Czech – mate!

Our week-long trip to eastern Germany and the Czech republic was fabulous. We spent 2 days in Dresden and simply loved it. What a beautiful city. The buildings are extraordinarily wonderful, full of architectural charm. Mostly rebuilt post-war, it has been authentically reproduced from plans dating back to the 13^th century. The Zwinger Palace is one of the most extraordinary buildings I’ve ever seen. Makes those French kings look like complete amateurs.

 

Zwinger Palace

 

Snapshot of Dresden

Former Cigarette Factory - Dresden

We had a great time in the campsite meeting new friends. Firstly Haydn and Jane from Wales. Haydn had a serious case of camper envy and is now plotting how he can get a Bimobil and drive to Australia. We also met some fun Dutch people simply because they were being driven mad by their German neighbour trying to get their satellite dish to work. Vino with us was a better option.

We also got chummy with an interesting German guy, Uli, in Dresden to do some business and presentations. He’s a wildlife monitoring expert among other things.

We were so happy to be back in our camper lifestyle. We’ve never met anyone staying in hotels, but within 2 days in a campsite we met 5 new friends. Please keep in touch.

Next stop Prague. Prague has such a big reputation as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and of course we loved it, but the crowds really did us in. The Castle was just so busy we didn’t even go inside the enormous gothic Cathedral (within the grounds). The queue would have been an hour long. We did however climb the cathedral tower (287 steps) for wonderful views over the vast castle complex and the city.

Lawrence, of course, loved the Czech Republic as the beer was cheaper than the water.

 

Prague

Prague Castle

So, yes we’ve seen Prague and enjoyed it, but one day was enough. We spent the next night in the elegant Victorian spa town of Karlovy Vary. This town was a joy to wander around with no agenda to follow. We stayed in a funny little backyard campsite, but managed to get back into town for a dinner out. It’s not often we do grown-ups dinner when we are on the road. It was fabulous, sitting by the river, and of course accompanied by a local wine.

 

Pretty Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad)

Now back in Bonn, Autumn has clearly arrived. The leaves are starting to change colour, there’s a real chill in the morning air, berry season is over, porcini season has arrived (bit early I think) and I can’t buy oxtail for love nor money (not sure if that has anything to do with the season).

We’ll move out of our little flat next week, and shack up with Stuart until we leave. We need to do a quick side trip to St Petersburg (to validate visas) then leave here probably latish October.

Depending on weather, we’ll head to Luxembourg and then Dijon.