August 10 - 11...Off to our next adventure

Wednesday morning, Miles and Bill and I walked down to the train station where we had two rental cars reserved to make the drive to Horni Polubny, a little suburb of Horrachov that is one of the most popular ski resorts in the Czech Republic . Pavel, not wanting us to get lost, graciously offered to lead us to his and Milana's mountain cabin and, then, they would spend a few nights there with us. Milana had driven up the day before and upon our arrival, had homemade apple strudel waiting for us. The mountain cabin we were expecting was hardly what one would think of as a cabin. After we had all shared one bathroom in Prague for a week, we were delighted to find that this "little cabin" was a beautiful home on four levels with six bedrooms, four with full bathrooms, in addition to an extra kitchen and eating area on the lower level that they used for occasional renters. And…there was also a hot tub and sauna on the lower level! The home sat on a huge piece of property with gorgeous views of verdant hills and valleys and meadows in all directions.

After easily polishing off the two plates of delicious strudel, Pavel drove Rod and Miles and me to the neighboring town to stock up on groceries for the week. When we returned, after choosing our bedrooms and getting settled in, we all went to dinner in the village at a charming local restaurant, famous for its steaks . And, boy, did they live up to their reputation. The steaks were great, the best some of us had ever had, and we all had a wonderful evening dining and enjoying Czech beer and each other’s company.

We were ecstatic to retire to our respective bedrooms, with cozy and comfy beds, knowing that we wouldn’t be disturbing anyone on our inevitable and often multiple journeys to our spacious bathrooms.

The next morning, we all went into Horrachov, about ten minutes away, to check out the town and to try and find the nine hole golf course that we had heard about. We did, in fact, see a sign for a golf course that pointed up the hill, and after several attempts, finally found what appeared to be one but, unfortunately, it was closed. We found a guy mowing the fairways who informed us, in his limited English, that you had to call to make an appointment to play.  We were directed to the clubhouse, that was nothing more than a shed, but told that there were no rental clubs, carts or balls available . Dashed were the hopes of Bill and Miles and Pam of playing golf in the Czech Republic.

So, we went down into the town to see the famous old glass factory that offered tours of the factory, glass museum, as well as their small brewery. Bill made tour reservations for the next day while the rest of the group went in search of a tennis court and to get information about the local ski lift that was open for hiking. Bill was very tempted to set an appointment at the local spa that offered beer baths using ten liters of beer, and was supposed to have healing properties. He decided, however, that drinking the ten liters of beer was a much better option. With all of our plans set for the next day, Pam and Miles went off on their own and the rest of us went to the small village of Jizerka near the cabin, and took a lovely walk to the restaurant that Milana had recommended. We had a delicious and hardy lunch, walked back to the car, then, returned to the cabin and just hung out, relaxed and watched some of the Olympics before making a great Spaghetti dinner at the cabin. What a wonderful slow-paced day we had.