Day 7. Train day 3. Plzen and Marianske Lasne

A final huge breakfast at the guest house - one of the few things they did well - and then we caught a bus to the station and then the 10:01 to Plzen.

Czech trains are like British ones of 25 years ago; bliss! Not quite slam-door, but very nearly; windows that open, and even compartments in some carriages. And nice clickety-click motion, so I don't have to wear seabands.

We arrived in Plzen, left our luggage in the consigne, and picked up a local map in the tourist office, then went out to see what we could see. Which turned out to be a huge Tesco's, so we popped in and I bought myself new sandals - my trusty Clark's have finally demised, more or less - and a very large Sun-hat which gave far more protection than the old one.

Then we bought bus tickets - it was far too hot to walk anywhere and I was wilting after 5 minutes - and caught the next bus to the town square. There was a fabulous cathedral which did have a small entry fee, but we got the senior citizen reduction! And a beautiful town hall. And a very nice restaurant where we ate salad and shared a honey-cake ("a luscious confection of honey and nuts with a feather-bed of whipped cream.").

Soon it was time to head back to the station, by tram this time, and profit from 15 minutes' free wifi in the waiting-room, and the second train, to Marienbad, or Marianske Lasne, as it is now called, with a few accents in odd places.

The hotel meets one at the station, and the place itself is lovely! Room not huge, but adequate, bathroom is huge, and you share a kitchen. But although it has all mod cons, it looks charmingly old-fashioned. We like it! 

The rain arrived just as we did, and there were grumbles of thunder all evening. The SW went out for a walk and to try to find a food-shop, but I was too limp from the heat. We had a picnic supper, and I think I was asleep by nine! Awake now, of course, but will go.back to sleep when I have posted this!

Day 6: Ceske Budejowice and Bavorov

Right, let's try this one more time.

We were very unimpressed on Tuesday evening as we decided to ear in the restaurant which is part of the hotel. Unfortunately, we can't read Czech, and the only dish we recognised was Goulash, which we had had for lunch. So we asked for an English menu, which they didn't have, but they did have a German one.

Unfortunately, the two bore no relation to each other in any shape or form, and the German menu was twice the price. So we drank our beers and went round the corner to another restaurant whose menu was bilingual to start with. It was dearer, nut not expensive, and I had delicious zanderfilet with potatoes and vegetables and the SW had pork with potato salad.

Yesterday morning, after an enormous breakfast, ee made friends with the local trolley-buses and went up to the Budweiser brewery.  Sadly, they only offered tours to individuals, as opposed to pre-booked groups, st 2:00 pm, which was too late for us. So we came away and looked for a supermarket near the hotel to buy fruit. We had trouble finding one, but I remembered seeing a Billa not far away, so we went there. "What do you bet," said the Swan Whisperer, "that we find s supermarket much nearer the hotel now?" Well, we didn't then, but that evening we found a Tesco Express literally round the corner...  and we've been told there is a Norma in the town square, although we didn't find it.

Anyway, that was later. After lunch, we went by bus to the village of Bavorov, home to Cestina and her dolls house museum.  This was fabulous, and well worth a visit if you are ever in the Czech Republic. The houses were so cleverly arranged, the more you looked, the more you saw. There was also one in the local museum that reminded us of Brixton Village - artists upstairs and a posh coffee shop downstairs!

I think my absolute favourite thing, though, was an office made inside an old floppy-disk case, complete with computer, mouse, photocopier, fat machine... Wonderful. And a Japanese house as carefully researched as "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower". I have taken loads of photos.

Cestina very kindly gave us supper, and showed us her lovely house, and then drove us back to catch the bus back to the hotel. Where I spent 90 minutes trying to wrote a blog post on my tablet, but its auxiliary keyboard has broken and then the post didn't save, for some reason. Grr. So with much swearing, I gave it up as a bad job and went to bed!

Day 5 - Cesky Krumlov

Started the day badly by not being down to breakfast punctually at 08:00 - oops!  Still, it was copious and delicious, and the coffee was lovely, too.  Then we tidie up on the off-chance that they would do our rooms - they didn't; this is defi itely a guest-house, not a hotel - and then set off to find the bus station and our bus to Cesky Krumlov, which we had been told was unmissable if you were in the area.  Indeed, it was absolutely lovely, but incredibly hot!  I also developed a blister, which did not please me!  The place was full of tourists.  We had elevenses in one cafe, actually fizzy water for me and iced tea for the Swan Whisperer, and lunch in another. With beer!  Then we wandered slowly back to the bus station and there was a bus in ten minutes. I think we both fell asleep on the bus - I know I did.

The bus station is on top of a huge shopping mall, so we stopped for a much-needed and most refreshing cup of tea, and then bought more blister plasters and some more water and headed back to the guest house, where we both flaked out for a bit.  The SW, who is quite better now, has gone out for an explore, and later we will probably have dinner in the restaurant downstairs or else eat bread and cheese upstairs.  There is satellite tv but of course the only English-language channels are news and current affairs ones.  Sigh....

Day 4; train day 2; Munich-Linz-Ceske Budejovice

The Swan Whisperer has gradually got better all day as his antibiotics have kicked in.  But imagine being in Ceska and not able to drink beer!

We were up fairly early and at the station in good time for our train, which was a Railjet to Linz.  I must say, after the Man in Seat 61 raved about the train, I was not very impressed by the quality of the ride or the speed.  But lovely scenery which we tried, vainly for the most part, to photograph. And surprisingly nice coffee!

On arrival in Linz, we put most of our luggage in a locker and set out to explore.  The SW wanted to go to the Donau, which was about 20 minutes walk away, so we wandered off in that direction, but en route encountered a beer garden offering a lunch-time menu of grilled chicken breast fillets with asparagus and herbed rice, followed by apfelkuchen, for 7.90, with beer/apple juice and I had coffee which was not very nice.  We then walked on to the Donau and on to the bridge - it was looking very grey and not very beautiful.  We took a tram back to the station just because we could, and then I did a bit of shopping and we went up to our next train, which was utterly different - compartments, and speed was not a factor!  But it got us to Ceske Bujedowice.  But we had no idea where the hotel was, and there were no taxis!  And my satnav refused to acknowledge the existence of the pension, and in any case had run out of battery!  But the station bookstall supplied us with a town map, and we set off on a very hot and sweaty walk to the pension.

We got there eventually.  The room is lovely and large, but there are no bedside tables and there were no reading lights until we complained, whereupon they found us one.  We showered, then had a beer downstairs in the restaurant and then a picnic supper in the room.  There is free wifi but neither my ipod nor this machine recognises it up here, although my phone does.  I am going to take this down to nearer the router to try to post it.

Day 3: Munich

Dear oh my, what a day!  We woke up early, and the Swan Whisperer said he felt a lot better.  Nina and her family came to pick us up shortly after 10:30, and we went out and saw lots of the sights of Munich, including a trip up the Tower of the Town Hall, from which you had a terrifric view all over Munich.  We also visited the Hofbrauhaus, but only to have a look and spend a penny as it is expensive and I'm told the food is not very good.  We went across the road to eat Weisswurst!

The SW had some dental work done on Wednesday before we left - he had lost a filling and there was an abcess under it, which he didn't know was there.  The dentist cleaned it out and put on a temporary filling, but obviously didn't do a very good job, as first it was very sore and then this last two days his cheek swelled up to the point he could barely open his mouth.  So Nina kindly found a 24-hour emergency dentist and we spent an hour there waiting while he had it seen to - the dentist removed the filling and has prescribed antibiotics.  They gave us a list of open-on-Sunday chemists where we got the prescription filled - he had to pay for that, but the dental treatment was covered by the EHIC card - thank goodness I got them renewed before this holiday! 

After this, we went to the Olympic Park and walked round there - the weather, I should have said, is simply glorious - and then out to a castle in the suburbs where there was a beer garden, but you could take your own food.  But it was fairly obvious that the SW had Had Enough by then, so Nina drove us back to the hotel.  Nevertheless, it has been a lovely day, and we can stop worrying about the SW, I think.  The bug is all but gone, and now we know the tooth will be all right... we can head on towards the Czech Republic with light hearts.

Day 2: Liege to Munich

I am typing the first part of this on the train to Munich, actually the first leg, which is as far as Frankfurt.  We could have changed in Cologne, but had already entered our travel details on our pass, so decided not to. 

Well, last night was a bit of a bust, as the poor Swan Whisperer felt rotten - I think he has the bug I had about ten days ago, which knocks you flat for about 36 hours.  So once we got to the hotel, all he could do was sleep.  I did go out for picnic stuff and found an Aldi, but didn't venture further.  There were buses into the city centre and, had the SW been fit, we would have undoubtedly enquired about the ticketing system and used them, but I really didn't feel it was worth it on my own.  I did explore the station, though, which is a fantastic modern edifice only finished in 2009.  I have taken some photos, but have no way of uploading them until I get home, I'm afraid; I can't quite see how to upload them to the tablet.  They will follow!

Anyway, I took myself out for a forlorn birthday dinner in a local brasserie, and made the mistake of ordering something called Boules de Liege.  All I can say is, don't bother.  Yuck.  So I left most of that, but ate the chips and enjoyed a small beer, and then went back to the hotel and had an early night.  Oh well, even if he doesn't feel up to going out tonight, I can go out with Nina and her family.

Will finish this later.

Later: Have arrived at the hotel but big mnistake as it is in the red light district!  Oh well, the room is clean, quiet and pleasant, what more can you ask?  Tried to Skype with the Boy, but to no avail.  Signal too poor.  More tomorrow.

Actually, it is not yet tomorrow, but this wouldn't post earlier.  We are just in from a lovely meal with Nina and her family at the Augustin  bierkeller, where they only sell beer by the litre... I didn't actually mean to drink all of it, but it sort of disappeared.  I did eat -  sausages and kartoffelsalat!  Yummy.  The SW had fizzy apple juice (apfelschorle) and pork with a dumpling and red cabbage - I had a taste and it was lovely.  Now home quite early, and we are all hopin g the SW will b e better in the morning!

Day 1 - Home to Liege

Up at a relatively civilised hour this morning as our train was not until 08:59.  Got to St Pancras with no problems, and mnanaged to get coffee and text my mother before it was time to board the train.  This was pleasantly half-empty and on time, and we decided to get the next available train to Liege.  This was a slow train and, when it arrived in the station, promptly broke down!  So we then got the next train from the older part of the station, and it too was late. 

However, we arrived eventually, and checked in to our hotel, only to find that the roomn they had given us was not yet made up, so we asked for another and got a very nice big one, with three huge beds, and separate bathroom and loo!  I have made us a cup of tea and am catching up; the Swan Whisperer is fast asleep!  I expect I shall have a nap soon, too, and then we must go out and find a supermarket to get the makings of a picnic lunch for tomorrow.  Our trip today was to "any Belgian station", so our inter-rail adventure really begins tomorrow.