Country Walkers - Part 1
see Part 2 and Part 3, or more pictures

For the week of August 19-26, we are on a walking tour which begins in Vienna, Austria and ends in Prague, Czech Republic. Save for a few hours in Vienna, the entire trip will be spent in the Czech Republic. The tour is run by a company called Country Walkers. They take care of everything, accommodations, meals, itineraries, trails, transportation, hauling our stuff. All we have to do is walk somewhere between 5-10 miles a day. 

8/19 - first day, Vienna and Mikolov (say Mik-a-love)

Today began not only our walking trip, but  the first organized trip that either of us have ever taken. We left from Vienna after staying there only about half a day - that's a sacrifice we wish we didn't have to make, Vienna was beautiful (see some pictures) and despite the record heat (about 95 F), we would have enjoyed a longer visit and more time to explore the city. We were in town about as long as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were in that movie "Before Sunrise," but our visit was somewhat less eventful. And less passionate, but I think we can blame that on the heat.

Our group met in the hotel lobby at 9am and boarded a bus that would take us across the border into the Czech Republic. Since we stayed at the hotel the night before - as did, presumably most of fellow "Country Walkers" - this morning at breakfast we played the game where you try to guess who in the hotel will be on the tour (check out their foot wear, listen for English). That was fun and we did pretty well. We were relieved to find that one American couple were not on the trip--as we rode the elevator to breakfast, the husband asked us, "Howdja like your sauna?" meaning our hotel room, which was a bit warm initially but cooled off nicely thanks to a cross breeze. The wife expressed longing for ice cubes and air conditioning, then turned to Lisa and said, "You know, you never really appreciate what you have until you come somewhere like this."  Now, we've heard people say this about places like, oh, Africa (and are usually talking about stuff like sufficient food supplies and antibiotics), but it seemed a little ridiculous when referring to your luxury-class hotel in elegant Vienna. But then, we haven't been around Americans for quite some time, and have forgotten about the reflexive incessant complaining we like to do.

Our guides for the trip are two young (surprisingly young--we felt a little unprotected until we saw how very organized they were) Czech women named Eva and Katka. They are each charming in that heavily- accented and earnestly up-beat way that all good European tour guides should be. Our bus is driven by a man in his early thirties (we think) named Josef. Josef speaks no English, so he is quite an enigmatic figure to us, a tabla rasa upon which we can draw our own interpretations. The group is about what we expected. There are 18 of us, all Americans, mostly from either the East or West coast, with an average age of, I'd say, about 45. Lisa and I are the youngest except for one. Notable characters are a husband and wife pair of psychoanalysts from New York City, an attorney from Arkansas, and a consultant to the toy industry who coincidentally has spoken with Rob's brother at Hasbro. Given the nature of the trip (walking in a semi-exotic locale) everyone seems to be well- traveled, and real go- getters despite the heat. Most have expressed complete disbelief at the fact that we are in the middle of a 10 week trip.

Our stops today included a short walk through Mikolov, a small restored village in southern Moravia with an old wine chateau and a museum dedicated to gingerbread. It was charming with a capital "C", but basically was just  a stop over for us to have lunch after the couple hours of riding the bus to reach the Czech Republic. The afternoon trip was a walk through a newly designated national park that was originally constructed by the Lichtensteins. It was pleasant walking with some nice lakes, meadows, and a few castles. It was also a chance to talk to our guides and fellow walkers, and get an idea about who we were stuck with--er, traveling with-- for the next 8 days.

Our hotel is an historic castle, which is so historic and protected that only minimal improvements are allowed by the Czech government. This means that such niceties as elevators, outside phone lines in the room, and towels larger than face cloths are not allowed. Still, it is rural Moravia, which is just developing its tourist industry. I don't know, it seems like a lot to ask of a country that was under Communist rule (and before that Nazi rule) for so many years to suddenly snap to the whole luxury-capitalism beat. It'll take a lot more than ten years (an a lot more busloads of indignant Americans) to turn Valtice into Vegas. On the bright side, alcohol, which is not included in our tour fees, is unbelievably cheap out here in the country. Cheap like you read about. A big round of beers--maybe 5 or 6 came to 60 crowns, which is about $1.50. It's hard to get used to, and even harder to not reflexively stop people from picking up drink tabs.

We've got mixed feelings about the whole group travel thing. One one hand it is nice to have an itinerary and schedule that I don't have to think or worry about. On the other hand, we have become pretty streamlined travelers, even over just 4 weeks, so right now the tour feels a little steering a boat - I mean, should it really take 15 minutes to get on a bus and hit the road?

--Lisa and Rob

Village of Mikolov

winery at Mikolov

Country Walkers at lunch -
Our guides up front, Katka (l) and Eva (r)