¶ Friday 02.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 84 Total )
¶ Fluker's Brook Farm, Caravan and Motorhome CL Site, Prescot L34 7HB
We are driving down to Liverpool this weekend to help Dan move into a city centre apartment. Sadly, Naomi and Dan have decided to call time on their relationship after 8 years, and Naomi has decided to stay in their rented house.
Dan picked us up at lunchtime, and we went back to the house to help him to pack up some of the smaller things. His aim is to get as much of his belongings to the flat as he can this weekend, and then he is hiring a van to take the last of his furniture next week.
We were interested to see the flat as it is near Concert Square which is a busy area as there are many bars and restaurants in the area as well as music venues. After emptying the car, we had a look around the flat and were impressed with the size of it. Dan just needs to make it his home now.
After chatting about what things need to be done this weekend, we went back to the house for tea, and spent the evening together. It was nice to have a proper catch up with Dan on our own as Naomi was staying with a friend for the weekend. Dan dropped us back at the site and we will have a longer time at the flat tomorrow trying to help him to get things sorted out.
¶ Saturday 03.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 85 Total )
¶ Fluker's Brook Farm, Caravan and Motorhome CL Site, Prescot L34 7HB
Today we had a packing day. Dan has a gig in the town tonight but we have some time to get more of his things to the flat. Kevin helped him to carry everything in, and I did a bit of cleaning and washing so that he could put his things away. I wish we had more time to help him but I’m sure he will soon get things sorted. It will be sad when he leaves the house for the last time but he is looking forward to new beginnings and adventures.
¶ Wednesday 21.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 86 Total )
¶ Barn Farm Caravan and Motorhome CL Site, Grantham NG32 2EJ
We are on the first leg of our summer break on the continent. We are staying on this site near Grantham as we are visiting Belvoir (pronounced ‘Beaver’) Castle tomorrow as it was recommended to us by one of Kevin’s adult students. The site is nice enough with basic facilities which are expected from a CL site. Pitches are located on a mostly level farm field near the owner’s property, and there is plenty of room between them for privacy. It was windy when we arrived, and this picked up through the night, but we still managed to sleep well and are looking forward to our visit tomorrow.
¶ Thursday 22.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 87 Total )
¶ Brookcroft Caravan and Motorhome CL Site, Harwich CO12 5BL
We drove to Belvoir Castle which is about half an hour from the campsite. It is a hilltop castle and was visible early on in our journey. It reminded us of when we could see Hohenzollern Castle in the distance when we visited. The carpark is large, and it was easy to park the motorhome as there was plenty of room.
We had pre-booked our tickets online so we picked up wristbands and a map of the grounds then set off up to the castle. The walk up to the castle is quite steep but the pathway is tarmacked, and there are boards of information along the route which provide a timeline of the castle and it’s history.
The castle itself was designed by the same architect as Windsor Castle, James Wyatt, and features a large round turret as well as smaller ones, and also square turrets making it quite impressive as you approach. The castle has featured in films such as ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Young Victoria’ and, more recently, ‘The Crown’. One of the guides told us that many German and Austrian visitors come to the castle because their go-to film at Christmas for them is the Alec Guiness version of ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ which was also filmed here.
‘Belvoir’ means ‘beautiful view’ and dates back to the Norman times. The current castle is the fourth to be build on the hill. The current castle was built in the early 1800’s. To enter, we walked through the portico which was added after the death of Wyatt. The artefacts contained in the castle span the history of all four castles and include armaments, paintings, furniture, and other more personal items such as an invalid carriage, and sleigh. The castle was not busy so we were able to wander around the rooms at leisure, and speak to the guides for more information. There was a striking dining room with mirrored walls, and two beautiful Chinese bedrooms which the current Duke and Duchess use for family and friends who visit. There is a huge range of architectural styles including a gothic style entrance and staircase leading to the ballroom, again in the gothic style and which reminds you of the interior of a church or cathedral, a Regency style salon, and a picture gallery with an ornate ceiling with windows all around it, similar to those used in Roman bath houses.
Belvoir Castle is said to be the birthplace of the ‘afternoon tea’, and it began in the 1840’s during a hunting weekend. The Duchess of Bedford needed some refreshments when her husband and his gentlemen friends were out hunting. The Duchess requested sandwiches, cakes and tea to be served, mid-afternoon, as a way of filling the time between lunch and dinner. Other ladies then began to follow this routine and the ‘afternoon tea’ became a regular occurrence.
After touring the castle, we visited the gift shop to pick up fridge magnet to add to the collection (unfortunately they were sold out!), and we got a little gift for Aurora. Then we had a walk around the nearby gardens. The estate is huge, and has many garden landscaping features designed by Capability Brown which we did not visit today as it was very windy. It is possible to book an additional tour of the grounds which would be a nice thing to do on a sunnier and less windy day.
We visited the Belvoir Retail Village which is situation across the road from the castle entrance, and Kevin bought a black pudding Scotch egg for his lunch. After lunch, we drove to Harwich for our usual stopover before catching the ferry tomorrow to the Hook of Holland.
¶ Friday 23.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 88 Total )
¶ Delftse Hôut Campsite, Delft, Netherlands
It has been a very windy night, and the van was shaking about. We were up early anyway as we are catching the ferry today and sailing to the Hook of Holland. This is becoming quite a familiar journey for us. We got to the port at about 8.15am and, after being pulled over for a security check again (third time now), we waited to board. We have booked a cabin as usual, and the ferry has had some refurbishment since we travelled last year. This included the removal of the mini cinema to create a larger lounge for travellers (much to Kevin’s dismay). We always bring plenty of things to keep up busy – except I didn’t bring a small pair of scissors for my sewing, or a rubber to rub out my puzzle book mistakes. We also need to bring a small flask of hot water next time to make our own drinks as our lattes were expensive and very disappointing.
After a nice hot shower, we went down to the restaurant to have a meal which will keep up going now, and we will only need a snack later tonight.
The ferry arrived on time, and we made our way to Delft for our first night. We were given a pitch that backed onto the play area so it was noisy, but we’re only here for one night. It started to rain later in the evening, and it became heavy until mid-morning just before we left, so this keeps the children out of the play area!
¶ Saturday 24.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 89 Total )
¶ Europarks Port van Maastricht
Today we are making our way towards Maastricht for a couple of nights. On the way we were hoping to visit Kasteel Heeswijk which is just north of Eindhoven. When we arrived, we discovered that the car park was quite small, and we could not get parked. We could see the castle from the road but, as it was so busy, and likely impossible to get a space where we could get the van in, we decided to continue on our way to Maastricht instead.
The trip was a pleasant one, and we made a stop for lunch before arriving at the site in the late afternoon. The site is quiet with many pitches available. It has a good reception area with shop and restaurant, and the shower blocks are clean and well maintained. There are a couple of children’s play areas but these are situated at either end of the site, well away from the pitches. There is also and indoor and outdoor pool close to the Reception area. We got set up and went for a short walk to find out where the bus stop was, and to stretch our legs after the journey. It was 30º so hot for walking. There is a petrol station next to the site, and a garden centre.
After tea, the cloud began to thicken and we had heavy rain followed by a thunderstorm later in the evening. You always know when the thunderstorms are coming on the continent as the wind picks up all of a sudden. The sheet lightning was impressive and it cooled everything down a little ready for bedtime.
¶ Sunday 25.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 90 Total )
¶ Europarks Port van Maastricht
We caught the bus from right outside the campsite, and travelled into Maastricht. It is located on the southern tip of the Netherlands in the province of Limburg, and is bordered by Germany to the east, and Belgium to the west. We have booked a road train tour and river tour to find out more about the city. The one thing we did know is that the Maastricht Treaty was signed here in 1991, leading to the creation of the European Union and introduction of the euro.
We arrived a couple of hours before our tours so this gave us time to have a wander around the streets of the city. Initially most of the shops were closed, which we were expecting as it was Sunday, but this changed after 12pm when the centre became busier with tourists and locals visiting shops and restaurants. Like many other cities we have visited in Europe, the focus on eating out with friends and family in one of the many outdoor eating places available. We have been to some beautiful cities however we found Maastricht a little underwhelming. There are many winding, cobbled streets but it didn’t have the wow factor of other places we have visited. Everything seems cramped and it lacked the pretty historic buildings we expected to find here.
We got on our road train which advertised a multilingual commentary. The English part was lacking at time leaving us unsure of what we were supposed to be looking at or looking out for. It did give us a greater idea of the geography of the centre of the city as it took us around the city park and through the streets, and the commentary did explain some aspects of the history briefly including that of the city walls, and about the older buildings. We passed a statue of D’Artagnan, one of the legendary three musketeers who is said to have been buried close by. The tour took us past churches including Saint Janskerk (Jan’s Church) which is a Christian church with a striking red tower, and the city hall.
We then took a boat tour along the river Meuse which has the oldest bridge in the Netherlands dated 1289. St. Servatius Bridge replaced a Roman bridge but it has been redesigned, renovated and rebuilt over the centuries after being detonated and bombed. The audio guide was again multilingual with some English translation. The trip took us past the building where the Maastricht Treaty was signed (although we are not sure which one it was!), Mount Sint Pieter where evidence of an Iron Age fortress, a Roman fortress, and dinosaur remains have been discovered. As series of underground caves and tunnels are also open to the public for viewing. A huge cement works dominates the bank of the Meuse close to the Mount which is a rich source of limestone. This closed in 2020 after almost 100 years.
The boat trip was pleasant but tourists were seated at the back of the boat which made it difficult to see what the commentary was referring to. These boats are used for dinner cruises in the evening so the main areas have limited access which is a shame. We left the boat and headed for a kiosk we had spotted on the bridge as there were no souvenir shops and we were hoping to find a magnet for our collection, which we did.
Every place we visit has something that we will always remember it for, and Maastricht will be famous for its bear pit. After passing it on our tour, we walked back to the city park to find out more about it. It was originally built in 1969 to house five bears Prior to this bears had been kept in captivity Maastricht in various cages since 1920 when two bears were purchased from Hamburg’s Circus Hagenbeck in 1919 purely for the entertainment of visitors. The last bear to live in this bear pit was called Jo and removed in 1993 to live elsewhere. The bear pit has become a monument and now contains a work created by artist Michael Huisman which depicts a giraffe being stroked by a female sitting beside it. The pit itself contains bronze models of 12 animals that are extinct. The animals represent the many animals today that are currently at risk of extinction because of human intervention. Huisman is said to have had a dream in which Jo the bear appeared and gave him the ideas for creating his artwork including the use of a giraffe. Sadly the monument has not been maintained and the statues are spoiled by overgrown weeds and moss – ironically it is suffering today because of the lack of human intervention, and it would be a valuable reminder for future generations to consider how their actions affected other species if it were maintained and became a more significant feature of the park.
We walked across the bridge to catch a bus back to the site, and were back by 5pm. It was an interesting day and, even though we have been to more interesting and beautiful cities, we came away with some more memories and historical facts to add to our every-growing collection.
¶ Monday 26.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 91 Total )
¶ Knaus Campingpark Nuremberg
We have a long travel day today – probably 6-7 hours with stops and a visit to the supermarket. It is a lovely day, and the traffic on the whole has been ok. There are a huge amount of roadworks on some of the major routes and we have noticed this over the last couple of years when we have visited Germany. The road infrastructure is massive, and the motorways have been widened and resurfaced in many parts of the route from north to south. This sometimes means we are diverted through smaller towns and villages but, so far, this has not caused us any problems.
We arrived at the supermarket close to the site at about 5pm, and had shopped and were set up by 6pm. Tomorrow will be a rest day.
¶ Tuesday 27.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 92 Total )
¶ Knaus Campingpark Nuremberg
After researching public transport for a trip into Nuremberg tomorrow, we realised we were within walking distance of the Congress Hall, in the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, which houses the Dokumentation Center museum. The Center is currently closed as major building works are taking place there however, we were able to book a tour of the Grounds via the GetYourGuide app. We decided to book for today as it was so close to the site, not realising it was in fact a multi-site tour which was about 4-5 miles in total (so much for a rest day).
It was very hot today, and much of the tour was in the full sun so it was tiring. The Congress Hall could only be viewed via a viewing platform, and we learned that the Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra is now located in part of the Congress Hall building. After an initial disappointment thinking that the ‘tour’ only included the Congress Hall (and perhaps a misunderstanding of what the tour was actually about), Kevin worked out that the tour took us around a much larger area. After learning about the nearby lakes and Volksfest (Folk Festival), the tour took us to the Zeppelin Fields where we could see what was left of the original rally ground that had capacity for 200,000 people.
We had both previously seen old, black and white footage of Hitler standing on a podium in front of thousands of soldiers paraded in front of dignitaries and vast numbers of spectators, and I thought these were filmed in the Congress Hall building. This wasn’t the case, as that building was not completed in time, but instead a huge grandstand in front of the Zeppelin Fields, made up of stone pillars in the style of an Ancient Greek Pergamon altar with a tower at each end, and a central tower with a large swastika on the top, was the location for these huge rallies. The swastika on the central tower was destroyed by the American military during WWII. Today, the central tower still stands, as does the podium where Hitler once stood to address the spectators before him. These places are fascinating but eerie at the same time. An information board showed how this grandstand became ‘a cathedral of light’. Designed by architect Albert Speer, it consisted of 152 anti-aircraft searchlights, at intervals of 12 metres, aimed skyward to create a series of vertical bars surrounding the audience. The scale of these rallies was really brought home by visiting this area.
We walked back to the Congress Hall by the side of the river to visit the temporary exhibition there. One important thing we came away with is Germany’s intention to preserve these buildings as a way of educating future generations about the past whilst, at the same time, creating positive uses and experiences that do no not glorify the actions or spaces created by the Third Reich. Their intention is to provide positive and practical uses and experiences that benefit the communities around these spaces. When walking around the lake, we did wonder what it must be like to look at these buildings every day from your own windows – I’m not sure that I would want to but perhaps this changes as each generation follows.
We walked back to the site after our ‘rest day’! We enjoyed our fajitas and had a nice relaxing evening.
¶ Wednesday 28.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 93 Total )
¶ Knaus Camping Park Nuremberg
We definitely needed a rest day today after all the walking we did yesterday. It’s not really the walking that’s tiring but it’s walking in the heat that makes it so. We have decided to stay an extra night in Nuremberg so that we can go into the city tomorrow.
Today we have both been working on our travel journal. Originally I wrote this up in a series of books but, as I have increased the amount I write over the years, it has become much more time consuming (especially if I don’t get to write it up for a couple of days!). Kevin has been exploring different blog formats as we want to add our photos to the text. I have continued to write up our adventures electronically rather than in paper form as it is much quicker. I am also transferring our paper travel journals to an electronic format too.
After our last van was set on fire, we were so grateful that we had taken the journals out to write up as we could never have replaced the records of our motorhome travels. It has made us both more conscious of having a back up as we hope that Aurora and Lavender, (and any other grandchildren we may have in the future), might find them interesting one day when they are adults, and when they become interested in their family tree. We hope our travel journals will give them a flavour of what we did, and give them a piece of family history that they can share with their own families in the future. I’d also like to create some nice books containing the photos we have taken on our travels, which we can read and enjoy.
It has been another hot and sticky day (and night) today. Kevin has been bitten a number of times – this seems to happen every year. We are looking forward to visiting the city tomorrow.
¶ Thursday 29.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 94 Total )
¶ Knaus Camping Park Nuremberg
We have booked tickets for the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tour today so that we can learn more about the city of Nuremberg. We were able to book our train into the city online – the station is about 20 minutes from the site – and the journey takes less than 10 minutes. We arrived at the Hauptbahnhof at about 10.30am, and it was already very hot.
We walked to the pick up point for the bus tour (which is just outside the Grand Hotel), and began our journey around the city. These tours have commentary available in many languages, and are a great way of getting a historical overview of the area, as well as a geographical understanding of key areas of interest. Our aim was to visit the Imperial Castle and the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg trials were held after the Second World War. Like many other places we have visited in Germany, Nuremberg lost many buildings during the Allied bombing raids, and the city has been rebuilt. Some buildings were again replicated but they do not seem to have the same authenticity as others we have seen on our travels. The bus tour took us past both the Palace of Justice and the Imperial Castle and we made our first stop at the Old Town and Market Place. The commentary pointed out places of interest as well as providing historical information about the city.
Clearly the events and impact of WWII is always going to be visible in German cities, and German people do not attempt to hide any aspects of the atrocities from visitors – in fact, the opposite is true. The Germans are keen to preserve the past, not to in any way glorify the history of the Third Reich and Hitler, but to create a positive experience by giving their buildings a new purpose that serves the community, or to provide an area for contemplation and healing. For example, the Congress Hall build in the style of the colosseum in Rome (although never finished) continues to be repurposed. The massive arena has been used by the community for storage by businesses, practise area for extinguishing fires by the fire brigade, and for outdoor concerts by the Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra. They occupy the southern side where there are rehearsal rooms and a recording studio. The northern side houses the Dokumentation Centre of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds which is currently being refurbished.
The Aldstadt and Marktplatz is a pretty place with market stalls, restaurants and shops. We arrived there at midday, just as the clock on Catholic Frauenkirche was beginning to chime. Built between 1352 and 1362, the church contains art works dating back to the Middle Ages. A bell rings, and the mechanical clock begins its sequence, followed by the trumpeters and drummer. There is a procession of the electors around the figure of the Holy Roman Emperor who sits in the centre of the clock tower. It reminded me of the one in Prague, albeit on a smaller, and less sophisticated, scale. It was installed in the church between 1506 and 1509. Photography is not permitted within the church but they do sell a variety of postcard images for tourists. Across from the church there is a decorative, 14th century Gothic golden spire, Schöner Brunnen translating to ‘beautiful fountain’. Measuring 19m high, it was very striking as it shone in the sunshine. It was originally built as an ornate cover for one of the many wells providing water in the city, and to reflect Nuremburg’s importance and power during the Holy Roman Empire.
We ate our lunch in the marketplace, and then walked to the church with two towers – St. Sebald’s Church – a Protestant church, dating back to the 13th Century. The church contains both ancient and contemporary artefacts including sculpture and paintings. The organ was being played when we entered which always adds another dimension when visiting a church. Familiar music – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Zadok the Priest echoed around this beautiful church. St. Sebald’s Church repeatedly suffered much damage during the Second World War. In 1945, both towers were hit and fire broke out, melting the Medieval bells. Much restoration work has taken place, and the church is very beautiful.
We bought our Nuremberg magnet, then made a visit to the Eis shop as it was so hot – we can justify eating ice-cream when we a walking so much! We then caught the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus back to the Palace of Justice in the hope that we would get to visit Court 600 where the Nuremberg Trials had been held. Not only did we get to see the famous court room, but our visit included an interesting film giving background to the International Criminal Law Courts and how they developed. The Nuremberg Trials footage was cleverly overlaid over sections of the court room layout with audio to give visitors a unique sensory experience within the actual court room. The exhibition was very extensive with so much information to listen to on the audio guides we had. Again, the heat of the day prevented us from taking in everything, and we started to get information overload, but we got a great overview of the events of the Trials. We picked up a couple of quirky bits of information on the tour. Nuremberg is famous for the Nuremberg sausage (I’m sure every German city has a sausage named after it judging by the vast array in supermarkets!). Unlike many others, the Nuremberg sausage is small and thin. Legend has it that they were made like this so that they could fit through a keyhole in the door of a prisoner cell, and the guards could push them through for prisoners to eat. Nuremberg is also famous for its gingerbread (lebkuchen). They are known for a recipe called Elisenlebkuchen containing a variety of spices which are said to have healing powers. A widowed baker is said to have made this for his only daughter Elizabeth (Elisen) who was became very ill but recovered after being given a diet of her father’s lebkuchen recipe containing oriental spices.
We walked to the U-Bahn station and caught the train back to our site which was about a 20-minute walk away from the station. We were both keen to learn more about the trials and so Kevin downloaded a couple of dramatisations which had had good reviews. We started to watch one of them after tea, and this rounded off our day well, and put into context some of the events we had learned about at the Court.
¶ Friday 30.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 95 Total )
¶ Autocamp Ostende Bolovec
We are driving to the Czech Republic in our motorhome today for the first time. We have visited before when we were staying in Dresden, and we took a coach trip to Prague. We are hoping to see a bit more of the country over the next few days as that day was certainly a whistlestop tour!
We are heading for a site just outside the city of Pilsen, with view to visiting the city tomorrow. After stopping off for fuel and food on the way, our journey was a pleasant and uneventful one. We stopped for short breakfast break (brunch) and then continued our journey. It is another hot and sunny day today with very little to no breeze.
The site is not the best we have stayed on. We are not keen on these ‘you can just drive on and park where you like’ sites as it can lead to vans being parked very close together. We were keen to get a pitch under the trees if possible to keep us out of the sun, and we managed that. There is electricity on the pitch (a bit like Wertheim with dubious looking electricity points stretching from one pitch to another. The site is situated next to a lake, although there are very few pitches near the water as these are occupied by wooden chalets (which must be stifling inside in this heat). We went on a very short walk looking for fresh water taps (didn’t find any), but decided we were glad to only be here for two nights. We are not fans of the ‘ad hoc’ campsite, and like an organised site that comes with a map showing all the key facilities. We also prefer a site to have marked pitches as this stops people turning up late and encroaching on your space, or being next to someone who is going to be noisy.
¶ Saturday 31.08.24 ( Max/ Barney/ Phoenix 96 Total )
¶ Autocamp Ostende Bolovec
We took the tram into Pilsen and downloaded a self-guided tour of the city onto our phones. The tram fares are based on the amount of time you travel rather than the distance, and we were able to buy our tickets on the tram using a card machine. The journey is a short one – about 10 minutes – and we began to get a feel for how the outskirts of the cities must have developed over time. The majority of housing appears to be high rise apartment blocks painted in pastel pinks and yellows. They are very uniform with flat rooves, and some have a small balcony. The areas we passed were overgrown and neglected but I suppose we have also seen that happen in the U.K. as the local authorities have had budget cuts, and have to prioritise other services.
The first landmark we encountered was the beautiful Great Synagogue which is the largest Czechian synagogue, and third largest in Europe. It has a striking red and white façade, two large towers crowned with onion domes, and a Star of David created in the stone work at the centre. We were unable to visit today as it was Saturday. It is beautiful building. As we travel across Europe, we are beginning to understand the extent to which the Nazi regime decimated countries and the lives of the people of who lived there. This of course could not have been more so for the Jewish community, and this continued in Pilsen, where a large proportion were taken to concentration camps including the Czech camp of Terezin, thirty miles north of Prague. The Great Synagogue was not used for religious purposes during the Second World War, but was used by the Nazis for storing Jewish property. The towers were used as strategic ‘lookout’ points by the Nazis, and the synagogue was later used as a place for repairing German military uniforms.
Our self-guided tour started at the Orchard circuit which was created on the site of the old city walls, and surround the historic centre of the city. It is a pleasant area to sit, with seats and trees for shade. There are many cafes around the square as well as historic buildings including the Museum of West Bohemia, Great Theatre and the Old Synagogue.
We walked to the market square which is dominated by St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral and its 102 metres high tower. Across from the cathedral is the Puppet Museum – we had visited a similar museum on a visit to Augsburg last year. The Puppet Theatre was very interesting and records more than 100 years of Czech puppetry, and many of the boards were in English. The museum contained more than 100 puppets of different sizes, as well as mini puppet theatres where visitors can enjoy short performances of the marionettes, and even try out their hands at puppetry. There is an interactive room where visitors can also learn more about how puppets are operated using different mechanical and human puppetry techniques. It was interesting to learn that traditional puppetry began with travelling theatres. Puppeteers would travel around with two caravans – one to live in, and one as a puppet theatre. It was well worth a visit for both adults and children.
We visited St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral and decided to take the 300 steps up to the top of the tower which gave us a fantastic view of the city. We were able to view the church bells of different sizes as we made our way to the top of the tower – I was pleased that they did not ring when we were up there! The view across the city was worth the climb up – and it is always easier going back down! Inside the cathedral, the stained glass looked stunning as the sun shone through the windows. The cathedral was completed at the beginning of the 16th Century and has a beautiful Gothic interior with pillars and a vaulted ceiling. The centrepiece of the altar is the statue of the Madonna, which dates back to 1390. There are a lot of gold statues and ornate decoration in the cathedral which makes it a very special place to visit.
We then followed the tour to the Brewery Museum, and on to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery which produces beer for more than 50 countries around the world. There was a Burgerfest going on in the grounds – we didn’t have a burger but did succumb to some very nice ice cream as it was so hot. We returned to the tram stop by walking back through the city, and were glad to rest our feet for the rest for the rest of the evening. I don’t think we will be returning to this site as the amenities are poor – and they are no good for a longer stay as fresh water is only available from the kitchen sinks. Still, we have had another interesting day in Pilsen, and we move further east tomorrow as we head for Prague.