Yesterday afternoon we met up with David again briefly to go through some stuff, then he came back later to take us to his Uncle’s restaurant where we were to pick up our car. It is a hire car, David says he’s got a very good deal and that he has been renting his car from the company for two years and it works out cheaper than buying a car. We have to take his word on it, but we are delighted with the new little Skoda Hatchback. We had coffee at the restaurant, and later a meal, trying to talk with David whilst he kept disappearing to return farewell calls to his friends. He travels quite a bit and is doing part time study and part time working with George in the business.
Driving home was a bit tough, we didn’t really get a good handover and simple things like adjusting the seats to suit driving were difficult. Also, it is ages since we have driven manual cars, so even though we drove them for many years we have to adjust.
Still, we managed to get home safely – it’s only about 500 metres or so. I took first ‘turn’ last night and today we have taken turns again, so that we both can get comfortable with driving it. It’s approximately 30 years since I’ve driven on the right hand side of the road, it helps to have a car with left hand drive – not like the camper van I drove back then which we brought to Europe from England.
This morning we went down to the river, only about 2 kilometres away. It was curiously bleak – a combination of a cold grey day and not very picturesque river at this point. However, we were so interested in everything that the very bleakness was appealing.
The architecture is very interesting and we walk through the grounds of a mansion, before deciding it was time for coffee (so we could use toilets). The soup was inexpensive, so we then decided to have lunch, tomato soup and mint tea. This is the third restaurant we have been in here in Brandys – the quality is quite amazing in a way – you don’t expect the sophistication of the interiors and the menus – just from looking at the outside. Each time, menus have had English versions to make it easy for us.
Feeling fulfilled, we then drive to the local Tesco which David had shown us. Here we can buy most of the things we could buy ing England and Australia. So catering for ourselves is going to be quite easy, despite the temptation to rely on cheap and good food in restaurants.
We came home to have more of David’s lovely cake with fruit, apricot jam, and yogurt. Today David and his grandmother fly together to meet up with George and Hana and stay in our house. Quite a full house, with only official sleeping for three people. I suggested that the grandmother would find the bed in my study very comfortable and for him there is a couch in the other study, or camp stretcher beds in the storeroom.
We are feeling quite spoiled with our little apartment and car and the interesting country (Czech Republic) to explore.
We have a washing machine that includes a dryer – I find that the wash cycle I use tends to do some drying afterwards, then we put the clothes on a horse. Although it is cold and damp outside, it is very dry inside, probably because of the central heating, so clothes won’t take long to finish drying.
Tonight I’ve been learning to use the induction cooktop – I downloaded the manual from the internet, thank goodness as it isn’t intuitive on this model. We have a small dishwasher that is good for about two meals for two people before you need to run it – a very useful size actually.