Prague - Friday and Saturday (Dinner with family, Zličín and Anděl)

Friday 20 July 2018

After two full days previously we were happy to hang around at 'home' and relax.  Ah well, relaxing for me generally means catching up with email messages and writing my blog among other things.  I am also reading a book for the book club, but unlike the previous one, this one doesn't interest me.  In which case it will be easy to write my review as it will be a short one. ;-)

Wim was also kept busy, because our aunt, the last living family member of my parents' generation, had passed away that morning and Wim had promised to write the obituary.  We had known the end was coming, and Wim had fortunately been able to visit her the day before he left, but we both would have liked to be there for the funeral, which now is not possible.

In the afternoon we did some groceries shopping and walked around the lake.  It had been another hot day, so it was nice to sit on a bench in the shade and chat a bit about everything and anything...

Saturday 21 July 2018

We would have preferred to go out for one last day, but it wasn't to be, it seemed.  Ales had not wanted to talk about their visit to Australia until I would be here.  Then he said we would talk when his daughters would come for a visit.  This was to happen on the first Sunday after Wim's arrival, but they (Ales and Lenka) had to go away unexpectedly.  Next was talk of one of the daughters coming over with her boyfriend and we would talk then. So, for this reason we were asked to be home and join the family for lunch on Saturday afternoon.  It all was a bit lopsided.  First of all the whole family, accept for Lenka perhaps, speaks English very well.  Lenka is a bit slower, but can get around.  However, all the talking was done in..... Czech!  Next Lenka and her daughter (sorry, I forget names so easily) took off to sit in the garden, as we later discovered, and the four of us were left at the table to have our dessert.  Only then the boyfriend started to talk to us in perfect English and we finally had a conversation.  Then, after lunch, everyone but Lenka, disappeared to go for a swim in the lake.  As there is no communication we generally don't know what is happening or what is expected, so in the end Wim and I decided to go to one of the outlying suburbs and have a look around. No need for more tourist spots!

First we took the bus and train to Zličín and walked around the shopping centre.  It was a big one, but not big enough to keep us occupied for the whole afternoon, so from there we took the underground to Anděl.  I had found, and bought, a new handbag though, because my usual one had a big tear in the leather and had become unusable.

on the bus to Luka

We had briefly walked through part of Anděl when we had walked to the suburb the other day to catch the underground from there and knew there would be plenty more to see.  There were actually quite a number of shopping centres, but also interesting parts besides those.  We discovered the big brewery, and Wim, the lover of a good beer, would like to have a closer look.  There was beer tasting on offer, but.... we had arrived 15 minutes before closing time, so that was out of the question.

Shopping centre at Anděl

We had had a pleasant rest in one of the excellent and comfortable coffee shops in the shopping centre, but by now it was about dinner time so we searched for a restaurant.  As usual there are plenty tucked away in courtyards to be reached by little alleyways, and so also was Beertime.  Like the name? Wim did! :-)

Wim had a bowl of hot chips (a combination of potato and kumura = sweet potato) and a variety of beers (of course, what else do you go to Beertime for?).  I, not being 's-worlds biggest beer drinker, started off with mineral water and duck liver paté accompanied by a basket of bread.  We were in no particular hurry, so I added an ice cream later and finished off with an espresso.  What a fabulous last night we had together!

N.B.  The visit to Australia still hasn't been mentioned......  Perhaps one day I'll find out when that's going to happen and how many persons will be coming.... ;-)