter in duty free (and R got Eternity for Men sprayed so we smell good - for now!)

Have explained to R the need to have 'code' names for other people on the plane so we can comment on them if needs be without being rude. you know me and eavesdropping :))

Better get moving, got to find the bathrooms before we board.

xx

Today's the Day

Raph here -I woke up this morning thinkin: ow frek not another @!#*##!@@# schoolday with @!$#* teachers handing out !!@#*??#@* maths. But then my brain went: crrrrrrrrrrrrr what no crrrrrrrrrrrrrrr todays the day!!!! and I yelled: ye bru TODAYS THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Night and Tonight

This was my bed last night - piles of clothes, books and a guide to Prague.

Tonight: 2 x packed and labled and ready to go backpacks.

One more sleep! If I can get to sleep that is...

Ever since Raph was tiny I've been promising him we'd go travel when he was 10. I'm a couple months late (he turned 11 in June) and we can't afford the round the world trip I wanted but we're going.

I want to show him there's more to the world than Fish Hoek and the local mall and computer games, while he's still young enough to be excited.

Raph's turn

Raph here. When we get to Czech I want to get off the plane and not feel like it's some strange country like if I was going to Germany in the world war, cause I'm scared that when I get there it will be kind of creepy being far from home, cos I haven't been far from SA since I was 1 year's old.



The things I'm looking forward to are:

• living at the Mill


• seeing all my family & cuzzies


• going to Prague


• going to the Sedlec Ossuary


• seeing all the castles


• going on a plane

I can't wait! It's Friday! And we go on Monday!! Last day of school today and it's the funnest day cos we have assembly at the beginning of school, then we do PT after break, then we do recorder at the end of the day, and I have civvies today.

Some suggestions...

I just popped over to the Dean St bookshop to see about a Rough Guide to Prague but couldn't bring myself to spend that much (trying to save for spending there - plus with having a Czech sis-in-law I reckon I'll get to find out the secrets of the locals...

But someone I work with (thanks Mischa!) who has been to Prague emailed me a few minutes ago with a wonderful list of ideas... her email as follows:

Have a wonderful trip. The astrological clock is amazing and the
Charles Bridge …. Ugh….I spent a night sitting on it in my young days and just
soaking up the atmosphere. It is divine and so magical.

The
(Malastrava) – forget the spelling - is the area on the other side of the
bridge ( St Vitus side) which has lots of stunning restaurants – nice food but
pricey.

I loved the marionettes and bought a few
back.

St Vitus Cathedral is awesome and there is a monasatery
nearby with a wall that I sat on to get stunning views of the city.

Also worthwhile to get a boat and do little boat trips through the
canal they have – very scenic. The potato dumplings are interesting and the beer
is quite drinkable.

I also did an evening Ghost Tour which was
great

Enjoy – I am jealous!

If you've got any ideas please let me know - in the comments section below.

Vocab? No-cab!

So I decided to try learn a few basic Czech phrases before heading for that country, and Google spat out the following:

Basic Czech vocabulary

I don't know nevím
I don't understand nerozumím
best regards s upřímným pozdravem
cheers na zdraví
do you speak English mluvíte anglicky
good day dobrý den
good evening dobrý večer
good luck hodně štěstí
happy birthday všechno nejlepší
hello ahoj, nazdar
how are you jak se máš
how much is it kolik stojí
many thanks mokcrát děkuji
my name is jmenuji se
no ne
sorry promiň
sorry prosím
thank you very much děkuji pěkně
yes ano
you're welcome není zač

Great.
I can't pronounce even the most basic of words here apart from ano and ne. Which might not get me too far at the local village shop, let alone round Prague on a bus.

:-) Frannie will have to give R and me lessons before we venture forth from the Mill.

PS I vow hereby to my readers I won't be one of those poncy people who travel somewhere once and for the rest of their lives pronounce place names like the locals. So it'll be Prague, not Praha on here. I dated a man once (literally, one date) who among other annoying things like reading me Spanish poetry (hello! I don't speak Spanish) insisted on telling me of his many far-flung travels and it was Roma this, Porto that and Paree the other. An. Noy. Ing.

Eeek - just a week left...

...and still so much to do. G and the kids being in a car accident on Friday means that although they're all fine (yay!) the car is now at the panel beaters which is going to make doing stuff a little tricky. So that wasn't great timing, but at least no-one was hurt.

Getting really nervous about the flight due to the last time I flew being years ago, and a bumpy ride. What happened to the 20-year old I once was who flew here, there and everywhere without batting an eyelid? Motherhood's made me a wuss!

Raph, on the other hand, is soooo excited. We lay on his bed last night talking about how we imagine it's going to be and I was explaining to him how things are on the plane (not the bumpy bits, the other stuff) - it's all a huge adventure for him. And for me.

Not so happy to hear the weather there is a bit up and down - was looking forward to a month of summer, but then Cape Town's been so stunning this winter I can't really complain.

Have been checking out (yes ha ha) a bunch of blogs by people who have been to Czech and figuring out some of the things I really want to do / see inbetween just chilling in rural Bohemia.

I'm definitely thinking this has to be on the list:

Make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the world's best beer - the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzeň, in West Bohemia (website: www.prazdroj.cz).

And then for the goosebump factor - Get the creeps at Sedlec Ossuary, where the centuries-old bones of around 40,000 people have been crafted into a stunning display of garlands, chandeliers, sculptures and coats of arms (website: www.kostnice.cz).

(Source)

12 Days To Go

Until The Raphster and I (left, last winter) head for Czech.

Tickets and visas are all sorted, cash is being transferred into my cheque account from my savings, G has bought us shiny new backpacks for travelling...

Still to do:
1. Buy stuffs for the family over there as per Pick n Pay shopping list
2. Draw money for Mom to pay bills at the end of July
3. Change cash into Euros & check that credit card is good for international use
4. Buy some gifts to take with
5. Pack according to the list I've made. But that's not gonna happen till the weekend before we fly
6. Avoid getting swine flu (Raph and I)!
7. Get school work from R's teachers for while we're away
8. Buy diary / scrap book for documenting our travels
9. Call Raph's Judo and swimming teachers and arrange for the month off