Czech Republic 1 - a new country, a meal in the campsite restaurant and a language without any vowels

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To the Czech Republic – a new country

We woke relatively early to the sound of ducks outside paddling and puddling in the deep puddles formed overnight by the heavy rain. We picked up our bread order from reception and very nice it looked too. Kathrein acted up yet again staying upright despite telling us emphatically that she was in the parked position. Those following our blogs will know the sorry tale of the dish that really enjoys acting up particularly in the rain. Whilst we waited to leave we watched a Thomsons cruise liner ambling its way up the Tauber. How on earth we wondered do they navigate what looks like such a shallow channel?

Our journey was to take us for a few hundred miles on the autobahn which was much busier today that yesterday now that the lorries were free to roam. Cars flew by us making us feel almost sedentary. All potential formula 1 racing drivers they drove past doing well over 120 mph. And we only saw one accident although I cannot imagine just how safe they must be travelling at that sort of speed. In Britain you would be banned from driving if you were caught doing over 100 mph. Most of the drivers who passed us would be catching buses instead of driving if they drove at that speed back home.

You begin to realise just how forested Europe still is in this part of the world. Deciduous trees line the roadside and behind these what look like a marching army of conifers. Dense, deep and difficult to see through. The landscape mainly agricultural as far as the eye can see. Sunflowers passed their best, brown and crozzled and heavy looking, black lines of solar panels catching the milky suns rays. It was not a nice day. The sun failed miserably to break through the clouds. The only yellow the golden colour of Golden Rod growing profusely alongside the carriageways. These were interspersed with pink fluffy Valerian and miles and miles of that pernicious weed Mexican Balsam. How can something so destructive to river banks looks so pretty. In the distance onion domed cream paint washed walls of churches and houses with pretty red tiled roofs.

We stopped a few times on the autobahn parking. At least there are a lot of them in Germany unlike Belgium and Holland where they are few and far between. The are utilitarian and less pretty than their counterparts in France but they do what they say on the tin. They have seating areas, a few trees, a toilet and a place to put your rubbish. Efficiency German style as usual.

And so it was we are in Germany expecting to find the last petrol station where we could top on diesel. We knew we needed to stop in the Czech Republic to buy a vignette as Tolltickets were unable to provide us with one. Before we knew it the border sign came up much to our surprise and we came to the petrol station but it was in another country and we didn’t want to waste our precious crowns on diesel. So it was over to the credit card and used cash for the vignette. Highly organised there were signs everywhere pointing to cash desks where you could buy the vignettes and attendants waved us on in the right direction. They were well used to visitors arriving from Germany and it was fairly straightforward buying a 10 day one for 310 crowns. Sounds a lot of money but exchange rate is approximately 33 to the £. Having purchased said vignette and stuck it to the windscreen we ate lunch in a shabby lorry park. Our first taste of a new country.

What is good? Well the motorways were pretty good and fairly empty. None of the formula 1 racing drivers as everyone drove at a more sensible pace. We noticed the fields getting emptier, the crops either taken in or never grown at all. Autumn seemed to have come sooner as the trees were showing their Autumn colours. The houses in the distance very utilitarian blocks of flats reminiscent of a Communist Age . Only the small villages looked similar to those we had seen in Germany. Some of the cars were rust buckets held only together by pockets of red rust. Lights not working . There was a marked difference from its affluent neighbour. The bridges were covered with advertising hoardings telling us to visit our familiar Tesco store, McDonalds or KFC and the more unusual sexy shop and the sexy club with hundreds of sexy models to delight us.

The last part of our drive was down leafy lanes too narrow for us to overtake the JCB in front of us. We had to follow it for miles causing a rolling road block behind us. I imagine much cursing was going on in the vehicles following us. Damn Brits in their motorhomes. The site we had picked to stay at was Oase Praha in the small village of Zlatniky. We chose it because it was handy for the number 341 bus which ran roughly every hour to Prague. The bus stop was right outside the campsite. We arrived in the pouring rain and found the place relatively empty. So much so that we thought it had closed for the season. However after much investigation we found someone in reception who told us where to park. She handed out the campsite leaflet and explained how to use showers and swimming pool and told us about the camp restaurant. A quick look showed a good menu and the plan was formulated to go there tonight rather than eat in. She also gave us a city map and explained the tickets for the bus. 40 crowns each for one way tickets which we bought today ready for our trip into the city tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming. I am not sure if I swam in the sauna and may have to pay 600 crowns for the priviledge. Oooops I shall have to keep my head down and hope they didn’t notice.

Our meal at night was in the camp restaurant. The special chicken on skewers with rosti or fries washed down with a bottle of white and followed by banana split and strawberry dumplings. These sweet little delights were four doughballs filled with strawberry jam and covered with grated frozen cottage cheese and drawn butter which turned out to be buttercream. Two espressos were the order of the day to round the meal off.

Tomorrow the city - camera ready and bus tickets. Bring it on.

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