Friends Reunited

Recently decided to send out a few random messages on the 'Friends Reunited' website to old school friends from over 20 years ago, and to my surprise within hours of sending out the emails I recieved a couple of replies.  It's really hard to think about the people I remember form school at the age I am now, in fact it makes me smile.

I had an enjoyable trip back to the UK, I managed to fit in quite a lot of visiting and also quite a lot of shopping (well I did have to stock up on pants, as I can only get my favourite brand from the UK, but I am not telling you which brand it is!).  I had a night out with my old friend Lee Mitchell, played a couple of games of pool and thrashed his arse, enjoyed a couple of lemonades with it.  I saw his new (but old) house for the first time and he has done a wonderful job of the renovation, you would never guess it used to be a garden shed.

I brought the british weather back with me and now it is stormy in Prague,  next week is due to be warmer and I am looking forward to it a lot, this weekend we plan to go to the Zoo and if it is really nice then we'll go to a lake instead and relax and swim a bit.  Maybe even grill some fish.  and then next Thursday we go to Vienna for 4 days on a short excursion.  This will be really great because it's my first time in Vienna although not my first time in Austria as we had a short ski trip there last November.

My trips so far this year are as listed, Frantiskovy Lazne (spa town), Cesky Krumlov, Pisek, Stockholm (twice), Paris, London and Dorset, and next Vienna, hopefully later this year we will also do either Germany or Poland.

I am looking for a job still, hopefully something good will come soon, and we have continued to look for a flat, and have been busy viewing some, I'm sure if had kept count I must have viewed at least 30 flats by now, but we are really struggling to find 'the one' just a little luck would be good here!

I'm still updating my photo blog periodically if you want a look, lightgallery.blogspot.com

I will probably have some new material after Vienna to, I recently got Petra a new camera and I'm sure she will want to take advantage of it.

have a great weekend

happy birthday

we flew into Gatwick on thursday evening, so that we could drive to my Dads on the friday because we wanted to visit him on his birthday.  it was a good day and really nice to see my parents.  I took Petra back to the airport today but i will stay for another week in the UK and see a few more friends.

Pisek celebrations

Just got back from a weekend spent in a town south of Prague called Pisek. We visited to spend time enjoying the well known and celebrated annual festivities for the town. The celebrations span the entire weekend and consist of the whole town being overrun by it’s permanent inhabitants and ex locals plus all those people who like to join in any one else’s celebrations. It was a great weekend, we had been invited because one of our friends was born and grew up in the town and his parents still live there. We stayed at hotel Villa Conti and I highly recommend the place, it has 3 stars which I guess is good because the accommodation is excellent and not overly priced. It is situated at the side of a forest so if you wish to spend more time and enjoy nature you have a great opportunity to do so.

We spent Saturday walking about the town and watching the concerts and other entertainment laid on, Czechs are famous for their love of food and drink so many, many stalls lined the streets and should you want to you could taste something from the traditional side of Czech life (mainly fatty meats and sausages washed down with crate loads of beer). Not to mention the sweet foods they enjoy. The town is home the oldest bridge in central Europe built around late 13th century and looks very much like the famous Charles Bridge in Prague, the second oldest bridge. Maybe the one in Pisek was a trial run. At 11pm we settled down on the banks of the Otava River close to the bridge to watch the firework display, and pretty good it was to.

Sunday (today) after breakfast we headed out on a short drive to Zvikov an area just outside Pisek with a small castle, standing on the edge of where the Otava and the Vltava merge, here we took a boat on the river Vltava, the boat trip was about 45 minutes and we ended up at the beautiful Castle Orlik built around the middle of the 13th century. So far this is one of my favourite Castles, but I tend to say that about each one I see as I move on to the next. I like it because it is built right at the edge of the Vltava almost with the river taking on the job of a moat. It’s perched high on the cliffs with fantastic views out over the forests and the river, and at one time was about 60 metres above the water line until a dam was built down river in the 1970s which filled the river more and raised the water level considerably. The river here is used widely for sailing and other boating activities; there are a number of coves in which you can happen across parking areas for your sea/lake fairing craft. We saw a number of house boats and small yachts. http://www.zamky-hrady.cz/1/orlik-e.htm take a look at the website for more information.

Of course we also visited a couple of pubs to grab some readily available food and beer, with the odd ice cream thrown in to the mix. Another weekend of indulgence and guilt, I suppose I’ll have to get out on my bike more often in the coming weeks to burn up the additional calories.