Czech Republic 1995

(Except Prague)

We never knew why, but there was a 10 minute wait in line at the Czech Republic/German border. No problem, they glanced at our passport covers, and waved us on. Off hand, we think this was the only border we had to stop at all year.

Within a couple of miles we saw an outdoor market, or shopping area. The funny thing is, every booth or shopping area was manned (womanned) by people from Asia — Vietnam, or Thailand perhaps. We found nothing of interest.

We passed a large field of 8” high corn being irrigated, and there was a brick wall around the town of Terezin. One field was filled with poppies, but wild or planted to harvest poppy seeds? They must harvest poppy seeds somewhere.

We stopped in Doksany, at the outdoor market where we had purchased a couple of things in 1991. We noticed that some monastery building renovation work was underway. In an antique store in Doksany I found the first flail I had seen anywhere, an unusual addition for the cane collection.

About 40 miles before we reached Prague, near Roudnice, cars were parked along this road and all side roads, and people by the hundreds were walking across the field toward whatever “it” was. There were a lot of police, but they weren’t stopping people from parking, they were just keeping order. We could see large buildings and tethered hot-air balloons, but had no idea what was happening. We didn’t want to park the camper and walk all that distance, so again, we’ll never know.

At every wide place at the side of the road, people in cars and trucks are selling huge stuffed toys, and two feet high porcelain statutes of what we would call a leprechaun, if we were in Ireland.

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We left Prague, headed toward Tabor and Plzen. A couple of miles outside Prague, we saw a McDonald’s building, out in the countryside, near a road-side rest stop. There was a big traffic jam on the freeway, headed toward Prague.

Near Plzen we stopped to look at an antique store, and guess what, if there is wheat to be threshed, Emmy can help. I bought a (two hundred year old?) flail just for her, again $12. We weren’t looking for a snack, but a sign in Plzen said, “McDonald’s, America street,” a couple of blocks away.