Our time in Brugge will be memorable for us because of the Lybeer Hostel we stayed in. The girls, in particular, loved being able to walk around the corner to the shopping centre, then come back to the convivial environment of the hostel living room, meeting people from all over the world. Another bonus for them was the free internet connected computers. Met an older Australian couple who were from Melbourne and discovered the wife knew one of our librarians in Castlemaine, and shared our evening meal with an Australian lad from Essendon one night. Also visited the last remaining Beguinage in the world (a Beguine nunnery) which is now a world heritage site and attended the Church of the Holy Blood, where a relic of Jesus' blood is held. It was brought back to Belgium from the Crusades. We went on a brewery tour and learnt the finer points of beer brewing and went for a horse and carriage ride around the cobbled streets.
Had one trip out of Brugge to Ypres (Ieper) and went for a 1km walk along the river to the Ramsgate gravesite. On our way back, through town, the girls stopped to buy some fine Belgian chocolates and Ray struck up a very interesting conversation with the owner (a third generation chocolatier). She told us some of the history of Ypres as well as some tips about what makes a quality chocolate! We left her in time to walk to the Menin Gate for the Last Post – a moving service, and the visiting dignitary that night was the NZ Minister of Defence.
After two long days of driving – including being stuck in two autobahn traffic jams for an hour each and getting lost navigating our way through Prague (Praha) sans Sat Nav (Tom Tom doesn’t seem to have maps for the Czech Republic) - we finally arrived at our accommodation in Prague. For an extra 16 Euros a night, we have upgraded from sharing one room with 4 bunks in our Brugge hostel to a 3 story recently renovated apartment with modern furnishings, 2 bathrooms with showers, a huge bath, kitchen and lounge room! Oh yes, and the third floor has a glass floor over the stairwell! The apartment is in the older part of Prague and is surrounded by beautiful old buildings and churches. The Prague Castle was only a 3 minute walk away, the highlight being a visit to the Lebkowicz Palace, an amazing story of a family who lost all its property and fortune twice - to the Nazis in 1939 and then the communists in 1948, but after the velvet revolution of 1989 and the iron curtain coming down, the grandchildren were able to get the properties restituted to the family. We all learnt a great deal about Czech history from visiting this Palace. Prague was beautiful, but we did find it very touristy and expensive.
We are now staying in the old part of Cesky Krumlov – a world heritage site. Went for a walk this afternoon through the beautiful cobbled streets and over the many picturesque bridges that cross the Vltava River. Looking forward to treating ourselves to some Czech goulash tonight – we have been living on a diet of bread, cheese and ham for the last 3 days. We are off to Vienna tomorrow and back in Sat. Nav. land - much to Marg’s relief!