Fun in the snow

While England seems to have have closed due to inclement weather, life in Czecho goes on as normal.

By law every car here is fitted with winter tyres. The main roads are gritted and salted and clear. The snow ploughs make regular sweeps of the villages and add to this the fact the Czechs have lived with snow and ice every winter since forever and the outcome is that driving over here in snowy icy conditions seems a far safer option than traveling in the UK would be right now.

Of course temperatures are low. We've hit -20C over night a few times and and it has been known to get a lot colder. Our house is toasty warm thanks to the ground source heating. Whilst the part of the house that we are living in still has the original "small" radiators* temperatures indoors have only dropped to 17C on a couple of occasions when the outside temperatures have really fallen. On these occasions we stoke up the cast iron stove and it jumps to the mid/late 20's within an hour or so.

*In the future we will need to install larger radiators and possibly underfloor in this part of the house to optimise temperatures throughout the whole house as our heating engineer has set the system specifically to keep us warm in this small section.

So life goes on and new seasonal opportunities for fun arise.

We hike through snowy forests with Spike and Oz (As you can see he likes to come too).

And until the snow gets up to Spikes chin all is well. He does feel the cold and tends to rebel at about -5C as he prefers to be snuggled under his blanket on the sofa whereas Oz just likes the "tree climbing" opportunities.









South Bohemia is very close to Austria. We are about half an hour from the border and as such we can travel to several nice Austrian ski resorts within an hour or so and we have our own local resort just 30 minutes up the road at Lipno (more about that in a bit!).

Tim and I have decided to take a break from the pressures of building and take time out for fun so as part of our action plan we decided to have an afternoon of skiing in Hochficht, Austria.

We set off under the instruction of "mrs sat-nav" and headed toward Lake Lipno. The roads are all quite small in this region but they had all been cleared - even those through the Sumava National Forest area where salt is not permitted - so we were soon alongside the lake. I have been given to understand that Lipno has one of the longest skating tracks in Europe during the winter months. It is quite a sight to see such a massive body of water completely frozen. People cross country skiing and skating the entire length (Apparently there is a bar in the middle so must give that a try at some point!). There are stories - probably true - of locals that drive their cars across the lake during this season. It seems that there are a few at the bottom when drivers chanced their luck too far into Spring!

Anyway we were progressing well and under instruction turned right into Frymberk town whereupon "mrs sat-nav" announced that we should "board the ferry"! - Thanks Garmin! Please think about adding a "Ferry choice option" to your software. - Considering that using the ferry would have involved pushing it across the ice ourselves we decided to detour and go around the lake.

Well, we must be getting old because I have to say that I really enjoyed the drive. It was a lovely sunny day and the scenery was breathtaking but we eventually arrived at Hochficht about and hour later than planned.

You can find plenty of information about this fairly large resort online so I wont go into much detail here. Needless to say it was very busy with huge lift queues as it was school holidays and being peek season an afternoons skiing was rather expensive especially when you consider the time spent queuing and not skiing. Having said this we did have a great afternoon and really started to brush up on our rusty manouvering. Needless to say we chose a quicker route home with a slight detour to stand on lake Lipno (all of about 20m in - how brave arent we!!)

The very next day we decided - action plan again - that we would try out Lipno ski resort. To be honest we didnt expect too much from this resort as it is not as well known but we were more than surprised. The facilities are excellent. There are several restaurants and cafes at various points around the resort. The main restaurant at the entrance serves good home cooked food - we had the goulash with dumplings - at sensible prices. Ski passes are half the price of Austria and for those wanting lessons Lipno is ideal as instructors probably outnumber skiiers. The lifts are all "chair" and despite the school holidays the queues were non existent. There are 5 or 6 good runs and the resort keeps the snow blowers on when the conditions are not absolutely perfect to ensure that the surface remains excellent for all levels of skiing ability. All in all, this resort is perfect for those who want a fun afternoon. It is close to home, cost effective and well maintained. It is going to be our first choice from now on.

Quick post script: Just found a new "resort" (well it has 1 lift) that is open in the evenings and at weekends and is only 5-10 minutes from home. Will check it out and let you know how it goes. This is of course assuming that Tim survives his new passion for cross country skiing (he is a glutton for punishment!) without breaking any bones!!. { Tim .. "I'm just back from a ski .. it was hard work today, the snow is a lot deeper so you don't quite now how deep the next bit is .. I went for a good hike into the forest which was so quiet apart from a lone woodpecker banging on a tree ... yes it is addictive, not quite sure why but I think its a culmination of the physical effort, adrenaline and the shear beauty of the landscape although I do stare at my ski tips a lot and get in the 'zone' .... have to try out the little ski place up the road"}.

Take care all .... gonna get some Ice Skates at the weekend we think and give frozen Lipno a go .... will write again soon cau cau ..

Restaurant rave!

We had relatives coming to stay. Not a mean feat when there is only one bed and a living room but these two are the kind of people who make themselves at home anywhere and are easy to cater for.

So we planned a few outings and took them to sample some of the local cuisine - which they loved!

Now the thing about this area is that the restaurants pretty much run along the same theme. That is to say mostly the food is meat, meat, meat and dumplings! All fantastic I have to say but just sometimes you want something a little more - not sure what the word here should be - possibly challenging or perhaps a little more cosmopolitan.

Anyway, we took them to Prague for the weekend. It was fun! Cant blog about a lot of it but I do want to mention in fact give a big mention to one particular restaurant that we visited.

The restaurant is called Mlynec. It overlooks the Charles bridge.

I had visited this restaurant years ago when I traveled with a company that I worked for and remembered that the food had been very good even for one of those big corporate events. So we booked a table for the Saturday night.

Well, the website said that cocktails were free before 8pm if we were eating so we arrived at 7.30 (Just to make the most of the evening you understand!). The staff were wonderful. Very friendly and helpful. They suggested that we should join their club, the "Zatisi" group of restaurants as we would then get points towards further meals etc (and the free cocktails). We did this and then sat down for the most amazing meal...

We chose the "Chefs choice Asian fusion 7 course menu" with wines to complement. Our waiter, Peter (We have since met Philip who is equally as talented) chose the wines and provided a glass with each course as it was served. Our guests are "foodies" like us so each course was accompanied by full scale discussion about the amazing quality of the food and the degree to which the alcohol - which included cold saki with one course - went so brilliantly together. I cant remember the combinations. Lets face it 2 margaritas and 7 different other drinks before coffee and I would be pressed to remember my name but I can tell you that the courses included the following:

Beef Tataki with Bonito Jús , garlic chips and spring Onion
Sautéed Scallops St. Jacques, Yuzu fruit dressing, mango-papaya salsa and Nori Nishiki rice
Tuna rolls with asparagus and scallops Sashimi with yuzu-chillli mayonnaise
Chef´s deer goulash

I have always admired the art of the somelier. I had thought that in time I could learn some of this skill, perhaps to start with the pudding wines (There cant be so many of them can there?) but I am now in complete awe and know that this talent is in a league of its own. The saki was a complete but perfect curveball. A reisling with one course was something I would never have considered drinking at home. By the time we got to the "Cab-sav" - a usual mainstay at home- I actually found myself thinking that although it went perfectly with the food (I think that this might have been the venison) my pallet had become so suddenly sophisticated that I considered never drinking it at home again (What would my dear old dad say!)

In England we used to visit some nice pubs that had great menus and I guess that with wine it would be easy to spend £50 per head but this meal above meals cost us less than that and was the most enjoyable foodie night out I have had in years.

The story doesnt end here.

We received the membership card a couple of weeks after our visit and with it a voucher for 2 meals for the price of 1. If this wasnt enough, at Christmas we received a card and a years complementary Gold card membership which of course we took advantage of on our next visit to the city.

I should mention that at this next visit we chose the same "chefs choice" menu. The courses were different and the wines were different and everything was perfectly matched again thanks to Philip. Additionally, because of our new membership status we were able to chose a bottle of very nice wine to take away with us. And, imagine our surprise when we were offered a free limousine home!

There are some very nice restaurants in Prague and I have seen a few! Mlynec is I have to say, by far my favorite to date and if the staff ever read this I just want to say thank you for doing such a wonderful job. I cannot recommend this place enough so for those who want to know, this is the web address: www.mlynec.cz

Next time I should remember to take notes and some photos - or would that be too food obsessed?