Olomouc, Czech Republic

Caught several buses and finally arrived at Olomouc. There were lots of locals heading off with backpacks to go hiking, camping, fishing or exploring. It was great as we could mingle in and not look obviously like foreign travelers. The downside of that was that we were often asked directions in Czech and when we replied in English that we didn't understand then they asked in English, if they spoke it. It was satisfying to be able to help the locals out!



We stayed at a hostel run by an Australian couple, Greg and Francie. They are very passionate about the town and run a great hostel. We were offered bicycles and invited to join them on a bike ride to the local lake for a swim. The weather has been so hot and humid so it was a treat to be able to cool off. After the ride we headed for a local bar and restaurant to try the local brew and food.

The food is often salty-maybe to encourage more beer drinking. All sorts of dumplings accompany the main dish and in a recipe book I read it appears that they make them from stale bread. It is quite heavy food that the peasants needed to work in the fields but it is a bit much for us in the heat.

We joined Francie on a free tour of the city. In the main square is the Holy Trinity Column that was built between 1716 and 1754 and is now on the UNESCO Heritage list too.

The astronomical clock differs from the one in Prague as it was remodeled in communist style. Rather than saints depicting the months of the year there are workers and peasants labouring in the fields.

I loved the winged dragons on the town hall roof. We never saw winged dragons in Asia and wonder at who invented them!

Very few tourists reach Olomouc so it was a pleasant place to rest, buy new sandals for John, and stroll about.

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Caught a bus from Prague to Cesky Krumlov which took about 3 hours. the bus was full with lots of people standing in the aisle. The university students are on holidays so they are moving about the country too.

The hostel we stayed at was very nice. It spread along the Vltava River and was joined to a tower across the street. We entered our room through a door in the tower and the public footpath ran past our front door.

The hostel and the tower

The hostel included a bakery/cafe, a bar/restaurant, and the accommodation opened out onto a terrace overlooking the town. We agree with Andreas the Dutch guest who said it was like living in a postcard. Cesky Krumlov is such a picturesque town.

The hostel organized raft trips down the river but they were really pub crawls by raft and started at 1pm. It was more fun watching them from the riverbanks!

The town was added to the UNESCO World heritage list in 1992 and so it heaves with tourists. The old square is surrounded by Renaissance and Baroque buildings and the Cesky Krumlov Castle has a fairytale Round Tower that looms above it all.

In the grounds of the castle are apartments used by the Schwarzenbergs and there is an outdoor rococo theatre which is still used and has its original stage machinery.

It was wonderful to walk around the gardens and check out the little parks in the town. There were lots of places to go where the tour groups never visited so it was very relaxing. The days were very warm and we sat out on the hostel terrace drinking cheap tasty Czech beer and watching the sunset over the 'postcard town'!

Prague, Czech Republic

From Krakow we took a train to Prague (Praha), in the Czech Republic. It was difficult to find a hostel with double rooms near the centre of the city so we found a place about 5 tram stops from the centre. It turned out to be a very nice place.

Prague is another one of those places where the Brits take cheap flights to for their hen and stag weekends because it is famous for its beer!

Of all the places we have visited so far, Prague has had the most graffiti. Someone had written "We don't want a clean city" in big black letters along a wall. We noticed a lot of swear words in English and I'm sure if we spoke Czech we would have seen a lot more in that language.

There seemed to be twice as many street people talking to themselves, urinating into rubbish bins, sitting around drinking alcohol, scavenging for food in the bins, sleeping in the parks, and begging, than we have seen anywhere else.

Beside the main square were horses and carts waiting to take tourists around the old city sights.

There was this young man looking for passengers to peddle their way around the narrow cobbled streets with him on his mobile bar.

There was also a larger version of this where you could cycle your way around on a pub crawl- perfect for those hen and stag groups.

On the hour crowds of people wait in front of the astronomical clock for it to chime.


Prague Castle is inundated with throngs of tourists and is the world's biggest castle complex- like a small town really.


Visited a restaurant for some traditional goulash.

We did lots of walking in the city and enjoyed some of the parks with their great views over the city.


Charles Bridge was built in 1357 and was the only city bridge till 1841. It is crammed with artists sketching caricatures, buskers, jewelery sellers and tourists looking for bargains. Half of the bridge is being renovated at present. There are about 30 old statues along the bridge that seem to have survived without being covered with graffiti!


We were in the city square for the final of the Euro 08 football where the Spanish beat the Germans. There were several bands playing before the game and a huge screen was set up so everyone could watch the game. Tents selling beer were around the sides of the square and 3 people were kept busy grilling kebabs and sausages for the hordes. It was a fun night. We were cheerimg for Spain!

Wieliczka Salt mine, Poland

Outside Krakow is a 700 year old salt mine so we decided to take a trip there. We were taken down the mine by an English speaking guide and walked down the old main shaft which is now filled with wooden stairs.

The part of the mine that the tourists see is especially set up with lights and paving etc. The mine houses some of the original wooden machinery that was powered by the mine horses.

There are many statues carved from the rock salt underground and even a small cathedral where the miners prayed.

Today some of the huge chambers that were excavated are used for weddings, concerts and festivals.

20,000 tonnes of rock salt was removed from one part of the mine and the cavern was converted into the Chapel of the Blessed King. It took 30 years to construct the elaborate church, from 1895-1927 and it measures 54m by 17m by 12m high and is more than 100 metres underground.

The impressive chandeliers are made from rock salt crystals. There are also carvings of biblical scenes and as the previous Pope came from Krakow, there is one of him too.

Krakow, Poland

We caught a train to Krakow. Along the sides of the train tracks were many gorgeous wild flowers and I tried and tried to photograph them but the train flew past too quickly.

While in Poland in the mid seventies we visited a Krakow market to stock up with food but didn't go into the city centre. However we did visit Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, so this time we spent time around the old city.

We stayed at a very nice place- a renovated apartment in an old Soviet style residential block a few tram stops from the centre.

Krakow is much nicer and more interesting than Warsaw and of course it was full of tourists. It was the royal capital of Poland till 1596. It has Europe's largest medieval town square (200m by 200m) with the 16th century Renaissance Cloth Hall in the middle. The square surrounding the market is full of restaurants and bars and people dining 'al fresco'. It just buzzes in the warm evenings.

It was so nice to see so much fresh fruit for sale after Russian where there didn't seem to be much at all. It reminds us of the fruits in our garden.

We visited Kazimierz which was founded in 1335. In the 15th century, Jews were expelled from Krakow and forced to live here. It later became home to Jews fleeing persecution in other parts of Europe. During World War 2, the Nazis exterminated Jews in a nearby concentration camp that was featured in the film "Schindler's List".

In the 90s some Jewish families were given compensation and some of their properties back so today many of those people are rebuilding and setting up businesses again. We visited the old synagogue and I think it is the first time we have ever been in a synagogue so that was interesting for us.

There are remnants of the old city wall and barbican and some lovely parks where the locals were dressed in traditional clothes playing local folk tunes.


Like Russia there are so many drunks on the streets and in the parks- some are old, some are young, some are females but most are males.

On a hill overlooking the city and river is the 14th century Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral. There are so any visitors to the sight that they limit the number of tickets they sell to the various museums and rooms.

Warsaw, Poland

We are moving quite quickly compared with the first year of our trip. Some of these places are smaller and easier to get about. We also want to be in the UK to catch up with some friends and family so we need to move along so we don't have the expense of coming back from the UK to finish the places we haven't seen.

We caught a train from Vilnius to Warsaw and arrived in the city at about midnight- just as the main train station building was closing. We managed to convince the security guard to let us in to use the money machine so we could get a taxi to our hostel across the city. We were lucky enough to get a friendly and honest taxi driver too. There are many warnings to tourists about the taxi drivers and we also had a warning from our hostel.

There was no border check at all with Poland.

It was so pretty watching the landscape roll past. The hay is being cut and the wheat, barley and oats shimmer in the wind. There are lots of wild flowers mixed with the grains and along the wasteland beside the train tracks the bright red poppies are so gorgeous.

We were lucky to spot several stork nests from the window too. Lithuania is supposed to have the most storks but we never saw any there.

When we were on a camping tour of Poland in 1975 there were many horses and carts on the dusty roads but we saw several tractors and only one horse and cart. The houses also look solid and made from modern materials with satellite dishes on the rooves.

Poland has a population of 38 million and is famous for Chopin, Copernicus, Marie Curie, Solidarity, and vodka- as we argue with the Australians about who invented pavlova they fight with the Russians over who invented vodka. In 1990 Solidarity leader Lech Walesa became Poland's first democratically elected president. In 1999 is was granted full NATO membership and joined the EU in 2004. 80% of Poles are Roman Catholics.

Accommodation in Warsaw is very expensive so we stayed in a hostel and had to share a dorm with 6 people. It was a lovely place but very noisy as they had a smoking area on the stairs and it was like an echo chamber right outside our room. Added to this was an Iraqi guy who was up and down praying and an Iranian guy who was snoring.

We did another city walk in Warsaw and visited the old town that was completely destroyed in WW11 and rebuilt to exact details. The Old Town is also on the Unesco World Heritage List. Sadly the graffiti everywhere is an eyesore.

In the Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) there was an exhibition of fibre glass bears and they were decorated by different artists. It seemed to be a similar project to the one that featured fibre glass cows several years ago. The New Zealand bear had tattoos on its face.


like Moscow, Warsaw had changed considerably since our last visit.

Trakai, Lithuania

Trakai is Lithuania's ancient capital and a short day trip from Vilnius.

It has a beautiful red-brick Gothic castle on an island in the middle of Lake Galve. The castle dates from the late 14th century. The locals were swimming, riding paddle boats and sailing on the lake. Along the path to the drawbridge were beggars, berry sellers and a busker with an accordian.

In 1400, Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas needed some bodyguards so he brought about 380 families to Trakai from Crimea. They belonged to a rare Middle Eastern religious sect called Karaites and 63 remain in Trakai with another 280 in the country but the numbers are dwindling rapidly.

There are still some very old wooden houses where some of the Karaites people live in the village of 6,ooo people.