We are now at the end of our first week in the Czech Republic staying in a small village called Stranny about an hour from Prague. We travelled to Prague by train on Monday with a small amount of drama. The station in Budapest was quite chaotic and it was difficult to get information on the trains even though we had a ticket. We eventually boarded a train which had Prague displayed on the side but there was no-one about to confirm it was the right train. When someone did appear and the train was just about to leave, we found out we were on the wrong train and we needed to get off! We scrambled back onto the platform and had to run for our train which was luckily 10 minutes late leaving. We still don't know where we would have ended up but it wouldn't have been Prague that's for sure! Anyway we eventually arrived here in Stranny a pretty little village no far from Lake Slappy, where for the next two weeks, we are tiling the ground floor of a large barn underneath an old stone built house which is about 150 years old. It is quite a big area of about 42 sq metres, so will need the two weeks to finish it. Our host is a very good cook and we have been enjoying the food very much this last week and as the weather has been so good, we have also been eating outside and enjoying barbecues.

In Czech they have a network of walks across the countryside and it is a national past time to go on a walk which takes you to a lookout tower which you climb and then enjoy a tremendous view across the countryside. You can see the towers dotted about the countryside as you travel about.