Hotel Kapital Tabor

(40 miles) Today we were blessed to attend church at the Prague Branch. Very cool experience. Everything was translated for us and we met some fellow American tourists. The Summers and the Tanners are having a lovely time enjoying additional comforts during there two week vacation. They must of had compassion on our frugal ways because they invited us to dinner. We politely declined as we said we had miles to accomplish. We didn't tell them that we ...

... why Roman told me I could come by train if I wanted to. Hills, Hills and more Hills the whole time! 93km that day, complete madness. Even had to get of the bike and push it up a few hills, cos they were so steep and my legs were protesting too much. And no, I could not stop before as all pubs, pensions and hotels mentioned on the map seemed to be closed or disappeared all together. I had to continue to Blatna before I was allowed to fall of my bicycle ...

... a dump? 15 Krowns. Wonderful. After trying to decipher the paper and my stomach getting increasingly angry with me I decide to just give her the highest listed price so I could get on with it. She then asked me if I would like paper, well of course I would; I am using the toilet after all. She proceeded to slowly hand me one square of toilet paper. Thanks a lot; that came in real handy. After that ordeal I assumed my troubles for the day ...

Písek, city of the sand...we found it in our way to Mira's place, and we took the two pics you can see from the oldest Czech Bridge, which was almost completely covered by the floodings in 2002. It is really beautiful, and it is one of our best pictures (Bea took it) to date, what in the other hand it's not so difficult...

... covered in snow and used as skiing areas) then we settled in with some card games and drinks to break the ice - Tash and i are more than happy to share so after the beer and the Peach Schnapps were finished we each pulled out our apple schnapps to continue with the partaking with shots - Dinner was great with steak, salads and bread. The next day we make our way to the Moravsky Kras caves (30 miles from Brno) were we spend about 2 hours checking ...

... stars of this trip. They paint the city and country with dazzling effects. I lived in the middle of a forest on the Dutch/German border through high Summer, then Autumn then Winter and remember Autumn clearly as my favourite, but this is far more impressive. It's the variety of colour that does it. Mostly Silver Birch, Black Poplar, some Oak against a tall green background of Spruce just to add depth to the canvas (I've been reading up on botany ...

... im teaching at 7:30am every morning and i also have lots of marking and planning to do. We are, however, still going strong at the weekends. The fact that were all working hard during the week has made friday and saturday nights big! Jamie and Klara are going well but he keeps puttin football first before her...good lad! Speaking of football....ive seen most rovers games this season in the sports bar and after a sticky start were finally ...

... contour lines became individually distinguishable, rather than just a mass. As I discovered very quickly, the line implied no such thing. By 8.40 I was at the bottom of The Hill, and 20 minutes later had made it the 500m to where it levelled out to a mere 50% gradient. The first bit of pushing since day one, but this time necessitated by the front wheel refusing to stay attached to the road. I was heading for Jihlava, which was included as a 'place of interest'in ...

... until the early hours. So each english teacher had their own Czech Assistant who helped with materials, brought snacks and sat in on lessons incase we needed them. The first two weeks my assistant was Lenka and the last week Lucka...both great! :-) We had our first disco on the 2nd night and after standing there and realising that all the kids want to dance with their teachers i quickly realised the need for beer at many intervals during the disco...so we kept slipping ...

... even better. Pints of beer cost about 25 cents in the tavern next store, though I haven't brough myself to drink one. We talked to Fiona and Ashley in the living room that night, as well as a few other guests. We watched a movie. It was much like being home, but the people and the 1300 hundred year old town around us, gave the experience passion and elation. For the next week we've spent our days wandering around the quiet village. I explored the castle while Kelly slept. My ...