Our first stop in Czech Republic was a town called Olomouc. I'd read in the lonely planet that it has a lovely old town and was a hidden gem. So we arrived just after lunch and went for a look around the town. I don't know if we got here on a quite day, but we found everything to be pretty dead, a lot of shops were shut, there were only a couple of tourists walking around and we also came across a few drunks and drug addicts….two were passed out in the middle of the pathway and you had to walk on the road to get past them. It was a little depressing! We went back to the caravan park and headed off to Prague the next day.

I'd chosen a caravan park near Prague that had a lot of facilities for kids, it had a pool, a large playground and a kids club. When we arrived we were told they only had a place for one night and we would have to check with them in the morning if there was room for the next night. Not long after we had set up I ran into Ramon whom we had met in Krakow. Cara and his son became very good friends and Cara found him at the playground and they were happy.

We went and had a swim in the pool and then found there were some activities happening in the kids club so we took Cara over and there was a big play room full of toys and a train set and they had set up some slot cars for the kids to have fun with. Cara had so much fun there playing with the other kids.

The next morning after we saw about 8 caravans leave, we went to reception to see if they had a pitch available for that night. We were told they didn't know yet and to come back at 11 or 12 o'clock that day. Well, we needed to know sooner than that because if we couldn't stay here, we had to find somewhere else to stay. I started looking for a park closer to Prague and Ramon gave us the name of one he was moving to the next day. We decided not to wait around until lunchtime and instead move on. The new park had a lovely atmosphere with a bar and restaurant in the centre of it and outdoor eating with a playground nearby. It was great for us and for Cara and a lot easier with public transport into Prague.

That afternoon we went for a drive to have a look around Prague. Wow, what a beautiful city. I had high expectations of Prague and it didn't let me down!

The next day we had a short walk down to the tram and a 20 minute ride into the city. While I was looking at the map on the tram a lovely Prague local asked me if I needed help with the map. We told her what we were thinking of doing and she suggested going up Petrin Hill on the funicular (cable car), walk through gardens at the top and there's an observatory, a radio tower you can climb and also a mirror maze for the kids (she was a young mother so knew the best way to see the city with a child). So we decided this would be a great way to start off.

Cara had an absolute ball in the mirror maze, she couldn't believe there could be so many Cara's!! She was having a great old time playing and chatting to herself! We eventually managed to drag her out of the maze and kept meandering through the gardens and along to the castle district where we found a free walking tour. In most of the major cities through Europe you can usually find free walking tours. This is the first one we'd been on - we don't do walking tours because it's a lot of walking for Cara and it's too much to expect her to be quite for a long time. Our tour guide was from Canada but had lived in Prague for over 8 years and was very passionate about the history and culture of the city. He was very informative and took us through the castle and then down through the streets to the John Lennon wall and finishing at the John Lennon pub.

John Lennon was a hero to the youth of European countries under communist rule. He wrote many songs about freedom, which these guys didn't have. When Lennon was killed in 1980 his picture was painted on this wall along with lyrics of Beatles songs. The Communist police painted over the wall many times to try and stop the graffiti, but many snuck out at night and wrote on it all over again. It's now a famous attraction in Prague as a monument to Lennon as well as a symbol of free speech. You can come here and write your own things on the wall….the original is long gone now, written and painted over many times.

That afternoon when we arrived back at the caravan park our friends from the Netherlands had arrived and the little boy Gijs was very happy to see Cara. Cara had won his little heart over and when she got upset at one point he got her some tissues to dry her eyes. He would also come over to our caravan and knock on the door to see if she could come to the playground (being 5, he is learning English but only spoke a few words) so it shows there is no language needed for kids to get along and make friends.

We caught up with Ramon and Hayke in the bar later that night for a few beers. We had a lovely night catching up and they offered to cook us a traditional Netherlands dinner the next night.

The next morning we went back on the tram into the city and had a bit more of a look around. We went into the main square and also had a wander around the Jewish quarter. We had a lovely dinner that night and ended up learning a new card game that really made the brain work!

The next morning we said goodbye to our new friends and headed to a little town about an hours drive away called Kutna Hora. We met a German couple in Olomouc and they recommended this town and also the campsite to stay in. When I looked up the town, I could see why. There is an old church here located in a graveyard where many people wanted to be buried after a 13th Century Priest brought back some saintly soil from Jeruselum and scattered it over the grounds of the graveyard, thus making it a place of miracles. People believed if they were buried here they would be closer to resurrection. All these people, along with those who died from the black plague and from the Hussite wars, meant the graveyard had to be enlarged. During the 16th Century the church was decorated with many bones from the graveyard. In 1870 the church was privately owned and the family employed a woodcarver to put the bones into order. It is estimated the church contains the skeletons of 40,000 to 70,000 people. There is a chandelier in the church made entirely of human bones!! Looking around in the Church you would expect it to feel really creepy, but this feeling is lost with so many tourists walking around taking happy snaps! Having said this, I don't think I'd want to be going here by myself, day or night!!

Kutna Hora also boasts a cathedral to rival St Vitas Cathedral in Prague. When we drove past it we agreed - it was pretty impressive. We walked around the cathedral and then down through the cobblestone streets looking through the various shops along the way.

The next morning we headed off to Cesky Krumlov. I'd read about this in the Lonely Planet and it sounded like a lovely town and worth a stop. We were nicely surprised to find the caravan park had a pool so it was great to cool off and relax for the afternoon. The next morning we went exploring the town. A castle on a hill dominates Cesky Krumlov with the river curving around it. When we were walking through the town we saw all the people in rafts on the river. This is what people come here to do, ride the rafts and rapids around the town. It's very entertaining to watch. We walked up to the castle and the view was beautiful, looking down over the town and the river.

Later that night at the caravan park we got talking to a couple from the Netherlands and they were suggesting some places to see the next day. So we set off for a drive to a nearby lake and the villages along it. It was a lovely drive and we found a village with a Vietnamese community and lots of market stalls set up. In the village was an Asian restaurant, so we stopped for lunch and had our fix of Asian food (it's hard to find Asian food here, it's not common like it is in Australia). We went back home via the lake and stopped on the way for a swim.

The next day we packed up and drove to Vienna, Austria. We arrived at the caravan park around lunchtime and that afternoon caught up on some washing and other chores. We didn't want to do too much walking with Cara the next day as she'd been complaining of sore legs. We'd seen reviews about the open-top bus tours in Vienna not being very good, so we found out about a tram that did a similar thing. We hopped on that and saw the major sights and then caught the train to Schonbrunn Palace.

The gardens of Schonbrunn Palace reminded us of Vasaille gardens in France - not quite as extravagant - but still very beautiful. Emporer Maximillian II bought this land in 1569 and he had the grounds fenced and ducks, pheasants and deer put there so it could serve as a hunting ground for the Habsburg Royalty. The Katterburg mansion was the original building on the grounds and from 1638 to 1643 Elanora Gonzaga (the widow of Ferdinand II) added the Palace that is now known as Schonbrunn. If you look up Ferdinand II in Wikepedia, he ruled a lot of Europe including Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Luxemberg, just to name a few!