Czech Republic

So were in Saxon Switzerland and then we wandered our way North back toward the motorway and found a caravan sales and accessories store in a tiny village and stocked up on toilet chemicals. Since it was the weekend and that meant i couldn't get an oil change in Poland until Monday we decided to go back into Dresden (we initially weren't going to but we ended up only 40mins away again).  So we went to a Deutsche Democratic Republic museum, unfortunately there was no English so we didn't understand but there was lots to look at so took us 2 hours, would have been an all day job if there was English.  This experience though has made us vow to never pay for something if there is no English because we both felt thoroughly unsatisfied.  Then we went into Dresden centre and made a quick walking circuit around some of the main sites (mainly grand Baroque buildings). Mind they have been rebuilt as they were destroyed in the war.

Went to Luban a town of 25,000 in Poland, with a view to checking out to options for getting work done on the van.  We had seen that the town centre was supposed to have a free wifi zone but despite the signage and antenna looking things no joy (very frustrated) also tourist info was closed, so we did a bit of shopping and looked at a few mechanics from the outside.  Very wide range from just a sign on the garage of a private house to fully equipped 3 bay workshop.  So in the morning right on opening we visited the big place and fortunately the first  guy I saw was the only guy in the whole place to speak any English.  Luban as a place was thoroughly uninspiring.  So by this stage I had decided to just try an oil and filter change, which was desperately required, to test the waters with the Polish before thinking about anything more significant.  It was an interesting experience, there must have been about 4 guys in the bay (2 that knew what they were doing and 2 that seemed perhaps minimally trained) with nothing but my oil change to do, it still took as long as 1 person.  I was able to watch everything that happened which was good for my piece of mine and as the oil filler cap can be a bit tricky I actually had to get it off for them. Anyway it was a success in that it was much cheaper than England. Oil done we made for the Czech border immediately.  On the way through Czech Republic towards Prague we decided to stop at a random tourist location on the satnav (GPS) turned out to be super cool http://www.mesto-frydlant.cz/dr-en/1048-zakupy-chateau.html since there was no English we had no idea what was going on but I saw open gates and made Nicky follow me in.  It looked like the building was closed for good but turns out if it was open (which it is the other 6 days a week) we could have seen something really special.  As it was we were still very happy as you can stroll the gardens and grounds for free and in the moat there was an enclosure with a Bear in it, really unexpected. It was rather sad though as it paced rather repetitively which made us concerned for it's psychological state.

The roads in Poland were the strangest thing, they seem to be getting a lot of new seal done recently. In some places you have a really good road but a strangely low speed limit which the locals seem to ignore. Unfortunately in between these good areas you have a lot of roads that are just a mass of patch ups it looks like they haven't been resealed in decades. Not back roads these are the main roads from town to town, they are on my large scale Europe touring atlas, there isn't another way to go.  Also I have seen a lot of aggressive driving throughout Ireland and Europe but in Poland I nearly saw a head on crash as a car just completed a pass on a blind corner before the car that had just passed me arrived, they were both travelling fast and would have been nasty, Nicky and I were both thankful nothing came of it.

We had a very successful day in Prague which must be one of the most beautiful and clean cities in a Europe.  I hope we haven't peaked but that will be a highlight.  We travelled in and out 17 mins on the tram 1 euro each way per person and despite going within 30 mins of peak hour each time there was plenty of room.  It was a lot like Amsterdam, schlepping around looking at what there is to see but for 8 hours instead of 2. The Tram dropped us right outside a grand beautiful theatre building, which turned out to actually be the second most grand and beautiful theatre in Prague (get where this is going).  We then headed for our first destination Prague Castle and stumbled across Wallstein Palace and Gardens the home of the Czech Senate. This is something I knew but had forgotten and was found by our new strategy of if you see an open door or gate you have to go and find out what is on the other side.  Then we completed our journey to the Castle which was pretty cool, we saw their guard changing ceremony they do each hour.  It was pretty simple, the best bit was that since it was bright out the new guards came out in regulation sunglasses which weren't dissimilar to aviators.

Wallstein Palace

Prague Castle Guards

This was followed by much more walking in the Mala Strana (embassy district), the USA had a bunch of guards and cars were being inspected down the street.  Then across Charles Bridge and on to the Nove Mesto (New Town).  We sort of put the map away and walked by instinct generally in the New Town which was nice.  We checked out a couple of bookshops that included English language travel but didn't find anything we really wanted.
Then off the the Old town and the town square, again all very beautiful but we were getting weary.  Our next stop was the convent of St Agnes which is now a medieval art gallery.  For a change Nicky was much slower than me reading everything  being a right art geek. Finished off be seeing the Old-New Synagogue, which we initially walked right by and then had to double back.
Interesting Czech factoid, Beer is much cheaper than soft drink here. you can get 0.5L beer for just over 1 EURO and 0.25L coke 1.5 EURO so 3 times more.  Unfortunately Czech have a 0 limit for drink driving which makes it impossible to indulge really.

Following on the Beer theme our next destination we Plzen the home of Pilsner.  The main thing to do here is go to a Brewery Museum and visit the current brewery of Pilsner Urquell.  In maybe the 16th Century I think all the householders in Plzen (within the city walls) were granted the right to brew beer, a special privilege usually. This resulted in 290 Brewhouses, over time the beers produced in Plzen reduced in quality as raw material quality and skill diminished such that in the 19th Century the city officials declared a large amount unfit for consumption.  This caused a large number of the brewing families to club together to create essentially a brewing company and between about 1842 and 1912 4 such companies were created.  After 1912 they gradually merged until there was only one company left.
At the brewery we went on a tour and saw the bottling machines, the raw ingredients, the brewhouse both old and new, saw a video and visited the old cellars (9kms of tunnels) where they still ferment a small amount in the traditional way.  Here we got to try some unpasteurised unfiltered beer.

From Plzen we have headed North West further into West Bohemia, in Plzen we bought a map which has significant buildings of West Bohemia on it, so we are trying to see lots of them.  Unfortunately the weather has really turned again and it has been cold and rainy (when will i be ever able to pack away my jacket!!!).  The new day dawned to even heavier persistent rain than yesterday :-(! We are just into Germany now in Bavaria, we were following a scenic route but since visibility has been so poor that was a bit useless.  Quick walk around a Bischofsgrun and then a stop at the Bayreuth Theatre and on to Bamburg (apparently the jewel of Franconia).

Various West Bohemia Sites