The summation of the day is it doesn't rain, it pours!
Just a short blog update from today, mainly because the rain put paid to a lot of what we had planned. Like the UK the Czech Republic had been having some very hot weather, but just as we arrived the weather took a bit of a turn and we were left with a very wet and slightly cooler day.
The one place that we did manage to visit successfully was Koněpruské Caves. This is a vast cave system, the largest in Bohemia, that is open to the public to visit by guided tour.
On the walk from the carpark there are 30 large stones from different geological eras in time, starting from around 450 million years ago, many including small fossils that were clear to see. There is also an informative visitor's centre that provided details about the site and had a number of interactive exhibits for the kids.
The cave tour was all in Czech, however they do have an app that provides both written and spoken information in other languages. It was a little difficult to fully follow, but there was enough information to get a good feeling for each area or chamber that we visited.
There was quite a lot of walking, including 483 steps, however the 10°C temperature in the caves and the start-stop nature of the tour meant that it never felt too exhausting. Both kids got a little frustrated not knowing what was being said and struggled to hear my summaries from the app over the voice of the tour guide. Petr estimated that probably half our group were non-Czech, so perhaps having a few nominated tours in English, or the ability to hire headphones, would improve the experience for the non-native visitors.
After the caves we had lunch in the visitor centre cafe that was very good, and we discovered that Forrest likes Goulash, or at least Goulash in soup form. This could come in handy for the rest of the trip!
Our next planned stop was to visit the open-air museum of the Solvay quarries, however on the drive the weather got wetter and wetter, so we decided that it was best to call it a day and head back to Jana and Petr's for the rest of the afternoon. The rain did eventually stop so the kids could play in the garden and it looked bright enough for a BBQ, but that brought on more rain so we ended up cooking outside but eating inside. The sun did finally show an appearance about 8pm, so there was time for the kids to have a quick swim before it was time for their bed and for us to pack for our mini-adventure with Jana and the kids to Karlovy Vary. You can read more about that tomorrow!
Blogged by Matt
