Aunt Infestation!

Lauren and Mara

Question: What could be more delightful than having your doting aunties (in the case of Ben and Garrett), your beloved sisters (for Karl), or your yet-two-more-examples-of-how-you-really-lucked-into-this-family, super cool sisters-in-law (that's me speaking) come all the way from Boston to visit?

Answer: Precious little.

Karlovy Vary & Loket

Though our major Spring Break trip was planned for the second week of the boys' vacation, we thought it would be fun to have a quick overnight somewhere in the country prior to that. Karl had teaching obligations through Thursday, so we took off for western Bohemia on Friday morning, heading toward the spa town of Karlovy Vary.

We rented a car for the first time this year to give us a little flexibility to visit multiple sites without too much trouble. The boys were so excited that we'd have our own car, especially Ben, although it's not clear why. An hour or so out of Prague we were treated to the usual refrains of the "Ballad of the Road Trip" ("I'm bored," "When will we get there?" and that old chestnut, "He's on my side!").

By legend, the thermal springs of Karlovy Vary, also known as Karlsbad in German (or Carlsbad in English), were discovered by a hunting party led by Charles IV in the 14th century. The story goes that one of the hunting dogs fell into a hot spring while chasing a deer. Upon further investigation, Charles himself declared the waters to have restorative properties and ordered that the area be settled with bathhouses built around the springs.

Ben & Garrett's Excellent Spring Break

We're deep into Week TWO of the boys' spring break (two weeks?? sheesh!), and I think we've done a pretty good job of keeping them entertained. Actually, Prague has done a lot of the heavy lifting in the Keeping Us Entertained department. Here's what we've been up to ...

Paddleboating on the Vltava ~

Karl and Garrett paddle while Ben mans the helm.

Garrett chills out with a Prague Castle backdrop.

Novotny's Footbridge

Family pic!

Bonus -- the camera didn't fall into the river while we waited for the self-timer.

Tábor and the Hussites

Now that spring weather is upon us, we've started taking weekend day trips into the country again. With two energetic young boys, our day trips have to involve a lot of outdoor romping. Ben and Garrett enjoy a tower climb, can tolerate maybe one indoor exhibit, and are always open to hitting a pub for snacks and a drink (which, in their case, is either hot cocoa or juice). But any more of an indoor plan than that is asking for trouble. This year in Europe has not been one of whiling away afternoons at kavarnas or musing over the finer points of art from the renaissance period. At times it's felt like a mad dash from one playground to a geocache and back again ... while shoe-horning an historic site or two into the agenda.

In March we headed to South Bohemia to the medieval town of Tábor. Tábor is significant for its history and its architecture. Fortunately it has a few geocaches as well, because let's face it -- history and architecture only go so far in igniting the imagination the 6- to 8-year-old set.

To appreciate Tábor's history it's good to know a little about Jan Hus and the Hussite reformation. Hus is considered a spiritual founder of the city, although the city was established after his death.

Jan Hus profile relief, from the Bethlehem Chapel exhibit in Prague

Jan Hus was a Czech priest and a master at Charles University in the early 1400s. By the time he was in his 30s, his charismatic preaching style drew crowds up to 3,000 when he preached at the Bethlehem Chapel in Old Town, where services were in Czech rather than Latin. Hus, a follower of English philosopher and theologian John Wycliffe (an early dissident from the Roman Catholic Church and proponent of translating the Bible into common language), believed that there should be less separation between God and laity, particularly in the sacraments of confession and communion. He was also very critical of corruption and wealth in the institutional Church. In 1415, Hus was burned at the stake for heresy.

Family time

From a personal perspective, probably the best aspect of Karl's sabbatical -- aside from a year in Prague, for goodness' sake -- is the huge amount of unstructured family time we enjoy. Just this weekend we went geocaching in the nearby village of Hostivice and out to dinner at a neighborhood pub on Friday, rode a train to a farm near Beroun on Saturday to pick pumpkins, and then sat down to our usual Sunday morning pancake-fest (Karl's best batch on the metric system) before all the boys in the family did some more geocaching, this time in Hvězda, a new park for us.


Hostivice pond in the late afternoon


Garrett in front of the star-shaped summer palace Hvězda.

Unfortunately I spent Sunday afternoon inside IKEA shopping for towels and a duvet and cover. (We are hosting our first guests this week!) But I got to participate in the pumpkin carving before dinner.


We miss our friends and family. But we relish our freedom from meetings and committees. Karl and I even manage to sneak time out in the city by ourselves sometimes. Good news -- we still enjoy each other's company!

Divoká Šárka

A 15-minute trolley ride on Tram 26 took us out of the city to the rugged and beautiful Divoká Šárka, a nature preserve featuring limestone cliffs and a gorge carved by the Šárka stream.


Online Karl had confirmed several geocache sites within the park, so TeamK4 (Karl, Kate, 2 kids) went off to find them. Here's the first cache, which you can see nestled between the tree and the big rock, just off of Ben's right shoulder.


Ben located this cache, and victory is always sweet!


Official cache sizes include large, regular, small, and micro. Here is an article with a quick explanation of the size parameters. We found a micro cache at Radyně Castle that was in a 35mm film container attached to the back of a pipe with a magnet. Contents usually include a sticker or document identifying the container as a geocache (with a request that if you found it by accident would you be so kind as to put it back exactly as it was), a log book and pen, and -- if the container size permits -- swag (Stuff We All Get). Swag might include small toys, keychains, rubber ducks, whatever can fit in the container. Swapping swag is part of the fun, and we come armed with offerings.

TeamK4 members, like many geocachers, have various motives for geocaching: exploring new regions (or being introduced to new places in familiar regions), going for a hike with a goal, the thrill of discovery and victory (see Ben's picture above).

For Garrett, it's all about the swag.

Revealing cache contents makes for a little bit of Christmas any day.


The official mark of the Czech geocache. The top line reads "Prosím neschovávej tuto schránku jinam a nenič ji! Please do not disturb!" (Karl said the literal translation is "Please do not hide this box elsewhere and do not destroy it!")


We found the second cache about 20 minutes later and headed home triumphant.


Our minister, Craig, and his wife, Cheryl , introduced us to geocaching back in July. It couldn't have been more timely for us. With the European sites downloaded on Ben's Geomate Jr. (a birthday gift), we can head off in search of geocaches all over the city and countryside.

And -- not unlike counting and Škoda -- the boys hardly realize that we're off on a hike.

Bears and beers and Bara

When Karl was in the Czech Republic in 1991-92, he lived in Plzeň with a young couple, Zbyndá and Marketa, and their children, Bara and Voita. At the end of August we spent a delightful day with them. We went on a hike to the ruins of Radyné Castle.

Garrett guards the Hunger Chamber at Radyné.

Along the way we geocached, finding the three caches we set out for (much better luck than we had this summer in NH, where we were 0 for 4).

Ben crawled in and found the "Bear's Den" cache. Here, Ben, Garrett, and Bara check out the loot.

Back at their house, Marketa and Bara showed us their egg-decorating technique. Marketa has already started building up her stash for next Easter, as she sells them locally.

The boys and I tried our hands at egg art.

Marketa's gorgeous eggs (bet you can't find one of ours hiding in the bunch).

Finally, we had a feast of grilled food, veggies and many drinks (homemade black currant wine and -- of course -- Pilsner) outside in the shelter they built in the backyard. No hunger chamber here.


The boys had a fantastic day (we did, too!), but they especially loved hanging out with Bara who did magic tricks, played hide and seek, and in general was more fun than anyone's parents. Especially Ben and Garrett's.