To the countryside

We spent our last full day in the Czech Republic with Vendy Petrinova's family in Kublov, a village of 600 people 45 minutes' drive from Prague. Vendy, age 7, had been my English student. Vendy and her sisters were eager to show me their house, but I wasn't much good on their trampoline.

Later, we hiked in the Bohemian forest and did some rock climbing with the girls, with considerable assistance from their mother, Daniela. The view was magnificent, and well worth the anxiety that I'd fall to my death. Meanwhile, Vendy and her sisters pranced around like little antelopes.

Joe managed to lose his glasses while he was hiking.