18th November 2023, for 5th July to 19th July

We had two busy weeks in Czech which went in a flash after all the planning and organising months ago. 

Emilka again wanted to go to a horse camp about an hour from my home town, so we enrolled her and bought her a plane ticket to travel on her own for the first time, staying for the camp and a few days either side as she also wanted to do some horsey summer work in England. I was undecided as I thought I would likely want to spend my time helping our house become home again, but was persuaded by Steve to go, too, and enjoy a buffer between life in Sri Lanka and the UK.  Thankfully, there was still space for me on the same flights there and back, so I did.

With Steve away on business and knowing that we would be returning whilst the boys were on their holiday to Czech and back by motorcycle, we left my car at Birmingham airport and flew to Krakow, where my brother Jirka and nephew Kuba waited for us at 1am from our delayed flight.  We arrived at my mum’s home at about 3.30am. 

I started to visit friends and family straight away so as to cram as much as possible into twelve days.  Emilka loved her camp and being with horses daily and is hoping to attend again for the third time, next year. She managed to eat the food most days apart from the last day when they served her buns with vanilla custard. 

So what did I manage to do?  Each day (preferably twice, morning and evening), I walked up the 218 steps of Cvilin hill as part of my continuous training for the triathlon in October. I attended a funeral to support my uni friend whose father died, and spent about four hours chatting with another uni friend, too. With my local friend Magda I biked to Uvalno for an ice cream (about 9km each way up a seriously steep hill), celebrated my brother’s birthday with goulash and medovnik (delicious layered honey cake), went to a cafe with my mummy, friend-like-family Nikolka and her little boiy Adam, and my cousin Ili for coffee and hot raspberries with vanilla ice cream. 

I also paid my respects and lit some candles at the cemetery, and with Magda went to Prague by train for our annual special treat staycation.  This time we took my mummy with us and she loved it, especially the Summer theatre which was fantastic.  Magda and I loved an exhibition of amazing optical illusions.

As you will read from Steve, the Boys arrived by motorbike on the tenth day of our stay, and we enjoyed some time all together, celebrating my birthday with thirteen of us on a a family walk to the summit of Praded mountain where we enjoyed a lunch of garlic soup, goulash with dumplings and sweet blueberry dumpling dessert.  Delicious.

It was on my last day of the holiday that I had my first ride on Steve’s new BMW motorcycle, borrowing Misa’s gear and riding 270km / 168 miles for lunch with friends in Prerov and then a coffee with uni friends out in the sticks at Roznov Pod Radhostem.  The weather was glorious and we had a super time.

Goodbyes were said to to our family at lunch time on Wednesday 19th July, whereafter my sister-in-law Jana and Steve drove Emi and me to Krakow airport and our Whizzair flight to Birmingham. With just a short delay of 30 minutes for departure, we were back home at a very reasonable 9pm.  After the sun and 30 degrees Celsius of Czech, returning to cold and wet England was a shock. Definitely time for jackets and socks!

Thank you mummy for having us again, a slight disturbance into your quiet life. 

Rennie