We didn’t actually set out to do more than try out the bus/train connections and wander around a bit to see if we could work out where things were. We walked to the town square to catch our bus. Stephen approached a couple to ask about buses to Prague and the man spoke a little German, so we were able to get some help. They also helped us with getting our ticket on the Metro.

The city is different in winter with the Christmas markets in full swing. We went to the Staromestske Namesti market and walked around that area.

We had a modest sort of lunch and coffees and a shared strudel later. The coffees were excellent, the strudel not too sweet, but not wonderful.

We became very tired and wandering around can be exasperating, but it’s the only way to get oriented to a new city. We had a bit of difficulty finding the bus stand for coming home, but a couple of people helped us out.

We had some leftovers with pasta, and a small slice of David’s cake with yogurt, honey and banana.

We’ve decided that we need a plan for the next four weeks. Stephen wants to go to a couple of shows at theatres we haven’t been to before. I’ve suggested we drive into the city and stay for a couple of nights. The long journey home after dark, even if we take the car as far as the Metro, is not appealing.

The bright side is that bus and train fares are cheap, especially after England. Having food and coffees when we are out is also much cheaper.

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.

Feeling clever

Stephen with Skoda

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.

We have not done very much today – so far. We walked into the village centre and went to Vodafone to get SIM cards for our iPhones and my iPad mini. We paid a little extra to get coverage in case we go to Germany for a few days.

Then we did a bit more shopping, this time for food for tonight’s dinner. David came over for the installation of a new water meter and showed us how some things work. The plan is that he will be back later for when our hire car arrives. I must admit I like the idea of having a hire car as not so awful if it gets a bump or two.

I have put my first load of washing on, after David showed me the best settings. The washing machine is also a dryer, but we have an airer and the central heating makes the air very dry, so I will continue to use that method most of the time. Our clothes are wearing out already, just from being a small set of things that we use all the time. Using a dryer makes that worse. But it will be handy for an emergency.

We enjoyed our little walk to the village again today, it is quite sweet. This place is too small to be a town – or perhaps that’s just the part we have seen.

We slept well on the bed which is not really a double bed, just a bit smaller. However, it is only slightly smaller than our bed in the caravan. We had to turn off the heating and open a window to be comfortable. Is it something about coming from a hot country that we like to be cool rather than warm.

These shot show the interior of the studio apartment, just one room with a kitchen.

As well, there is a hall with a wardrobe and coat rack, and a bathroom/laundry/toilet combination. Stephen is using the hallway for reading as the lighting is better than the living room/bedroom.

And that is it! We are on the fifth floor and there is a small lift. The apartment blocks here are concrete and mostly painted to make them look more appealing. The interiors have been renovated with modern double glazed windows and doors.

That’s what it’s like going across Europe by coach.

We have arrived safely here in Brandys (for short). We were warmly welcomed by David who has kindly allowed us to stay in his little apartment whilst he is away. We are very tired indeed after our long bus ride (21 hours from London to Prague). We had a meal in a little restaurant, did some shopping, and then came home to have showers and get ready for bed. David had made us a cake and we had some with yogurt when we got back home.

I’m too tired to write much in my blog tonight. We found it very interesting to travel here by coach. David will catch up with us tomorrow for coffee and to introduce us to the car we will have whilst we stay here.

The photo was taken in the town square here at Brandys.

This is Stephen’s email to his family:

Hello everyone
We have survived the 22 hour bus trip. It wasn’t too bad, helped by the bus not being crowded and Susan and I each had our own double seat. Travelling through the tunnel was very interesting, the bus is inside a railway carriage. I was able to get out and walk around. Then driving through Belgium and Germany in the middle of the night was a bit dream-like. We had to change buses at 4:30 am in Frankfurt. The first bus waited until the second appeared, although we did our waiting on the pavement. We had three very short breaks of 15 mins, apart from the 35 mins in the tunnel, so the on-board toilet is essential. Also bring your own food.
Now we are in our apartment in a town 35 mins out of Prague, and it is 5 degrees and cold, with some specks of rain. The apartment, although small, is comfortable and WARM! We were spoilt in London. Now we have to cope with not knowing the language, no BBC TV.
Lesley, George and Hana will be arriving on Thursday morning, 17 December as previously advised. The plane lands at 7:45 am I believe.There should be two sets of keys in the house, one on the kitchen bench, one on the writing table near the front door. We should be able to give them these two sets. The keys to the car are in the top draw of that desk, could you get these out as well? One set has a remote. I think they only need one car key, unless they ask for a second. There is another remote in the car in the central compartment between the driver and front passenger.
If you are feeling energetic there could be some palm branches needing binning, but maybe Gary kept on top of them. Also George may enjoy doing some cleaning up, at least he mentioned that last time, as he doesn’t have a garden.
With three opera houses in Prague I should be happy. Also we may visit Berlin and Kraków.
Love
Stephen and Susan

After spending time at the Thames Barrier we caught a bus to East Greenich, home of the 02 stadium complex. We found the area so interesting that we spent time walking around, taking advantage of the twilight. A second very modern part of London, with interesting architecture:

We then went by Tube, changing once, to the V&A, where we had dinner. We chose different food and shared, a way to enjoy different tastes.

According to my iPhone we walked nearly 12 kilometres. Considering I had worked up feeling unwell, this was pretty amazing. It was fairly cold and fresh in the open air, maybe this helped. Plus, I enjoyed what we were doing. Stephen had another chance to look at some galleries before dinner.

We feel, on the whole, that it was a fitting ‘last day in London’, taking advantage of the complex transport system to do quite a lot of exploring in one day. We kept finding ourselves being drawn back to the river.

One last photo, I took a photo of this last time we were at the V&A, but it worked better with my 35mm 2.8 lens.

Today, Saturday, is a day of packing up and sorting things out. We feel quite excited about going on the next stage of our adventure. We rang Matthew and Mum today so that we can concentrate on getting ready tomorrow morning. It is good to be leaving after lunch so that we don’t have to get up very early in the morning to get the washing done (sheets, towels, etc.) which will be left on the drying horse for the next exchangee to sort out. We will do a little shopping for some basics for them this evening.

Putting it simply, we travelled to Gloucester on Monday and travelled back on Wednesday. That meant two nights there, staying with Ron. We had our ‘usual’ double bed room, which overlooks the rear garden. Although Ron is cutting back on the number of plants and has put in an artificial lawn, this area is still very attractive.

Melanie and Ron met us at the bus station. They thought we would be coming for lunch, but we had done our usual thing of buying some sandwiches and snack items to eat on the bus. However, we joined them for fruit mince pies and a cup of tea. After resting up for rest of the afternoon we went out to dinner with Melanie and Mark at a nearby pub. All good, except that I had too much food and had a rather uncomfortable night. But, still enjoyed sleeping in the comfortable little room.

On Tuesday we got up rather late, and after breakfast, etc. we went out to see if we could have a walk along the canal. Ron had heard that it was possible to see along the canal from a Sainsbury’s store. The building is located right on the canal, with a cafe on the second floor that is so well located that it could be a modern style restaurant. The store stocks not just food and stuff, but clothes and stationery, so very useful. We arrived in sunshine, then a squall came through, quite windy and wet for a little while, with gulls flying and enjoying riding the wind.

Then it seemed to be fine again and Stephen and I went for a short walk whilst Ron did some shopping. We came back when the rain became persistent. Stephen got some toothpaste and I had a wander through the store.

Then we went to the Gloucester Museum and found out about the early times in the town, including the Roman period. I had my photo taken in Brenda’s chair (she had a little sleep there when she and Graham visited the Museum). Then home for lunch and a rest.

We went over to see Alan and Karen at about 5.30 p.m. They had had a very tiring day, but brightened up for our visit. Barney went a little crazy and I was delighted to see him so well as I had been reading about his illness and recovery on Facebook.

Then we went out again for dinner at a Carvery – nice food, and I shared a desert with Stephen so I did not overeat this time, or at least, not to the point of discomfort. But, still didn’t sleep well. Odd, because I feel far more at home at Ron’s place than I do here in Croydon. Something about being in a real home.

The hospitality was, as usual, quite marvellous and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The family have their problems and losses (Ivy was alive the first time we stayed there – I’m so glad we had a chance to meet her).

Yesterday morning we went for a walk along a sort of stream that leads down the balancing pond. There are floods in nearby Tewksbury and there is a slight possibility that there could be flooding in Gloucester, but the water in the balancing pond is quite low, so I think it could handle a moderate sized flood if necessary. A very attractive area with a couple of white swans showing off, as well as ducks and seagulls.

We enjoyed both coach rides – having food on board and having little sleeps helps to pass the time – plus being able to see the countryside along the way. We had coffee at a Neros, then home on the train to East Croydon.

This morning (Thursday) we have done a bit of shopping, I’ve done a survey online for Matthew, I wrote to the ANZ bank to complain about texts regarding non payment of $25.00 on the credit card I closed recently, and then catching up with this blog.