06/08/08 - Our big day in Prague.

It was back on the tram into the town centre of Prague at about 9.30
for a full days sightseeing around 'the City of a Thousand Spires'.
The morning was taken up with a 'free' walking tour of the east bank
of the Vltava River where the old and 'new' towns are.

We appreciated the different eras of Prague's architectural styles:
Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Neo-Classicism, Neo-Gothic,
Art Nouveau, Art Deco.... right up the unique Czech Cubist style. Any
architect interested in the time-line of different building styles
would definitely have field day here.

Again, like all of the other eastern bloc countries, Communism played
a huge role after World War 2. Although compared to the Baltic
countries, Russia did not take over what was then Czechoslovakia, but
through funding of the local Communist Party and later, using tanks in
1968 averting a potential uprising, they definitely played their part.
Our guide was 18 in 1989 when communism finally fell, so he was able
to share his own experiences of that time. They were certainly not
able to travel freely like we do today, only being able to obtain
visas to other eastern bloc countries. Also due to the small range of
food and goods that was available - if there ever was a queue on the
street, they didn't find out what the queue was for, they just joined
it. It was certain to be for a good that didn't often make it into the
country e.g. Tropical fruit only came 4 times a year.

By the end of the tour we were starting feel it a little in our legs,
so took a leisurely hour and a half lunch (in a Korean restaurant in
Prague?? Marea was hangin out for sushi) - then headed over the river
to the two western towns or districts. These being Hradcany where
the Prague Castle looks over the city, and Malá Strana (Little
Quarter). It wasn't until the 18th century that the four towns
amalgamated politically into the one Prague.

Prague Castle is not the type of old stone castle that you normally
picture when thinking of a castle sitting up on top of a hill, instead
it is a very grand 'modern' (i.e. approx 200 years old) series of
buildings. I guess one of the reasons for this is that this castle is
still a fully functioning, living castle - as the President of Czech
Republic currently resides in the castle.

With the legs hurting we parked ourselves on an island in the middle
of the river to rest up and watch the tourists in their paddle boats
quietly float about. Our comfort didn't last long though, as we were
told to move cause the island was about to turn into a movie theatre -
with a big sheet hanging between the trees for the screen.

Off then to find some dinner, and finally at about 11.30pm we were
'home' - 14 hours of 'doing the tourist thing', of which over 10 hours
was spent on our feet in the hot sunshine. I think its fair to say we
were completely buggered!!

05/08/08 - A 14th century 'new' town!!

With a little more energy than yesterday we drove across some very
pretty rolling countryside, tree-lined roads, and little Czech
villages before making it to the big city of Prague.

First site when entering the out-skirts was hundreds of rather ugly
1970's style apartment buildings that dominated the skyline. Not the
best introduction to the city that we have been told by many that you
absolutely cannot miss!! Anyway, undeterred we headed in and found
the suburb of Trojir where after 4 months of free camping we are going
to break with tradition and splash out a camp ground for two nights.

Our camping ground was not too busy but we decided to mark our
territory by erecting our gazebo that we inherited with the van which
thus far had failed to make an outing. It proved a bit of a mission
until we found another bag of connectors along with the instructions.
But we now have ourselves a beaifully set up gazebo which will get
absolutely no use as we will spend most of our time in Prague town!

A speedy trip into the town centre by tram and we soon found the
reason that this place is a 'must see' place. Almost unscathed from
World War 2 (it did get a little damaged when the Allied bombers
mis-took Prague for Dresden in Germany), you could spend days here
just lapping up the atmosphere and history of this town.
Unfortunately it seemed like every other tourist in Europe was doing
the same thing!!

Never mind, a quick walk into Staré Mêsto (Old Town) which was built
in around the 13 century, then onto Nové Mêsto (New Town) - which was
built in the 14 century!!! Pretty old new town if you ask me ;-)

Happy just to wander and take it all in - we soon found a large crowd
staring up at the town's astronomical clock. Like good tourists we
joined the crowd to see what was going on - then on the hour the
skeleton standing beside the clock started ringing the bell, while
above the clock - the 12 apostles all pare out the window to view us
silly tourists all lapping it up! Apparently the three greedy looking
men standing by the skeleton should be shaking their heads as to say
'no we are not going die', while skeleton nods his head to point out
'yes they are'. Anyway, that part of the show was broken -
understandable really considering the clock was built in 1410.

After walking over the famous Charles Bridge - with all its 18th
century statues decorating its sides, we came across a canal that
wound its way between the houses. Our first thought was that we have
magically made it to Venice. Instead, according to the guide book we
had found Little Venice - very cool.

To finish our evening, we joined a 'goast and beer' tour. We got to
hear the Prague legends such as the well, where if you look down into
it you can see your future. One day a man looked down into the well
and saw that he was going to die!! He got such a fright that he
slipped and fell down into the well and drowned!!!!

04/08/08 - Getting in amongst the Teplice Rocks.

Still in a far too relaxed state of mind (or should it be lazy), we
headed for the Czech Republic and the town of Broumov. With no
advance planning, the first task was to find out what the exchange
rate was before we could get any Czech money out - you can't expect us
to remember from being here 3 years ago.

With that sorted, some compulsory yellow reflector vests purchased,
and information for the nearby Teplice Rocks Nature Reserve acquired -
we were off to the nature reserve to see the sights and climb in
amongst the Teplice rocks. These amazing rock outcrops, tower above
the valley floor and our 3 hours walking track. One's neck can get
quite sore, and the potential for tripping quite high as you are
continually looking up at the rock formations above. At one point a
side track/staircase took us up into the rocks where apparently there
once stood the 13th century Strmen castle. How they managed to find
enough room on the tops of these rocks is beyond me, but it would
definitely be a very good spot to defend!!

Not happy just to follow the main tourist path back to our van, we
used our fantastic map orienteering skills and took a lesser known
path, still seeing more rocks balanced precariously on top of each
other, plus with no fellow tourists to watch out for, it was very
peaceful!!!

03/08/08 - Bye bye to luxury, back to the campervan.

Finally we couldn't be waited on and spoilt by Ania and Piotrek any
longer. As hard as it was to leave, there is still far too much to
see in the 2 remaining months of our travels.

In saying that, we still didn't get to leave until we had filled
ourselves up on lunch - thank you very very much Ania and Piotrek ;-)
Then it was on the road heading west sort of parallel with the Czech
border, although we stayed on the Polish side.

We stopped at a little medieval town called Paczków. With almost a
complete wall around the town centre, a large town square, and many
old buildings - this little town could have alot going for it - all it
needs now is a little bit of paint to bring it back to life!!

At this stage we were both feeling so tired you would have thought we
both had been running round like mad men/women for the last few days.
I guess when your body starts to rest and relax like we did at
Bielsko-Biala, it takes a while to get out of the habit? Any how,
after finding a little side road in a forest, we had found our
sleeping spot and were out for the count.

02/08/08 - A Gondola over Bielsko

We were having such a lovely time catching up with Ania and Piotrek that we extended our stay by another day. With Ania off to work for a few hours Piotrek played guide and took us to Szyndzielnia where we took the gondola up the steep mountain walked to Klimczok.

We enjoyed some beautifully hot weather and wonderful views over Biesko but with another thunderstorm threatening we didn't stray too far.

After taking in the views of Bielsko-Biala and surrounding countryside we headed back down the sauna-like gondola and made it home safely before the thunder, lightning and rain - it was perfect to be able to rest and relax inside while listening to the summer rain come down!!

On Ania's return home we were treated with even more fantastic Polish food and a DVD to finish a very relaxful day.

Thank you very much Ania and Piotrek :-)

01/08/08 - Fun up High

We had timed our visit because Ania, an air traffic controller, had a day off and as Piotrek works from home he was able to take a day off and they had a big trip planned for us. We took a drive into the mountains near Ustron to Park Linowy where you have a big playground to get into and enjoy the mountain air. Piotrek, Marea and I took to the trees on an Areial Trekking Course. With the help of a harness and a safety line we got to play like monkeys, and with us anywhere between 5 and 15 metres off the ground we went from tree to tree with zip lines (flying fox), hanging/swingling logs, monkey bars, rope swings, cargo nets etc etc. It sort of felt like you were on Fear Factor or one of those reality type shows. Of course Marea was the best monkey as she led the way through the trees.

It was fantastic fun and after two hours we were utterly exhausted. It had been forecast to rain all day but we were very lucky because apart from a thunderstorm before we'd even gotten started, the rain stayed away until we were safely esconched under the balcony of a mountain restaurant. Safe, being the operative word as the heavens opened and hailstones the size of grapes rained down. All was good though - within 15 minutes the sun was out, and a very cool mist started rising out of the ground as we walked back to the car.

A scenic tour through the mountains later, we were back in Bielsko-Biala for a well deserved rest before more fantastic food for our bellies'!!!!

31/07/08 - Biesko Biela

After driving all day in the very hot sun we finally made it to Bielsko-Biała, where we are visiting with Ania and Piotrek. Daniel met Ania on a trek America tour around Mexico in 2003, and we caught up with them in 2005 when we visited Kracow but now we are visiting them in their own home town. Bielsko-Biała is a city in southern Poland with 180,307 inhabitants (1999). Charmingly spread at the foot of Beskid Mountains, the town is one of the the most interesting in the south of Poland and is known as "little Vienna", because of the town's architecture, but also the fascinating landscapes of the surrounding mountains.

After being fed some yummy Spag Bol and just chilling out and catching up we when with Ania and Piotrek to check out the 'downtown' of this 'small town'.