Day 47. Sunday 17 May.

Day 47 means it must be a ‘day off’, our first on this trip. We couldn’t face the hordes in town, so opted to have a non-train day with just a walk in the Klanovice forest instead. It was still a coat day for us, despite quite bright sunshine. As it happened, of course, we were overtaken or passed quite often by groups of bikes – an orienteering event focussed on getting kids into the outside was in progress. Great to see so many family groupings. There were also pram pushers: we have noticed plenty of little kids, more than we’re used to seeing. And it was not at all intrusive, although there was not one single warning bell from the bikes! T spoke to a volunteer at one of the stations and learnt that the event was a way of getting kids out into ‘nature’ and the building behind him was a community facility where ‘nature’ activities were held after school (or that’s what T interpreted from the explanation). We completed the walk unscathed. The forest starts at the end of our street…oaks mostly and flat gravel paths. There’s an 11km circuit and we reckon we did about half of it.

On the way to the Vietnamese convenience store (previously mis-described as Chinese) to get milk for that morning cuppa tomorrow, we passed by Ha Long, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant, initially for beers, but then to sample some ‘traditional’ dumplings. Delicious – we would probably opt for this more recognisable version over yesterday’s tasting, although D was rather attracted to the dough yesterday. There is a strong Vietnamese presence in Czechia dating back to the Communist era when guest workers were welcome. T interrogated one of the young restaurant workers, who was born here, but his dad came over as a worker, met his mum who came over a year later, and they stayed. They brought their ‘street food’ outlet & then found that it was enjoyed by Czechs and so established Vietnamese restaurants.  He claimed that Vietnamese are the second most represented ‘foreign’ ethnic group in the Czech Republic and have significant representation in Prague in an area called Sapa. The dumplings in soy sauce & fried onion were terrific, along with Czech beer.

So that was the active part of the day. Bookings made during the rest of the slow afternoon for travel to, and our stay in, Budapest. And T picked up some stitching. It felt almost ‘normal’.