The next day around 8 o'clock we sat at the 'pleasant' breakfast in our hotel. It is obvious that the word breakfast buffer hasn't made its entry into this part of the world yet. On the table are three plates with some slices of ham and/or cheese and some butter, marmalade and honey. There is also a basket with some bread and a large can of tea with sugar. No coffee, but they can make it when you ask for it. The knifes are not sharp at all, the back of a fork is even sharper for cutting your bread. After breakfast we packed all our things in the car and left for the Czech Republic. First we went to a town called Holíč, right before the border. Hilleke had read somewhere that there ought to be an old windmill in that place. But we were not able to find it. It was marked on a city map, but there was no way to get there. We even didn't grasp a glimpse of it. At a local supermarket we did some shopping for lunch and we had an ice-cream at the town square and something to drink at a restaurant. After that we drove to the border. No waiting times there, the custom-house officer briefly checked our passports and within only a minute we were at the Czech side of the border. On our way to Kromĕříž we stopped in some place and on a bench in the park we had our lunch and the melon we bought the day before at a roadside stand on our way back from Komárno. After a delicious lunch we continued towards Kromĕříž. On the way the sky suddenly turned dark and some moments later it started to rain. In only a few minutes time the temperature dropped from 33 to 26 degrees Celsius, unfortunately the shower was only very short, but the temperature stayed well below 30 degrees. In Kromĕříž we first went to the Tourist Office at the central square to inform about the possibilities for staying the night in the neighbourhood. We wanted to stay for five nights in a cottage. The friendly lady of the Tourist Office showed us Tesák, a holiday resort in the mountains with a hotel and some cottages. She phoned them and made reservations for a cottage for us and showed us on a map how to get there. On the square we then had something to drink and after that we admired the splendidly restored centre of the town with a great square with buildings coloured like candies. In the Czech Republic you will get a 70% subsidy when you have your old house restored. That's why a lot of Czech cities have a beautiful town square with splendidly restored houses with façades in candy-like colours. In the internet cafe at the town square we checked our e-mail and then it was about time to find Tesák near a village called Rajnochovice. The road to Rajnochovice was not that difficult, but to find the Tesák holiday resort was more of a problem. The lady at the Tourist Office had told us to follow the signs, but those were nowhere to see. At some point in time we asked a young lady on a bike. But she hardly spoke any English or German. First she said we had to go back, then we had to follow the road, all with a lot of giggling in very bad English mixed with Czech. Finally she only spoke Czech, which we do not understand. We returned back to Rajnochovice and at a junction we went into another direction. There we also couldn't find it and returned and asked at another holiday resort. They told us we were at the right direction and have to continue for another 6 km. So we did, but still no sign of Tesák. We continued for a few more kilometres and asked again. Those people told us we were heading in the right direction but we had to continue for another 10 km. Finally, when we were about to give up, we arrived at Tesák. It turned out that the lady at the Tourist Office gave us incorrect driving directions. When we spoke to the owner of the complex it turned out that all cottages were occupied and the only thing he could offer us was a old, worn out, hotel room. The lady at the Tourist Office must have known that and have booked the hotel room for us without telling us. After checking the room we decided we did not want to stay there, so we returned back to Kromĕříž to find a decent hotel. We finally found a large room in a hotel adjoining the town square. We also had dinner there. This last part of the day was very dreadful, we will only stay for one night in this hotel and continue our search for a pleasant stay tomorrow.

In Litomyšl we arrived about one hour later. Also here a square, long and narrow this time, with a statue of the composer Bedřich Smetana who was born in Litomyšl. It is a pity that there are a lot cars parked along the sides of the square, they spoil the view on the beautiful façades of the buildings. After having a drink we walked to the beautiful renaissance castle of Litomyšl. This castle was build between 1568 and 1573. What is special about this castle are the outer walls, the are completely covered in sgraffito, this is a renaissance way of painting. Large bricks are painted on the walls and the outside is covered with fine pictures. As it already was rather late and we had to drive a long way to the camping we walked back to our car. Via a street with wall paintings in sgraffito of the book 'Bloody Novel' of the author Vachal we ended up at the central Smetana square. Before we left we bought some bread at a backery to eat along the way. The road towards Trutnov leads you through a beautiful landscape, the road are again mostly 2-lanes hwich means that the large number of trucks on the roads cause a lot of delay. So when there is an opportunity to pass, you have to be fast. Switchback and with a quick turn around the truck. Probably because of all this swinging and fast accelerations suddenly Ciska didn't feel very well. Hilleke grabbed a vomit-bag and she kept it in front of Ciska right on time. Luckily she poured everything in the bag and nothing on her clothes or in the car. This is the second time this vacation that she has to throw up in the car. Via a large city, Hradec Králové, where we didn't stop, we drove towards Trutnov. Not long after we arrived at the camping. The coming nights we are staying at the upper storey of a wooden cottage with 4 beds, a toilet and a shower. It had no kitchen or any other means for cooking and unfortunately also no fridge. There are a lot of people from the Netherlands on the camping, probably more than half of the guests are from Holland. It is very warm in our room, the whole day the sun was burning on the slanted roof. We had in dinner in the restaurant of the camping. Only the service in the was very slow and the music was rather loud, so it took us long time to finish dinner and could return to our cabin.

The last day at the campground we did nothing apart from being lazy. Ciska wanted to play the whole day with the other children and also we didn't want to wander through another city again. So Ciska spent the whole day swimming in the lake and playing in the playground. Hilleke took care of the laundry which already became dry again as today was again a warm and sunny day. And Arjan took care of updating our online travelogue on the internet. At the end of the afternoon we drove back to Trutnov to go the internet cafe to search for another place to stay the coming nights and to upload the updates of our travelogue. The upload couldn't be done as the PCs in the internet cafe had no floppy drive. But we did find another place to stay for the coming two nights in a boarding-house in Beroun. On a Czech route-finder site we located Beroun. It turns out there are more of them in the Czech Republic. But as there is only one place that is called Beroun and the others have some post-fix we assume that is the right one. It is in the neighbourhood of Mariánské Láznĕ. As we also want to visit Prague, Plzeň and Karlovy Vary we have to find another place to stay for another two nights. We also had dinner in a restaurant in Trutnov. As eating out is so cheap here that it is much easier to go out eating every evening instead of doing your own cooking. After dinner we went back to the camping and enjoyed a nice evening at a campfire.