Sunday, August 28, 2011

Walk to the old church ruin

We headed out for another hike today, to re-explore an area we had noticed before.

This structure is listed on some maps as a stone sarcophagus. Normally, that's where you keep bodies before burial. We wondered why it is in the woods, quite far from any houses or towns.




Just up the path a bit is this stone wall or abutment. Obviously man-made, we can't quite decide what it was for. It is right on the edge of a stream, and looks like it might have been a bridge support, except there is nothing on the other side to indicate a bridge was ever there.




We thought there must have been a house or something in that area, but so far we haven't been able to find any other ruins.


The trees in this wood (the Slavkov Forest) are humongous! This is just one of many that must be approaching a grand old age. I couldn't believe it was so big!



We followed the trail away from the mystery by the stream, and saw this vision as we ascended a small rise. It was a little unnerving to come upon such a site in the middle of the deep woods.






Apparently, this is the site of an old church, now maintained as an open-air shrine, complete with wooden "pews" and a fire pit!!





An all-seeing eye..






The path led through woods and fields rich with mushrooms. I was surprised the Czechs hadn't gathered them all already. Hunting mushrooms is serious business here! We, however, don't know well enough which are edible and which not, so we leave them all for others. We did have a Czech guest a few days ago who gathered and cooked some (Tom ate them) and we have another guest today who just came back from a hike with a rucksack full. I think Tom is trying them as I write this.....




View from the top.....




And of course, every good hike ends with a well-deserved beer!


This is Florian beer, brewed in Loket!








Tuesday, August 23, 2011

World travelers descend upon Loket

Once in a while we have guests that we pal around with, going with them to get Florian beer or a pizza or taking them hiking to the big rocks.
A few days ago we had some extra-special visitors who garnered our whole attention while they were here :-)
We did some hiking around town, fed the ducks and goats, walked across the suspension bridge, watched movies, went to the playground, climbed some rocks, ate ice cream, went to the castle....
well, see for yourself....
C,mon Grandma and Grandpa - the world is waiting out there!!
Oh - did you say bedtime??

This takes all his concentration...

Following big bro onto the web....
Free-style sliding - no need to catch him now!

Today the zip line- tomorrow the high ropes?

The mountain climber...

What is it with little boys and climbing?
Stuck! Got that far without help, but whatever Owen does, Elliot tries too.
Building a dam....
No fear..
Doing the mud puddle stomp! Good thing they have tough feet!
We had a wonderful time, and hope they did too!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

A Little Excitement

I don't mind a little excitement now and then, but I really prefer to have had my AM coffee first. This morning, (before coffee) I was finishing up brushing my teeth, and I noticed that the water wouldn't shut off all the way. I told Tom, and he came to look at the faucet, and it immediately started leaking worse. He tried to move it around a little and it totally broke - with water shooting all over the bathroom. So, he reached under the sink to shut the water off, and we heard the shut-off valve snap. Some of our guests came to "help", and we had quite a crowd in the bathroom watching the water shoot all over. Finally, someone suggested shutting off the main water valve. Luckily, Tom had suspected for a long time that the funny-looking, sort of rusty, flange-type thing in the middle of the wall on the stairs MIGHT be some sort of shut-off valve. He turned it, and ta-da - no more shooting water.

Then of course, we were stuck with guests upstairs eating breakfast, wanting showers, etc. and no water. Since Tom doesn't have many tools here and no plumbing parts laying around, we decided we had better find a plumber. Sometimes a hard thing to do even when there isn't a language barrier.

So, off I went, wondering if I could find any of the folks we know who speak English and might be able to recommend a plumber. But, as I stepped out the door, I realized that there is a large construction crew working on the house next to the castle- doing a total restoration. There were several men at work already, so I ran over and asked in my best Czech if any of them were plumbers. One guy volunteered to come look at the problem. He called someone on the phone, and within an hour we had two guys working on the problem. An hour after that, and everything was back in place, the bathroom was clean, and I finally got my coffee!!


Monday, August 08, 2011

42 years ago today......


Saturday, August 06, 2011

Does eat oats and goats eat oats and they also follow Cyndy

This is the main bridge crossing the river into Loket.
Our favorite beer pub is in the big yellow building on the right. There are also stairs there that go down to the river.
Once on the river path, you can see under the bridge a little log cabin. This is home to a small herd of goats! These little beauties just came home last week. Apparently they were housed elsewhere this year while their fence was being rebuilt.
The fenced-in area is the rocky cliff-side that forms the foundation for the castle. The goats are meant to eat the weeds that grow on these cliffs, but they are not averse to some tender greens offered by cute little girls.

Tom wants to know if anyone is surprised that this goat is following Cyndy?
This baby is thinking about his next jump........
And there he goes.....

He made it safely down to the fence for some nice tender dandelion greens!!!