It seems like we spent most of July on the road. We started off by a trip close to home – we went to look at the white cliffs of Dower. Large part of the coast is owned by one of the associations that looks after castles, palaces and other historical buildings and so it is easily accessible.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.)

To be more precise, it is the land just above the cliffs, grassy, rolling country – quite pretty. It is also possible to get down to the pebbly beach and look at the cliffs from below. There is a steep path and the last few meters a metal ladder. I was lucky to get down there before the tide started to come back, by the time I returned to the top of the cliffs the beach was under water.

Back in the town we went for a quick lunch at a local pub. As we were looking around, we noticed graffiti on the walls. The usual stuff, name, country and date. But then we noticed something else – there was always another item: hours and minutes and also years. When we saw one that also had “there and back”, we finally realized what we were looking at. These were records of people who swam across the channel to of from France.

The other point of interest is the Dover castle. Nice fortress in its own right, but during the WW II the underlying extensive system of catacombs was used as a military hospital and headquarters from which the air battle over Britain was directed. It was one of the few places in the U.K. where we could not take pictures and so perhaps they think they might have to use it again.

Following this, I headed for a short trip to Moscow. Only two days, but that is longer than the one day trip last year. This time had a little bit more time to look around, even though still not too much. The center of Moscow now looks very affluent and a quick check of prices in a local supermarket confirmed that normal people probably do not shop there very often. Once outside the center, the city has more of a feel of a large, almost third world capital – but change takes time.

Then we headed for a week long trip to the Czech Republic. This one was a little bit different than the previous ones because we decided not to spend too much time in Prague. We rented a car at the airport and headed directly south. Since it is not a very large country, having started from Prague around 4 p.m., we arrived at our destination near the Austrian border before 7 p.m. I booked a hotel in a lovely little medieval town of Trebon. Very reasonable, $40 per night for two, but the most surprising thing was that when we checked in, they did not ask for a credit card or a deposit. Just handed me the keys and waited for me to pay on check out. Nice to find a place where one is not treated as a criminal until proven otherwise.

Trebon is not very large, about 7 or eight streets, it is still surrounded by a wall and the entry is through large city gates – well large, only one car at a time and so you first have to look if someone is coming from the other direction. The town is surrounded by man-made aquaculture (carp) since the middle ages set in large pine forests cris-crossed by walking and bicycle paths. The town also has its own brewery (Regent), nice renaissance castle and spa specializing in treatment of joint problems (part of the treatment involves peat and mud baths – something we did not try).

We visited the little village nearby where I spent my first 3 years of life and then most of my summer holidays. It is undergoing a change to almost totally recreational community, with only three houses occupied in winter. Some of the old houses are nicely restored, others are probably beyond repair and we saw brand new construction in few places. The village now has a communal water system (in the old days everybody had their own well) and the little village road has been paved. We also took advantage of the blueberry season to try out the local variety. I remembered them as smaller, coloring your hands and teeth purple and much more flavorful than the North American variety. My memories were partially right: they are smaller, color purple but the flavor is about the same. Bit disappointing.

We traveled around the area a little bit more, visiting Cesky Krumlov. Another lovely medieval town (quite a bit larger than Trebon) with a large castle. Then on the way back to Prague we took a little detour to visit Karlstejn – the postcard castle.

We spent the last 3 days in Prague, probably 2 days too long due to our previous numerous visits – we have seen it all already. Well, almost – there were new statues. Those on Wenceslas Square are a temporary exhibition, the ones on Kampa look more permanent. These are difficult to capture in a photo, because it is a moving statue. Imagine up and down and side to side movement. Would not be surprised if these “mannequins pis” became the most photographed statures in Prague.