Hluboka

On Saturday, following a long bike ride by Peter (I went past the wastewater treatment plant!) and a trip to the Farmers' Market by Kristine (potatoes get heavy when you carry them 1.25 km) we were ready for a relaxing trip to a palace. Instead we took the kids.

The fact is folks, bring your friends, bring your lover (to whom you are married of course), but don't bring your small kids to this place. There is too much walking and too many precious things that escaped destruction by Hitler.

We took the bus to Hluboka nad Vltavou, a town about 10 km north of Česke Budějovice. Fortunately, we got off one stop too late. Instead of setting us down by the church in town below the palace, this put us a couple kilometers away, by the zoo. By the time we had walked from the road to the trail that would take us to either destination, Silas had completed two tantrums and was getting going on another.

This took us back to a moment four years ago, when we were last here and toured a castle with Caleb and Lucy. Lucy tried to hang from the velvet ropes that separate people from the delicate historic artifacts, bringing the stands that hold the ropes up crashing down.

Kristine and Caleb went to the palace. I took Silas and Lucy to the zoo.

From Hluboka

Hluboka Castle is was built in its latest form as a palace between 1841 and 1871 by the powerful Schwarzenberg Family. It was not built for defense and is very modern and comfortable. Some highlights of their tour include the armory (lots of ceremonial weapons, early muskets, bunch of spears and polearms, tons of swords, ceremonial armor, huge double-headed decorative axe, small cannons), an Italian fellow on the tour that was delighted to be allowed to play an old piano in the ballroom, the tour guide who was conversant in five languages, and no Silas.

You can see a few more photos taken by Kristine by following the Hluboka link below the photo, or follow this link to a whole bunch of photos by someone else.

Meanwhile, the more boisterous members of the family went to the zoo. There are a lot of zoos in this country. I think that any town of over 50,000 has a pretty good zoo. So we saw monkeys, wolves, bears, owls, pelican, and flamingos. This was Silas' speed. We went where he wanted, when he wanted.

One notable event was the encounter with the goat. Some of you may recall us telling the story of being attached by a goat at the Jihlava zoo four years ago. Well, it turns out that allowing children entry to man-eating goat enclosures is a common tactic to increase attendance at zoos here. Silas and I climbed in with the herd of goats. The largest male got a little pushy. Fortunately, I had already learned the grab them by the horns while trick and Lucy was ready to hoist Silas out of the pen. We did see one woman get butted in the butt. Also, a boy about Lucy's age got pinned up against the side of the enclosure. His parents pulled him out, but his screams drew lots of attention. Unfortunately, Kristine had the camera (but if you follow this link to the Zoo Ohrada site, you'll see some pictures of the animals, including the smaller members of the goat herd, across the top).

Late in the afternoon, we took that bus back home, a tired