Frantiskovy Lazne (CZ – Bamburg (Germany)

We had coffee and bread buns for breakfast – and it was perfect. Well, nearly perfect. Unfortunately it was too cold for a swim in the lake – that would have made it perfect!

We were out of the site by 11am and on our way into town. We could see from the small town plan that we had that the town of Frantiskovy Lazne had something that appeared to be spas marked on it, but we weren't really sure what it was going to be. We soon discovered that each one of the symbols was where there was an outlet for the spa water – must have been about 10 of them around the town.

We tried about 5 of the waters (you could just help youself, it was just pouring out of a spout in most cases) and it was interesting how they all tasted slightly different, despite being so close together – you kind of thought that actually they were all from the same place, but maybe not! Mostly it was all cold and slightly fizzy - not particularly pleasant or unpleasant - just interesting!

That was fun though – although no miracles happened after just a couple of mouthfuls. There were loads of people filling water bottles and things though – obviously believers!

Funny town though – the only way we could describe it was that it just looked perfect – and that made it look really strange. Having seen a fair bit of CZ before, and seeing that it generally looked a bit run down – or at least a mixture of new and run down – this town was all nicely painted and neat and pretty and – well – perfect. Very odd. Certainly the photo doesn't do it justice.

Anyway, after lunch we went into the swimming baths in town. We weren't sure whether there was any spa water involved – the building had a spa water tap in their foyer, but other than that we weren't convinced – largely because the tell tale sulphur smell was missing (thankfully). It was fun though. There were a couple of slides, an outdoor pool (a bit chilly for that) and a bunch of indoor stuff – a pool, jacuzzis, a 'cave', etc. All good fun and a really nice way to spend an hour or so.

We were well chilled out when we came out of there, and more so after enjoying the local custom of coffee and cake before we headed out of Czech Republic and on to Germany.

Our border crossing was interesting. We got pulled over and a big german police man with a moustache asked us how many cigarettes we were carrying (none) and then got us to open up most of our cupboards and the glove box so that he could have a look inside. Not sure what that achieved really because if we were smuggling cigarettes there were plenty of places that he didn't look that they could have gone. We decided that he was just checking us out – and thankfully we passed and were on our way!

A new country.

Funny for me – I was born in Germany when my dad was stationed out there – and spent about 8 years living there in total between the ages of 0 and 13, but I haven't been back since we left – so it is all very familiar and yet unfamiliar – if you see what I mean? Totally recognisable though – nowhere, I think, is quite like Germany.

We ended up driving quite a way – I really fancied stopping in Bamburg, as it had a really good write up in the book, and it left us with only 60km to Nuremburg airport for Tom & Tish tomorrow. We made it though – and finally tracked down the campsite by 7:30pm! We got pitched up, had a beer and then went in search of food. They had a restaurant on the site, but there was only one problem – they didn't take cards and we were all out of Euros! Hopeless.

So we walked to the nearest village, found a bar/restaurant, ascertained that they took Visa, managed to get the guy to persuade his chef to stay on (they had just finished) to make us all a schnitzel and chips, and we were in. It was fab too. Massive schnitzel (breaded pork) and loads of chips and – the healthy option – a side salad :) Plus, beer and everything. We were stuffed and happy when we left there for the stroll back to the site! A good ending to a nice day.