Vamberk (not Zamberk) to Zachlumi

After lunch today Libor and Milan, Marketa's dad, drove us to Vamberk, a neighboring village, and dropped us off at a hiking trail high in the hills.  They drove the cars back to Zachlumi and walked the trail in reverse to meet us.  It was about 5 km and we met up with them around 3.5 km.  It was a long walk for Tobiah's little legs and Libor and Milan graciously carried him most of the rest of the way home.  I wasn't able to carry him because with my troublesome ankles, I had enough worries just getting myself out of the woods...there were some pretty rough spots, some pretty muddy spots and some pretty steep spots, but it was a very beautiful hike.  We found lots of mushrooms along the way.  Sebastian learned how to say "big, bad mushroom" in Czech.  He repeated it over and over as we walked.  I think Martina & Mirka, Marketa's mom, were sorry they had taught him how to say it by the time our hike was over.  

A Herd of Fallow Deer

One of many beautiful views

We found a handful or two of wild blueberries.

As Libor was walking toward us we could tell he had something in his sweatshirt, but we couldn't tell what it was.  He found almost as many mushrooms as we had in less than half the time.  We walked another half a kilometer from this point and he and Milan took us a short distance off the trail where they had hidden another batch of mushrooms.

After our walk we had coffee time.  Marketa's mom made chlebicky (little open faced sandwiches), bread with homemade strawberry jam and brownies.  We skyped with Petr & Katja while they were visiting at my mom & dad's house and then retired for the rest of the day.

A little later we were surprised and excited to see Vendula knocking on our window.  She and her parents stopped by on their way back to Zamberk from Prague.  Vendula spent the last three months in Indonesia.  She flew today from Indonesia to Dubai (7 hours), had a 5 hour delay in Dubai because she had missed her flight and then another 6 hours to Prague and another 2 hours to here.  She must have been absolutely exhausted, but she was full of energy and her beautiful, bubbly self.  It was great to see her!

A little later yet, Marketa's mom brought down some of the mushrooms that we found this afternoon.  Fried up and served on little slices of bread...very yummy.

After the kids played a few games they went to bed and I watched the Vice Presidential Debate on youtube and caught up on this blog.  Now it's time for bed for me.  Good night!!!