Our hotel sits just under the hill upon which Spielbek Castle sits. We climb our way up winding paths through the park, finally reaching the back of the castle. Another five minutes gets us to the ticket office, where we are excited to discover that we do not have to go round on a guided tour. Our excitement dissipates as we find that the castle was primarily used as a prison, and has little or no architectural merit and next to nothing in the way of historic contents. Instead we work our way round a series of exhibits that cover archaeology, the prison (the section on torture is gruesomely fascinating), its use as a prison by the Gestapo who were headquartered here, and then becomes an art gallery. We make our way carefully back down the ... read more

A day at leisure. David and Sara are out at 7.00am to take photos in the morning light when few others are around, apart from a few forlorn Japanese wheeling their suitcases up the cobbled streets (going where?). The light slants down the narrow streets, the shops are not yet open, and all is peaceful. Attempting to line up a shot on the old bridge across the river to the castle, a drunk with a beer belly and wearing a pink sombrero staggers around. Get out of my shot! Eventually he reels off the bridge. Obviously had a good night. We go back to the hotel and breakfast early. We cannot sit out on the terrace as it is booked all day for a wedding. After Hannah and James have breakfasted, we head off across the ... read more

Still full from last night’s gargantuan meal, we start the day with a light breakfast of coffee and a pastry. This proves surprisingly difficult to find. The cafes on the main square all seem to sell either coffee with massive cream cakes, or beer, neither of which feels quite right at 9.30 in the morning. MittelEuropa does not seem to do croissants or pain chocolat. The Great Synagogue is the third largest in the world. It was built in the 1890s and can hold 2800 worshippers, but fell into disrepair during the war and has only recently been renovated. It is currently housing a display of photographs taken in the USA during the Depression. Many were striking pictures, despite the contemporary comment by the great photographer Anselm Adams that these were not photographs but merely images ... read more

Our 2 week road trip round the Czech Republic starts in the car rental hall at Prague airport. We prebooked a Skoda Superb (surely a contradiction in terms?) as being the car with the largest luggage capacity, an important consideration when there are four of us, with three suitcases between us. Things get off to a bad start when the guy on the desk tells us they had us down as arriving at 8am not 2pm. Clearly, they have rented our car to someone else. He gives us a set of keys. We track down a saloon car with a clearly inadequate capacity. Back to the desk. Eventually we get an Kia Sportage SUV which is far bigger than either Sara or Hannah were expecting or wanting to drive. David drives. Our first destination is ... read more

We wondered last night what the Hill Fort Kesroli was going to serve us for dinner, as the Delhi-wallahs had all left and Sara and I were the only guests, so clearly there would be no buffet dinner. Well they solved the problem by serving us all fifteen dishes that were on the buffet but in individual dishes. We tried most of them except the brown-red mutton rogan josh with whole red chillies in it. Not in the mood for that one with a possibly wobbly stomach. Off to Delhi this morning. Delhi seems to start about sixty miles from its centre these days. Banks of new apartment blocks, many of them still in the early stages of construction, line the highway, together with massive office blocks bearing the familiar names of multinational businesses. We are ... read more