Heluan Karlovy Vary

we finally arrive, after twisting jules arm relentlessly, but too late for the bus, cannot wait for two more hours, so we jump in a taxi only to find we have booked ourselves into the gulag, no i mean it. we are staying in prisoner cell block F. we think of crying, but dont want to show fear to the locals.

we do manage to find a ...

... br>We leave and go to see the colonnades, these are fancy walkways with pillars that have little fountains where the thermal water comes out. People are walking along with fancy china cups. The handles are really spouts to drink the water from. They go to the water taps, fill their cups and stroll along drinking the water. The water is warm and at some stops hot water.

We bought a very tiny cup and tried the water. I ...

... 5.30am. Not having had much sleep on the 11 hour flight it was a bit of a struggle to function like a normal human! But Munich was fantastic, a great combination of old and modern...everyone gets around on their bikes around the city which is pretty cool. Jarrad has spent a fair bit of time in Munich so was great to be there with someone who knew all the places to go. Felt obliged to induldge as the locals do so we went to a great gourmet market and had beer ...

... then enjoyed a lunch of duck,dumplings and sweet and sour cabbage. I swear Greece and Czech Republic have the best food in the world. I am going to miss it. We will return tomorrow to Amsterdam to connect with our flight home. We are hoping to make the Anne Frank museum if the lines are not too long.

... We also were treated to a dinner at the same castle with Mirek's cousin and girlfriend-I of course had the suckling pig......not! But Mirek did have castle goulash with bacon dumplings and says it was yummy! One of our goals was to get to a hockey game and we were fortunate enough to take one on last night, the top league in Czech is the 'Extra Liga" which many former NHL'ers play in including Roman Chechmanek who was playing in net for the team Karlovy Vary ...

... mother working 3 jobs and now overfeeds everyone (out of love, of course), she laid out a major spread for us and kept the food coming, and coming, and coming, you get the picture. Of course it is considered offencive to decline this generosity so needless to say I did not feel too well that night and had a restless nights sleep. After a couple of days in Prague, my uncle Otto (my dad's brother) came from Karlovy Vary to pick us up ...

... why I love going back so often. It was the most amount of food we have eaten so far and the parties weren't too far behind either. Denmark to Berlin where we stayed a few days and did the touristy sights. Neither of us realised what a cool city it was before we arrived. It is a place to go for sure!! From Berlin we took a train to the Czech Repbulic ...

... mountains all around, beautiful buildings and everything but, two hours just for that seems too long. Not to mention our way back was a nightmare!!! We went back to the bus station, where the woman at the ticket post was talking on the phone for about 10' allowing a big line of unhappy travelers to form, before she told us that they are out of tickets!!! Can you believe it?? I guess it's only logical since everyone was leaving Karlovy Vary by the time the sun was setting. So we ...

So after spending a night in the city of Plzen, Karlovy Vary seems that much more glamorous. Here there is nothing but tourists, stores, spas and hotels, but in Plzen, I was the only tourist it seemed like. The hotel (if you can even call it that) was a room in some dorms. My suite mates were a couple old guys. I am really tired now from the walking I guess. I really like Karlovy Vary, everything that went wrong in Plzen is going right here. For example, the bus station is at the ...

... or two nights there.

It is not a big trip actually, if I am not mistaken it is about 2 hours from Prague, however the whole trips is interesting because you drive throuh huge thick forests and hills with beautiful colorful hills on either side of the road.

A place that mustn't be missed!
We left with the best impressions.