So we've made it over the border from Germany into the former Communist ruled (until the "Velvet Revolution") Czech Republic. So far so good. We haven't gone far yet, we're on the West side (Bohemia), in a Bohemian spa resort called Frantiskovny Lazne. (Lazne means Spa and there are lots of them round here.) The town's quite different from anything we've seen to date, for a start pretty much everything's painted yellow ! It is is very refined place, with lots of bubbling springs covered by ornate little pergolas. You can drink from them for free and it tastes interesting, the water actually comes out of the ground fizzy for a start. It also has a very high tech public baths, where we spent an afternoon thuderstorm in one of the many pools (the one we picked outside !!! with a jaccuzi function). It's weird bathing in water at around 32 C while rain is battering down...still everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Although the current town is like a Victorian health spa, this said you do notice the difference between the Czech Republic and say Germany, as soon as you cross the border...just a bit more "Wild East" (we think, we'll find out soon).

Our sat nav doesn't cover the Czech Republic so instead of the faithful "Gloria" providing directions, it's back to the tempremental "M" and our Europe road atlas (this has "all of the roads, just not necessarily laid out in the right order"). We found our current campsite by turning left when directed and proceeding down 4km of cycle track (no cars or vans) dodging low hanging branches to turn up at the right place. Still, nice spot, with it's own lake for swimming and loads of real campers swimming and burning logs of an evening.

So we're enjoying Czechia and the beer so far, next we hit the road to Prague, which should be the next installment.