I am writing this in the bathroom of our hotel room (Penzion Expanze, Jaromer) on the second floor of the hotel. WiFi reception is not good enough in the bedroom. The bathroom is enormous and is fully tiled and spotless. The hotel was a bit like the Marie Celeste when we arrived but after applying Google translate to a message on the door, written in Czech, we were able to make contact with the young guy who handles reception. He turned up in about 5 minutes on his bicycle and fortunately had a good command of English. Even better he was able to recommend a good restaurant nearby, Ukoule, only 5 minutes from the hotel. We had a good meal there with friendly service. The menu was printed in Czech and English.and they even had pictures of the meals.
Before coming to the Czech Republic we read the Lonely Planet guide (circa 2005) and were expecting to be ripped off in restaurants. Whilst it might be tempting providence to say it, we have had nothing but fair and friendly service. Possibly a bit of 'up selling' but with meals for 2, with typically 4 drinks, costing $NZ30 one would have to be very picky to complain.
Well what about the rest of the day!
We left the hotel about 9am but we did a quick circuit of the town square and nearby church so I could take photographs. (My camera batteries were flat by the time we arrived in Dvur Kravole.) We then headed south out of town and I decided to take a short cut. There looked to be a path on the map going in the direction we were headed which was more direct than the cycle route. We never found the track and finished walking on an unmarked track on the edge of the Labe. A Czech gentleman had tried to warn us I think, but gave up in frustration/disgust on finding we only spoke English or German. The track petered out to a dead end!
After an inauspicious start we had a pretty good, if tiring, day. We walked on very quiet roads at times surrounded on both sides by sweet corn plants above head height.
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