Lany Chateau

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

   We found out a couple of days ago that the car we were going to rent from mom’s friend is not available. Since Denisa has her own car now and does not drive Vlada’s car to work, I asked if we could borrow his car for trips out of town. Vlada and Blanka said that was fine since they only use the car to do the big grocery shopping every now and then. They said we can keep the car here and they will call when they need it.

   Kat went to pick up the car by bus and we installed the car seats.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

   We took our first car trip. I (Kat) drove and was pretty stressed out from the driving. Getting used to driving manual transmission and the over-crowded narrow roads is a lot to think about. I especially worry about starting out up hill in traffic where the next car is so close behind me. I worry I will slide right into them. 

   We went to the chateau park in Lany. The Lany Chateau is the summer retreat of the Czech president (kind of like Camp David is the presidential retreat in the US). The chateau itself is not open to public but the large park is. It is about 12 miles from mom’s apartment. It was nice for the kids to run around in the open without any cars to worry about. 

With a soldier from the Presidential Guard

   On the way home we drove through Doksy where I grew up (I lived there up until I was 11 and then again from 14 to 15). My grandparents built a house there. We drove by a small restaurant that did not appear to be opened at the time. Therefore we went back home without stopping.