Today is 16 September

Tuesday 12th

Well i have given a little bit of story about our day in Prague, but I had forgotten to mention the dinner . We went to a witches lair for dinner and had some traditional Czech food goulash and dumplings mmmhmm. I was in the process of rearranging my dumplings in preparation for comsumption when i thought that i noticed something with legs under one of my dumplings. I had to do a double take!!! Sure enough there was a spider in my goulash and dumplings!!! After a small squeal I realised that it was actually plastic.... hee hee. Hilarious:)

Wednesday 13

We took a train out of Prague today to visit a small chapel in a nearby town of Kutna Hora. Famous in its day for the silver that was mined here, it was a very sought after place to be buried. However after a couple of plagues and natural disasters the graveyard became very large. As the town started to reclaim the land, the bodies were dug up, the bones sterilised and white washed and used to decorate the inside of the church. Sounds morbid, but actually a very peaceful place :)

(oops i forgot to rotate this picture it is on it side. It is a chandelier made out of bones)

That afternoon we checked out the grounds of the Prague Palace, and the Cathedral within its walls. All very beautiful of course, and lovely views over Prague from the hill.

That evening we decided to get some culture. We headed to the National Museum where in the grand hall we pulled up a seat on the staircase and listened to a 7 piece sting ensemble play a little bit of Mozart, a little bit of Bach and then Vivaldi's four seasons. I really liked it, I think Duncan and Sarah were happy to tick the culture box on their list of things to do/see :)

A bit of shenannigans followed the concert as we tried to find the bus station to book our onward tickets. It wasn't quite where the map said it should be, we got there eventually but that did mean we were forced to have the dreaded "M" burger for dinner :(

Thursday 14

Ahhh the peaceful, timeless, jewel that is Cesky Krumlov. Nestled about a 4 hour bus ride from Prague it is a beautiful medieval town, almost completely surrounded by Vlatva river. We arrived at our very quaint little Hostel (Merlin) ideally located on the banks of the river. Dropped our bags and strolled around the town, before hiring a raft and spending a (insert adjective here :) - we couldn't agree on one) hour paddling, drifting, oversteering our way around the town. As i said it was almost a complete circle at the town's old salt mill you had to carry the raft about 30 meters and drop it in on the other side again. It did have several little "breakwaters??" in the river which created little white water chutes for us to go down. Fun!!

In the evening we met up with one of Sara's old school friends and some of the people she had met travelling and went to a really dark Czech restaurant with great food - plenty of meat - and heaps of atmosphere.

Friday 15

Another day in paradise. We hired bikes in the morning and cycled up (and i mean up) to a nearby garden complex with a revolving amphitheatre. We took a picnic and enjoyed the serenity. We had intended to take the bikes for around 4 hours and explore the surrounding country side, but after one huge hill and two hours on very very very hard seats, we took our sore bottoms home with our tails between our legs to later discover that even a day later we would be sore.

That afternoon i went and had some 'alone time' just me a horse and a hill. Well truth be told there was a guide as well but it just doesn't sound quite so romantic. I have discovered that even after nearly a year I still love it, enjoy it and miss it.

The others entertained themselves sightseeing, reading and losing wallets................................

........in fairness the wallet was stolen, but we did leave the door to the room in the hostel unlocked, but Dunc was still on the verandah in the hostel! Oh well stupid us we were lucky it was just one wallet as it there was plenty else in there that could have gone, and after the scare in Croatia we had taken all the cards bar one (and the drivers licences) out. So at least we only had to call one bank to block one card. The cheeky buggers had already tried to make 6 transactions but didn't get the pin right - ha ha!! Later we realised that they also stole the big straw hat that i had bought in Croatia.

The most annoying thing about the whole situation was that the bus tickets to Vienna were in the wallet. However the girls at the tourist information centre were really nice and reprinted them for us. This aside Cesky Krumlov was an absolute "little beauty" (tribute to Steve I) and I would recommend it to anyone.

Saturday 16
Well after a very comfortable bus ride we arrive in Vienna early afternoon. Poor Duncy poos not very well, drinking to much Czech beer if you ask me, and judging by the size of his tonsils i'd say nice little dose of tonsilitis.

I tucked him into bed at the hostel. As the hostel had a kitchen Sara and I thought we would go shopping to save some pennys..... it turned into a bit of a shambles - ha ha. So we are walking through the shop and buy some water, apple juice, a pre-made ready to cook lasagne, garlic bread, bread for breakfast, and soup. Turns out

• the water was sparkling (yes all 6 bottles)
• the apple juice was sparkling (what the....)
• there is no oven in the kitchen for the lasagne and garlic bread
• there is no toaster in the kitchem

So it turns out the only thing that was right was the soup! Before we tried to negotiate dinner we went for a stroll around Vienna. Way less touristy than others we have been too, it is very ornate and cultured. And it rained!!! Although I guess after 15 days with no rain we can't complain too much.

We did our best to salvage dinner, and did pretty well actually. And Dunc even said that the soup I made was decent... so now i can add another "dish" to my repertoire.

As I sit and type this it is now the night of the 16th of we are in the lounge at the hostel listening to some of the guests jam on some guitars and piano...... people arround us are sketching and we are feeling very inadequate.

Should go and rescue our laundary and put duncan back to bed :) Now am up to date except with the photos. Sorry that the croatia stuff is up out of order, but at least it is up.